The delicate touch and the grasp of character peculiar to the artist are recognised at once in many examples. Leech's struggle for bread for himself and others must have been terrible at this time; indeed, up to the establishment of Rowland Hill's penny post, when, by what may be called a brilliant opportunity, Leech attracted for the first time the public attention, which never deserted him. The title of this book is "The Life and _Work_ of John Leech." Of the former, as I have shown, there is little to tell; on the latter, volumes, critical, descriptive, appreciative, might be written. An artist is destined to immortality or speedy oblivion according to his work, and it was my earnest hope, on undertaking this memoir, that I should be able to prove, by the finest examples of Leech's genius, that an indisputable claim to immortality was established for him. To a great extent I have been permitted to do so; but the law of copyright has debarred me from the selection of many brilliant pictures of life and character on which my, perhaps unreasonably covetous, eyes had rested. The proprietors of _Punch_ and also of the copyright of most of Leech's other works are, no doubt, properly careful of their interests, and I can imagine their surprise at the extent of my first demands upon their good-nature. In my ignorance I had thought that as my object was the honour and glory of John Leech--a feeling, no doubt, shared by them--the treasures of _Punch_ would be spread before me, with a request that I would help myself. I do not in the least complain that I found myself mistaken. There are, no doubt, good reasons for the limits to which I was restricted, though I am unable to see them; and, granting the existence of those reasons, I should be ungrateful if I did not express my thanks for the small number of illustrations from _Punch_ and other sources which I am allowed to use. I confess I was delighted to find that the first few years of the existence of _Punch_ were free by lapse of time from copyright protection, and as some of Leech's best work appears in the volumes between 1841 and 1849, I am able to show my readers further proofs of the justice of the artist's claim to be remembered for all time. Leech's hatred of organ-grinding began very early in his career. "WANTED, BY AN AGED LADY OF VERY NERVOUS TEMPERAMENT, A PROFESSOR, WHO WILL UNDERTAKE TO MESMERIZE ALL THE ORGANS IN HER STREET. SALARY, SO MUCH PER ORGAN."