Below the title: 'Scene. Bow Street - with Lying Jack answering a charge of abuse & Blackguardism'. The word 'Blacksmith' in the title is written above 'Bookseller', which is scored through but conspicuously legible.
A satire on John Stockdale, the Piccadilly bookseller, the title taken from the poems of his daughter Mary: 'Effusions of the Heart', 1798. He had originally, it is said, been a blacksmith in Cumberland; he became porter to Almon the publisher, and when Almon retired in favour of Debrett he opened an opposition shop. 'D.N.B.' He was violently attacked in an article illustrated by Rowlandson (who depicts him as a blacksmith), see BMSat 6609, in which Day (author of 'Sandford and Merton') is reproached for reading his works to Stockdale before publication; a quarrel with Wright (afterwards publisher of the 'Anti-Jacobin') is also mentioned. 'Intrepid Magazine', W. Hamilton, 1784, pp. 53-6. In 1797 G. Nicol published Sir G. L. Staunton's 'Authentic Account ... of the Embassy to China' (cf. BMSat 8121), and in the same year Stockdale published two editions of 'An Abridgment...' of the 'Account'. His connexion with Ireland is not mentioned in the 'D.N.B.', but on 1 Mar. 1798 John Stockdale of Abbey Street, Dublin, as printer and owner of the newspaper the Press [Peter Finerty, as proprietor and publisher of the Press, was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for seditious libel in Dec. 1797. 'State Trials', xxvi. 902 ff. The paper was suppressed on 6 Mar. 1798, owing to an article by Sheares addressed to Lord Clare as 'the Author of Coercion'. 'D.N.B.'] (the organ of the United Irishmen, see BMSats 9189, 9245, 9370) was sentenced by the Irish House of Lords, for a libel on Lord Glentworth, to a fine of £500 and 6 months' imprisonment; he denied being printer and owner. 'The Times', 5 Mar. 1798. The Speech in his pocket is evidently that of Clare, 19 Feb. 1798 (printed), attacking Moira's motion against the coercive policy of the Government, and giving an elaborate account of the progress of disaffection. The implication may be that Stockdale is a Government agent in Ireland. This print identifies the Dublin Stockdale with the Piccadilly publisher.
The three Bow Street Justices sit at a rectangular table (left); Addington in the chair, the scales of Justice, evenly balanced, above his head; on his right and on the extreme left, Bond(?) is writing: 'Wright. W. against [?]...'. The third sits resting his chin on his hands, which are supported on the head of his cane; he gazes fixedly at the culprit. 'Lying-Jack' stands in a rectangular pen formed of posts and rails immediately in front of the justices, his elbows resting on the rail, his hands clasped, his knees bent, tears falling. He says: "Oh! God dang it, - your Worship, do take bail, your Honor tw'ant my fault please your Majesty, that I com'd the Black-guard over him: - God dang it, didn't he say that his thing was printed before mine? & that all my things were only Copies & piracies? - God dang it, your Worship, Ax Almon ye Bookseller if I was a Blackguard all the while I was a Porter! - or ax ye people where I & Wife kept a small-coal Cellar in Leather Lane if I'm a Blackguard! - God dang it, was I act like a Blackguard when I let that Cooper the Printer, pull me by the Nose, only for saying he was a Liar? - god dang it, your honor, was it like a Blackguard when I offer'd to beg Ridgeway's pardon, after he had kick'd my own Arse in my own Shop? - but I sees how the Booksellers all hates me! & wants to ruin me! - & says I lives by only Copying other peoples works your Worship! - 'tho' I only 'bridges 'em! - yes your Worship, they all hates me; & respires against me: & calls me Lying-Jack, your honor, - & Filching Jack the Plagurist! - & Stock'ee Jack the Informer! your honor - ah Gad dang it! Gad dang it, - they'll be my ruin your Honor! Gad dang it Gott damn. ...[The last words dwindle into illegibility]" From his pocket hangs a paper: 'Speech of the Lord Chanr of Ireland'. Beside him, outside the dock, is a large bundle of books tied together, the wrapper inscribed 'Ways & Means'; these are: 'Sandford & Merton', 'G Nicol... Abridgd Embassy to China', 'D. Cox', 'Piracy', 'Harpers Pamphlet', 'Philanthropic Society'. Against the bundle lies a porter's knot (a pad for the shoulders attached to a ring which goes over the head) inscribed: 'Lying-Jack his Knot'. With this are the implements of a blacksmith : hammer, pliers, and horse-shoe. On the wall behind him are three bills: 'Lying Jack the Thief Taker'; 'Perjury'; 'Injuntion [sic] of the Court of Chancery agains Lying Jacks copy', and a map: 'Original Map of the Island of St Domingo by W. Faden. Charing Cross.'