DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61480#0112
104
HOGARTH'S WORKS.
death must be his punishment ; the proofs are incontestable, and his mittimus is ordered,
which the clerk is drawing out. Let us next turn our thoughts upon the alderman, in
whose breast a struggle between mercy and justice is beautifully displayed. Who can
behold the magistrate, here, without praising the man ? How fine is the painter's thoughts
of reclining the head on one hand, while the other is extended to express the pity and
shame he feels that human nature should be so depraved! It is not the golden chain
or scarlet robe that constitutes the character, but the feelings of the heart. To show us
that application for favour, by the ignorant, is often idly made to the servants of justice,
who take upon themselves on that account a certain state and consequence, not inferior
to magistracy, the mother of our delinquent is represented in the greatest distress, as
making interest with the corpulent self-swoln constable, who with an unfeeling concern
seems to say, " Make yourself easy, for he must be hanged;" and to convince us that
bribery will even find its way into courts of judicature, here is a woman feeing the
swearing clerk, who has stuck his pen behind his ear that his hands might be both at
liberty ; and how much more his attention is engaged to the money he is taking, than to
the administration of the oath, may be known from the ignorant, treacherous witness
being suffered to lay his left hand upon the book ; strongly expressive of the sacrifice,
even of sacred things, to the inordinate thirst of gain.
From Newgate (the prison to which he was committed ; where, during his continuance
he lay chained in a dismal cell, deprived of the cheerfulness oflight, fed upon bread and
water, and left without a bed to rest on) the prisoner was removed to the bar of judgment,
and condemned to die by the laws of his country.
HOGARTH'S WORKS.
death must be his punishment ; the proofs are incontestable, and his mittimus is ordered,
which the clerk is drawing out. Let us next turn our thoughts upon the alderman, in
whose breast a struggle between mercy and justice is beautifully displayed. Who can
behold the magistrate, here, without praising the man ? How fine is the painter's thoughts
of reclining the head on one hand, while the other is extended to express the pity and
shame he feels that human nature should be so depraved! It is not the golden chain
or scarlet robe that constitutes the character, but the feelings of the heart. To show us
that application for favour, by the ignorant, is often idly made to the servants of justice,
who take upon themselves on that account a certain state and consequence, not inferior
to magistracy, the mother of our delinquent is represented in the greatest distress, as
making interest with the corpulent self-swoln constable, who with an unfeeling concern
seems to say, " Make yourself easy, for he must be hanged;" and to convince us that
bribery will even find its way into courts of judicature, here is a woman feeing the
swearing clerk, who has stuck his pen behind his ear that his hands might be both at
liberty ; and how much more his attention is engaged to the money he is taking, than to
the administration of the oath, may be known from the ignorant, treacherous witness
being suffered to lay his left hand upon the book ; strongly expressive of the sacrifice,
even of sacred things, to the inordinate thirst of gain.
From Newgate (the prison to which he was committed ; where, during his continuance
he lay chained in a dismal cell, deprived of the cheerfulness oflight, fed upon bread and
water, and left without a bed to rest on) the prisoner was removed to the bar of judgment,
and condemned to die by the laws of his country.