_January 4, 1784._ _The Fall of Dagon, or Rare News for Leadenhall Street._ Published by William Humphrey, 227 Strand.
And behold Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold.
The image of Dagon, which in this case is borrowed to typify the Coalition Ministers, has fallen from the overset _Broad Bottom_ pedestal, and is in the posture described by the quotation; its double-faced head wears the profiles of North and Fox. Tower Hill is represented in the background; a scaffold is erected, and the public executioner is just bringing down his axe on the neck of a traitor--a delicate compliment to the heads of the late Administration. John Bull has changed the sign of his house to _The Axe_, and he is composedly enjoying his pipe under its shadow.
_January 7, 1784._ _The Loves of the Fox and the Badger, or the Coalition Wedding._ Published by W. Humphrey, 227 Strand.--Nine small compartments, very neatly executed upon one plate, are employed to portray the unpopular Coalition Ministry between Fox and North. (1) _The Fox beats the Badger in the Bear Garden._ The unwieldy form of the Badger (Lord North) lies, apparently asleep, on the floor of 'the House;' the Fox, with his brush erect in triumph, is in command of the situation. (2) The _Fox_ has been throwing dice on Hounslow Heath, and he has a _dream_; the vision seems to indicate a choice between a prison or a traitor's head on a spike. (3) The _Badger_, with his riband, tucked up comfortably on a sofa, also indulges in a _dream_; the objects offered for his selection are seemingly the gallows or an executioner's block. (4) _Satan unites them_; the arch-fiend, in person, is joining their paws and pronouncing the magic spell, '_Necessity_.' (5) _They quarter their arms._ Their new escutcheon is symbolical; above a scroll marked '_Money_' the twin supporters are holding up a well-filled Treasury-bag, borne by John Bull, above whose head flourishes a pair of donkey's ears. (6) _The priest advertises the wedding._ The Devil, presiding at the pay-table, is enlisting the advocacy of the press, and three editors, in return for substantial considerations, are respectively promising: 'I'll _Chronicle_ the Coalition,' 'We will _Post_ them,' 'Harry will take both sides.' (7) _The Honeymoon or Eddystone Lighthouse_; the pair are making up a flaming beacon. (8) _The New Orator Henley, or the Churching._ The happy pair are now in their glory, seated on a throne in the '_Bear Garden_,' and surrounded at a respectful distance by the heads (stuck on poles) of the members of their new Parliament, and described as a '_Mopstick majority_.' The churching is proceeding; the original pastor is still present, and is prompting Orator Henley, whose tub stands on a block, labelled, '_Honest Jack Lee_;' the Orator is holding forth a parchment, and declaring, 'A charter is nothing but a piece of parchment with a great seal dangling to it;' to which pious deduction his clerk mounted on 'A Seat for Portsmouth,' is crying, '_Necessity_. _Amen._' (9) _The Wedding Dance and Song._ The pair, now led by the nose by their Satanic friend, are perforce compelled to execute a pretty lively dance, as their conductor wills. They are singing this appropriate _epithalamium_:--