Editing William Hogarth (section)

====''Beer Street'' and ''Gin Lane''====
[[File:Beer Street MET DP825287.jpg|thumb|left|''[[Beer Street and Gin Lane#Beer Street|Beer Street]]'']]

Later prints of significance include his pictorial warning of the consequences of alcoholism in [[Beer Street and Gin Lane|''Beer Street'' and ''Gin Lane'']] (1751).<ref>Paulson, ''Hogarth's Graphic Works'', 3rd edition, nos. 185–186.</ref> Hogarth engraved ''Beer Street'' to show a happy city drinking the 'good' beverage, [[English beer]], in contrast to ''Gin Lane'', in which the effects of drinking gin are shown – as a more potent liquor, gin caused more problems for society.<ref>See Mark Hallett, ''The Spectacle of Difference'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999), pp.198–222.</ref> There had been a sharp increase in the popularity of gin at this time, which was called the '[[Gin Craze]].' It started in the early 18th century, after a series of legislative actions in the late 17th century impacted the importation and manufacturing of alcohol in London. Among these, were the [[Prohibition of 1678]], which barred popular French brandy imports, and the forced disbandment, in 1690, of the [[London Guild of Distillers]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dillon|first=Patrick|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bZ3waDx1puYC|title=Gin: The Much-lamented Death of Madam Geneva|publisher=[[Justin, Charles & Company]]|year=2004|isbn=9781932112252|pages=14, 15}}</ref> whose members had previously been the only legal manufacturers of alcohol, leading to an increase in the production and then  consumption of domestic gin.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Picard|first=Liza|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bH85AgAAQBAJ|title=Dr Johnson's London|publisher=[[Orion Publishing Group]]|year=2013|isbn=9781780226491|location=London, UK|chapter=14}}</ref>

In ''Beer Street'', people are shown as healthy, happy and prosperous, while in ''Gin Lane'', they are scrawny, lazy and careless. The woman at the front of ''Gin Lane'', who lets her baby fall to its death, echoes the tale of [[Judith Dufour]], who strangled her baby so she could sell its clothes for gin money.<ref>See [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/11202643/Hogarth-the-father-of-the-modern-cartoon.html "Hogarth, the father of the modern cartoon", ''The Telegraph'', 13 May 2015.]</ref> The prints were published in support of the [[Gin Act 1751]].

Hogarth's friend, the magistrate [[Henry Fielding]], may have enlisted Hogarth to help with propaganda for the Gin Act; ''Beer Street'' and ''Gin Lane'' were issued shortly after his work ''An Enquiry into the Causes of the Late Increase of Robbers, and Related Writings'', and addressed the same issues.<ref>See [https://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/w/william_hogarth,_beer_street.aspx "William Hogarth, Beer Street and Gin Lane, two prints", British Museum.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151031115252/http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/w/william_hogarth,_beer_street.aspx |date=31 October 2015 }}</ref>