box for a description of all that fun and humor which the artist can produce by a few skilful turns of his needle.  A famous article upon the “Illustrations of Time” appeared some dozen years since in Blackwood’s Magazine, of which the conductors have always been great admirers of our artist, as became men of honor and genius.  To these grand qualities do not let it be supposed that we are laying claim, but, thank heaven, Cruikshank’s humor is so good and benevolent that any man must love it, and on this score we may speak as well as another.

Then there are the “Greenwich Hospital” designs, which must not be passed over.  “Greenwich Hospital” is a hearty, good-natured book, in the Tom Dibdin school, treating of the virtues of British tars, in approved nautical language.  They maul Frenchmen and Spaniards, they go out in brigs and take frigates, they relieve women in distress, and are yard-arm and yard-arming, athwart-hawsing, marlinspiking, binnacling, and helm’s-a-leeing, as honest seamen invariably do, in novels, on the stage, and doubtless on board ship.  This we cannot take upon us to say, but the artist, like a true Englishman, as he is, loves dearly these brave guardians of Old England, and chronicles their rare or fanciful exploits with the greatest good-will.  Let any one look at the noble head of Nelson in the “Family Library,” and they will, we are sure, think with us that the designer must have felt and loved what he drew.  There are to this abridgment of Southey’s admirable book many more cuts after Cruikshank; and about a dozen pieces by the same hand will be found in a work equally popular, Lockhart’s excellent “Life of Napoleon.”  Among these the retreat from Moscow is very fine; the Mamlouks most vigorous, furious, and barbarous, as they should be.  At the end of these three volumes Mr. Cruikshank’s contributions to the “Family Library” seem suddenly to have ceased.

We are not at all disposed to undervalue the works and genius of Mr. Dickens, and we are sure that he would admit as readily as any man the wonderful assistance that he has derived from the artist who has given us the portraits of his ideal personages, and made them familiar to all the world.  Once seen, these figures remain impressed on the memory, which otherwise would have had no hold upon them, and the heroes and heroines of Boz become personal acquaintances with each of us.  Oh, that Hogarth could have illustrated Fielding in the same way! and fixed down on paper those grand figures of Parson Adams, and Squire Allworthy, and the great Jonathan Wild.

With regard to the modern romance of “Jack Sheppard,” in which the latter personage makes a second appearance, it seems to us that Mr. Cruikshank really created the tale, and that Mr. Ainsworth, as it were, only put words to it.  Let any reader of the novel think over it for a while, now that it is some months since he has perused and laid it down—­let him think, and tell us what he remembers of the tale?