parison with the best of Robert's pictorial
satires; while the kindred book of the "English Spy," which was
illustrated (with the exception of one plate) by Robert alone, contains
designs quite equal to those which adorn the "Life in London." When it
is admitted that Robert executed three parts of these illustrations,
while those who have written upon him say that they are unable to
identify George's share of the work,[57] it seems unjust (to say the
least of it) that the credit of the _whole_ performance should be
assigned to him alone. Let us be just to Robert, even though his merit
as a draughtsman has been lost sight of in the fame which the younger
brother achieved by virtue of his greater genius.

POPULARITY OF "LIFE IN LONDON."

The reader need not be told--and we are not going to tell him what he
knows already--that the "Life" was dramatized by four writers for
different theatrical houses. The most successful version was the one
produced at the Adelphi, previously known as the _Sans Pareil_ theatre.
The first season of this house, which Messrs Jones and Rodwell had
recently purchased for L25,000, was only moderately successful; but the
fortune of the second was made by "Tom and Jerry." Night after night
immediately after the opening of the doors, the theatre was crowded to
the very ceiling; the rush was tremendous. By three o'clock in the
afternoon of every day the pavement of the Strand had become impassable,
and the dense mass which occupied it had extended by six o'clock far
across the roadway. Peers and provincials, dukes and dustmen, all grades
and classes of people swelled the tide which night after night rolled
its wave up the passage of the Adelphi. It was a compact wedge; on it
moved, slowly, laboriously, amid the shouts and shrieks, the justling
and jostling of the crowd which composed it, leavened by the
intermixture of numbers of the swell mob, who plied their vocation with
indefatigable industry and impunity. Nevertheless, the reader will be
surprised to learn (and it is probably little known) that in spite of
this amazing popularity, the first night of "Tom and Jerry" met with
such unexpected opposition that Mr. Rodwell declared it should never be
played again. Luckily for himself and his partner he was induced to
reconsider this decision. The tide was taken at the flood, and it
led--as the poet assures us that it will lead when so taken--to an
assured fortune.

[Illustration:
ROBERT CRUI