the Prince Regent, in _Sales by Auction, or Provident Children
disposing of their Deceased Mother's Effects for the Benefit of the
Creditors_ (*), in which he shows us the prince knocking down (in his
character of auctioneer) his dead mother's old hats, gowns, and
clothing, and begging the bystanders to bid liberally. At the foot of
the rostrum lie sundry snuff-boxes and pots, labelled "Queen's Mixture"
and "Prince's Mixture" (in allusion to the old queen's habits),
"Strasburg" (in reference to her German tastes and nationality),
together with her old china tea-set.

This year is remarkable for producing perhaps the most ambitious and
admirable allegory which the artist ever designed; it bears the title of
_Old Thirty-nine Shaking Hands with his Good Brother the Pope of Italy,
or Covering Up_ versus _Sealing the Bible_. Old Thirty-nine (an English
bishop) stands on a pile of volumes labelled, "Never-out-ism,"
"Ante-biblism," "Never-the-same-ism," etc., whilst the pope, standing on
the opposite side on a mass of books bearing similar suggestive titles,
shakes hands with his "good brother." By the pope's side we find the
devil busily engaged in sealing up the Bible. Behind him stands the
Temple of Mammon, surrounded by a crowd of reverend worshippers. Two
fiends standing by the side of "Old Thirty-nine" make preparations for a
bonfire, to which sundry bundles labelled, "Articles of Faith,"
"Athanasian Creed," "Catechism," "Liturgies," "Nicene Creed," and so on,
will contribute materials. Out of a building in the rear, inscribed,
"National School for Thirty-niners only," issues a procession of
ecclesiastics and beadles carrying banners. In the foreground stands the
figure of "Divine Truth," surrounded by little children, and perusing
the pages of the "Holy Bible," held for that purpose by an angel. A
roughly executed affair in two compartments, _Preachee and Floggee Too_,
satirizes certain clerical magistrates who, while preaching mercy and
forgiveness in the pulpit, distinguish themselves by the severity of
their sentences for minor offences on the magisterial bench. The titles
of other subjects of the year are: _The Hobby Horse Dealer_; _Johnny
Bull and his Forged Notes, or Rags and Ruin in the Paper Currency_;
_Smoke Jack, the Alarmist, Extinguishing the Second Great Fire of
London_; _Love, Law, and Physic_ (*); _The Sailor's Progress_ (six
subjects); _Dandies in France, or Le Restorateur_ (*); _A Match for the
King's P