The Life of George Cruikshank in Two Epochs, Vol. 1. (of 2)

of a deputation of the National Education League to Mr. Gladstone. "I must say," he remarked on this event, in his introduction to the second edition of his 'Slice of Bread and Butte

earnest old man who was still exerting himself to the utmost of his ability

st effort in their behalf he called "A Slice of Bread and Butter." On the title page we find one of his bright little pictorial stories in wood. An outcast child lies upon the pavement surrounded by a crowd of men, who are in eager consultation as to the restor

rlorn boy upon the pavement leaning against the wall. As he was neither begging nor stealing, and did not obstruct the pathway, he could not be tak

rs-were all kind-hearted and benevolent men as well as the doctor; and they all exclaimed, as with one vo

cer! go into the Britannia, and ge

'provided there is plenty of butter on it.' 'I object most decidedly to the butter,' observed a very sedate gentleman. 'As to that,' shouted out another, 'I consider the butter as most essential: it is full of nourishment; and, besides, the poor boy might be choked by cramming dry bread down his throat without butter; but then we must be careful that it be salt butter.' 'No! no!' cried another; 'fresh butter, if you please, and as much as you please; but no salt.' 'You are all wrong, my friends!-q

e stuff.' 'Well, well; let it be plain stale bread and butter, but only the crumb of the loaf, and I will pay my part willingly,' observed another. 'Crumb without crust!' said one of the former speake

g this con

About the toast and

necessity to trouble themselves about paying for what the boy might have, as it could be charged to the county. To which they all replied, rather sharply, that, as to that, if they did not think it right to pay out of their own individual pockets, neither did they think it right that the public money should be used for purposes which they could not individually approve of. 'Gentlemen, gentlem

y. Will you let him have a little brandy, then!' 'Oh yes I' they all cried

nd detention in a reformatory school.' The chaplain was kind to him, and said, "Yes, now that Jack was a convicted thief, he had plenty of good wholesome bread and butter." In the reformatory he was educated, and taught a trade, and sent to a distant town wh

pen in the cattle-market, or crouching from the drenching rain by the side of a doorway; and when he contrasted that state of his existence with the comfort he had felt, and the attention he had received whilst in the jail and the reformatory, he knew not how to advise his poor cousin, knowing that poor Tom was, as he himself had been, almost perishing for want of a little good wholesome bread and butter, clean clothes, and a comfortable bed to lie in, which

hy, then, I suppose you mus

e, and was once a decent sort of man, and was at one time a 'moderate drinker'; but upon one occasion he got mad drunk, and in that state of drunken insanity went home and killed his wife, was sent to jail, and died there. Tom's father was transported

iews on popular education

in life, or, perhaps, be the first step to those high stations so often filled by honest, hardworking, mercantile men, or ingenious mechanics. Now, every thinking and right-minded person will agree that this object is a most desirable one, and that no innocent child should be so neglected as to be allowed to grow up in a state of savage ignorance; and at the first blush nothing seems more easily to be accomplished, in a wealthy and intelligent country like ours

, or required), and such moral training as will teach a child the difference between Right and Wrong-and here let the schoolmaster's duty cease, and that of the ministers of religion begin. And in the third place:-Let it be the duty of the clergyman, and ministers of all denominations, to instruct all those children who belong to their particular church, chapel, or sect, in the religious belief of their parents; but when the parents do not attend any place of worship, or profess any particular creed-then, that the clergy of the Established Church be allowed to instruct all such childr

ls or Reformatories if the use of "strong drink" were abolished; and he calls upon "the grown-up people not to allow innocent children to starve and fall into evil ways, because they cannot agree upon the mode of cutting a S

ristic-is a brightly-executed drawing on wood of Britannia seated upon the B

ed himself led him to take delight in the illustratio

rams of drunkenness than it is mine at this moment to be writing these letters against anarchy." Yet just a

y at the bottom, and called it "a penny political picture for the people, with a few words upon Parliamentary Reform, by their old friend George Cruikshank," he was opposed

thoroughly Cruikshankian, and in his most vivacious mood: some of the illustrations-as the Spirit Level-a drunkard at full length upon the pavement; the Social V

st had outlived his public. His ambition to become a painter was mercifully renewed, with the renewal of his health and mind, through temperance. Full of vigour he used to say, "A man should paint from his shoulder, sir." He became almost wholly a serious man in his work, and appealed to the public in a new capacity. He resolved, stimulated by the success of "The Bottle," to paint a great picture tha

er 27t

at a gentleman called upon me a few days back with a message from friend Hepworth Dixon, asking me to al

ee, but if not, then let me know if there is any other way in which I can assist in this matter the man who

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Cruiks

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