The Confectioner General setting forth the H-n Desert [graphic].

"Satire on disagreements within the Pragmatic Army in the aftermath of the battle of Dettingen suggesting that George II as nominal commander had bowed to Hanoverian interests, failing to drive home the victory. The king, having let the sash of "Poor E[n]g[lan]d" fall to the ground, and wearing the Hanoverian sash marked "16 thousand pounds" (suggesting the British subsidy) raises his arm and orders, "Noli Prosequi" in response to the dominant figure of the moustachioed Hanoverian general Baron Ilton who says, "I must preserve ye K[in]gs Troops"; an astonished young officer, to the right, exclaims, "What preserve & Conserve too". To the left of the king, the Earl of Stair, commander of the British troops, complains, "Would to God he had is Desert", the Duke of Arenberg, commander of Austrian troops, asks "Why don't you lead us on?", and another general says, "Damn such Confectioners". On the far left, John Carteret leans through the window of a coach the wheel of which carries a label reading, "I'm in a Cottage near ye field of Battle"; he says, "God be praised a great Victory" and a young black footman, sitting at the back of a coach wearing a slave collar, agrees, "Amen & they were the aggressors". On the right "The Tribe of Benjamin" (Hanoverian troops), labelled "4 Pounds a Man p[er] Month", lounge and eat beside a gun carriage on which is written, "A Considerable Share in the Victory"; one soldier wears an oak leaf in his hat in reference to the incident during the battle when George II is said to have sheltered under an oak after falling from his horse and to have presented an oak leaf to the soldiers who looked after him; a Hanoverian grenadier in the foreground, exclaims, "Plague of all cowards Say I!". In the background, the British cavalry are ordered to halt while in pursuit of the French."--British Museum online catalogue