[151] A company obtained a concession ratified 15th April 1877. The Maritime Canal Company was organised May 1899, and in the following year a construction company was incorporated. The question whether the canal would be constructed by this route or on the Panama route was still undecided in September 1902.—_Encyclopædia Britannica._ [152] ‘Hogarth,’ says Walpole, ‘resembles Butler; but his subjects are more universal, and amidst all his pleasantry, he observes the true end of comedy—reformation. There is always a moral to his pictures.’ [153] A synopsis of English History, given on a fan, published 1793 by I. Cock and J. P. Crowder, concludes by saying: ‘We may with pleasure add that one of the Princes, His Majesty’s 2^d son, the Duke of York, has lately gained honour for the English Nation by the eminent distinction of the British Troops under his command before Valenciennes, in the humanity they joined to their valour. Vive, Vive le Roi!’ [154] M. Gamble had advertised in the _Craftsman_ during the year 1733 ‘The Church of England Fan; being an explanation of the Oxford Almanac for the year 1733, on which the several characters are curiously done, in various beautiful colours. Price 2s. Likewise a new Edition of the “Harlot’s Progress in Fans,” with prints of all the three sorts fit to Frame. Sold at the Golden Fann in St. Martin’s Court, near Leicester Fields.’ [155] In Boswell’s _Johnson_ are references to Osborne—to the purchase of the Harleian Library and the publication of the Catalogue, and to the personal chastisement which Johnson inflicted on him:—‘It has been confidently related, with many embellishments, that Johnson one day knocked Osborne down in his shop, with a folio, and put his foot upon his neck. The simple truth I had from Johnson himself: “Sir, he was impertinent to me and I beat him. But it was not in his shop; it was in my own chamber.”’ In Johnson’s _Life of Pope_, Osborne is thus referred to:—‘Pope was ignorant enough of his own interest to make another change, and introduced Osborne contending for the prize among the booksellers.’ (_Dunciad_, ii. p. 167.) ‘Osborne was a man entirely destitute of shame, without sense of any disgrace but that of poverty.’ (_Johnson’s Works_, viii. p. 302.) [156] This latter is a device by which the second dimension of the stick (the gorge) is made to slide up into the shoulder, the mount being double and loose, so as to allow of passing up and down the stick. By this means, an ordinary sized fan of 10-3/4 ins. is reduced to 6-3/4. Mr. Crewdson has an example, with paper mount painted with figures variously occupied, as a soldier drinking at a tent, a travelling ‘Punch,’ etc. The stick ivory, carved, painted and gilt.