Cover for Volume XXI of "Judy" (Gladstone) by William Henry Boucher

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Gladstone on the cover of Judy

William Henry Boucher (1837-1906)

1877

Boucher expresses Judy's Liberal political agenda by putting Gladstone on the front cover. But Gladstone is shown holding a double spread of the magazine, showing Boucher's own cartoon of 5 September that year, "Lessons in Massacre" (see below), in which he had lampooned Gladstone for (apparently) "clandestinely inciting Greece to plunge into a war against Turkey" (205) [Commentary continues below. Mouse over the text for links.]

Courtesy of the Hathi Trust and Harvard University.

Image scan, text and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee.

You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned it and the Hathi Trust, and (2) link your document to this URL or cite it in a print document. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Lessons in Massacre: "Gladstone to Greece: Now is Your Time!" (208-09).

The report, which appears on a previous page, is entitled, "Cry havoc, and unloose the Dogs of War," and details "a most extraordinary revelation which was made in the columns of the Daily Telegraph." The newspaper claimed that about two months previously, Gladstone wrote to a Greek merchant in Constantinople, "urging that the countrymen of the latter should unite with the Slavs in an attack upon the Turks...." In a second letter, he again said that he was "astonished to find the Christians of the East so disinclined to make common cause against the Mussulmans." When criticised for this, Gladstone's reply was evasive, "and in fact an admission of the truth of the charge" (205). Here, an innocent-looking youth in Greek costume is being handed a sword by a shifty-looking Gladstone in a cloak, while a Turkish soldier is looking the other way, blissfully unaware of his dangerous situation. Boucher must have felt very strongly about this to have picked it out for his cover display. In the more prominent portrait on the front cover, however, Gladstone smiles insouciantly.

Bibliography

Judy, or the London serio-comic journal. Vol. 21 (1877). Hathi Trust. From a copy in Harvard University library. Web. 31 January 2022.

Created 31 January 2022