_Second impression_--The spelling of Prussia corrected; bunch of grapes at the Adam and Eve enlarged; catching lights given to the laced hats in the group beneath it; belt added to the Duke of Cumberland's portrait. _Third state_--"Retouched and improved by W^m. Hogarth; and republished June 12th, 1761." I have an early impression of this print in which the dedication to the King of Prussia does not appear, and it might pass for a proof. On inquiry I find that, upon one of Hogarth's fastidious friends objecting to its being dedicated to a foreign potentate, he replied, "If you disapprove of it, _you_ shall have one without any dedication;" and took off a few impressions, covering the dedication with fan paper. Sullivan was so eccentric a character, that while he was employed in engraving this print, Hogarth held out every possible inducement to his remaining at his house in Leicester Square night and day; for if once Luke quitted it, he was not visible for a month. It has been said, but I know not on what authority, that for engraving it he was paid only one hundred pounds. In the original picture, which is in the Foundling Hospital, the old man to whom a Frenchman is giving a letter has a plaid waistcoat. 1751. 1. Beer Street. In the _first state_--The blacksmith is lifting up a Frenchman; in the _second_--The Frenchman is properly discarded, and a shoulder of mutton supplies his place. 2. Gin Lane. I have been told that in a print in the collection of Lord Exeter there are numerous though trifling variations; but I never saw it.[130] Of their intentions, Hogarth gives the following account:--"When these two prints were designed and engraved, the dreadful consequences of gin-drinking appeared in every street. In Gin Lane, every circumstance of its horrid effects is brought to view _in terrorem_. Idleness, poverty, misery, and distress, which drives even to madness and death, are the only objects that are to be seen; and not a house in tolerable condition but the pawnbroker's and gin-shop. "Beer Street, its companion, was given as a contrast, where that invigorating liquor is recommended in order to drive the other out of vogue. Here all is joyous and thriving: industry and jollity go hand in hand. In this happy place the pawnbroker's is the only house going to ruin; and even the small quantity of porter that he can procure is taken in at the wicket, for fear of further distress." 3. The Four Stages of Cruelty-- Plate 1. Shadows strengthened. Plate 2. Shadows heightened. Plate 3. The whole print somewhat darker. Plate 4. This, and the five last-mentioned prints, were, on common paper, marked "price 1s.;" on superior paper, "1s. 6d." The stamp by which the artist marked the "6d." was cut by himself on a halfpenny, now in my possession. Of Plates 3 and 4 there are wooden cuts, which were engraved under Hogarth's inspection. The motives by which Hogarth was induced to make the designs, he thus describes:--