The contrast, or, Things as they are [graphic].

A gallows separates the design into two compartments. A sign in the center reads "Roberspierre, Marat, Santerre." The crossbar reads "Held up to infamy and posterity." Another sign hangs from the left arm and reads "Paine's Rights of Man." The sign on the right side reads "Classical lectures on the Roman History."

The scene on the left half is labelled at the top "Old England" and depicts naval and commercial prosperity under the bright skies. Three columns labelled Virtue, Honor and Loyalty stand over the words British Constitution; at the base of the drawing are the words "is basis, the happiness of the people."

The scene on the right half is labelled at the top "New France", and in contrast, all is death and destruction: cities in ruins, bodies hanging from gallows, a bloody guillotine along with other instruments of torture. Flowing from the guillotine into a shaft underground are discarded fragments: religion, pubk. credit, monarchy, laws, trade, honor, loyality, virtue, art ...