amusing plate, where the
laughing, jeering crowd of spectators crowned by a jubilant and juvenile
chimney sweeper, the braying of a jackass in the ears of the astonished
hero, who sits somewhat uncomfortably in a wheelbarrow, are incidents so
cleverly depicted as to excite unqualified admiration. "Mr. Pickwick
Slides" is another truly artistic production. The delicate execution of
the extreme distance where is seen a manor house of the olden time
nestling amongst the trees, and a farmyard hard by, leaves nothing to be
desired. Mr. Sala somewhat harshly criticises the illustrations in this
work, which, he says, "were exceedingly humorous, but vilely drawn. The
amazing success of his author seems, however, to have spurred the artist
to sedulous study, and to have conduced in a remarkable degree towards
the development of his faculties. A surprising improvement was visible
in the frontispieces to the completed volumes[L] of _Pickwick_."
Undoubtedly faults exist, but to characterize the illustrations as
"vile," seems too severe a term, for after all, the exaggerated types of
face, form, and feature, do but harmonize with the somewhat exaggerated
descriptions of them by the author. This defect, if such it can be
called, was remedied considerably in his later productions.

[Illustration]

In 1837, "Phiz" accompanied Dickens into Yorkshire, there to gather
material for _Nicholas Nickleby_, a work which exposes the tyranny
practised by some schoolmasters on their helpless pupils. In this book,
published in 1839, is presented to us the despicable "Squeers," which
type of brute in human form was so successfully realized by both Author
and Artist, that the indignation of innumerable Yorkshire pedagogues was
raised to threats of legal proceedings, for traducing their characters,
one of them actually stating that "he remembered being waited on last
January twelvemonth by two gentlemen, one of whom held him in
conversation while the other took his likeness." The most familiar
representation of "Squeers" is seen in the second plate, where he stands
sharpening his pen, and is timorously approached by the stout father of
two wizen-faced boys who are about to become his pupils. The face of the
schoolmaster, in which are combined hypocrisy and cruelty, and the
expression of sympathy for the new comers exhibited by the boy on the
trunk, are worthy of the closest inspection. The effect of the school
treatment at Dotheboy's Hall is visible