merits of the pictures were less obvious to the few who
could afford to spend large sums on works of art, and Hogarth, too
proud to let them go for prices much below the value which he put upon
them, waited for a long time, and waited in vain, for a purchaser. At
last he determined to commit them to public sale; but instead of the
common method of auction, he devised a new and complex plan with the
intention of excluding picture-dealers, and obliging men of rank and
wealth who wished to purchase to judge and bid for themselves. The
scheme failed, as might have been expected. Nineteen of Hogarth's best
pictures, the "Harlot's Progress," the "Rake's Progress," the "Four
Times of the Day," and "Strolling Actresses Dressing in a Barn"
produced only L427 7s., not averaging L22 10s. each. The "Harlot's
Progress" was purchased by Mr. Beckford at the rate of fourteen
guineas a picture; five of the series perished in the fire at
Fonthill. The "Rake's Progress" averaged twenty-two guineas a picture;
it has passed into the possession of Sir John Soane, at the advanced
price of five hundred and seventy guineas. The same eminent architect
became the proprietor of the four pictures of an "Election" for the
sum of L1,732. "Marriage a la Mode" was disposed of in a similar way
in 1750; and on the day of the sale one bidder appeared, who became
master of the six pictures, together with their frames, for L115 10s.
Mr. Angerstein purchased them, in 1797, for L1,381, and they now form
a striking feature in the National Gallery.

The satire of Hogarth was not often of a personal nature; but he knew
his own power, and he sometimes exercised it. Two of his prints, "The
Times," produced a memorable quarrel between himself, on one side, and
Wilkes and Churchhill, on the other. The satire of the prints of "The
Times," which were published in 1762, was directed, not against Wilkes
himself, but his political friends, Pitt and Temple; nor is it so
biting as to have required Wilkes, in defence of his party, to
retaliate upon one with whom he had lived in familiar and friendly
intercourse. He did so, however, in a number of the _North Briton_,
containing not only abuse of the artist, but unjust and injurious
mention of his wife. Hogarth was deeply wounded by this attack; he
retorted by the well-known portrait of Wilkes with the cap of liberty,
and he afterward represented Churchill as a bear. The quarrel was
unworthy the talents either of the painter