Dickens begins this exercise in satirical allegory by alluding to the slow progress and ever-rising expense of the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament after their destruction by fire in 1834, two years after the Reform Bill had increased the number of MPs. There was much public debate in the autumn of 1845, as to whether a statue of Cromwell should be included in a series of statues of the kings and queens of England (see, for example, The Times leader of 16 September 1845). The 'Cartoons' were designs for frescoes illustrative of the nation's history submitted by artists competing for the commission to decorate the walls of the new building. They were shown in a series of public exhibitions in Westminster Hall (see ['The Spirit of Chivalry: in Westminster Hall', Douglas Jerrold's Shilling Magazine (August 1845),] Vol. 2 of [the Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens' Journalism], p. 74) – Dickens had already mocked British artists' enthusiasm for 'the German taste' with their fondness for beards in 'The Ghost of Art' (HW, [Vol. I,] 20 July 1850; see Vol. 2 of [the Dent Uniform Edition of Dickens' Journalism], pp. 257–64). His description of MPs' rowdiness and verbosity echoes much similar satire in his writings, most notably in David Copperfield, Chap. 34.
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