Milan Commission!!! [graphic]

"Leach (right), the Vice-Chancellor, dressed as a woman, with a trimmed bonnet over his wig, sits on a corded chest inscribed Commissio[n] ; against this leans a book: Justifia et honor. He grasps a moneybag inscribed 10,000, and holds the ear of a fox which crouches against his knee. He faces John Bull who is stripped to the waist, with a gigantic leech on his back. John, a countryman in patched breeches, registers angry terror and pain; he looks over his shoulder, exclaiming: "D--me what a monstrous Leech! it not only sucks blood but honor also!" Leach says: "I am not plain, Leech, Sir, but by vulgar denomination--I am called Miss Leech if you please--." Beside J. B., and pointing menacingly towards him, are the muzzle of a cannon, a sheaf of bayonets in a chest inscribed 'G R' and 'Steel Lozenges' [see British Museum Satires No. 13513]. Against this lie shackles inscribed 'Bandages', and cannon-balls inscribed 'Bolus' and 'Iron Pills'. On a hill behind a large cap of 'Liberty' dangles from a gibbet against which leans a ladder. Leach's fox turns its head towards John, saying: "In Law. what plea so tained [sic] and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracious voice, Observes the evil? There is no Vice so simple, but assumes Some mark of virtue on his outward parts Shak Mer of Ven--Act 3 Scene 2." Behind Leach, and on the extreme right, is a second chest inscribed 'French and Italian Monkey[s]'. A monkey wearing a fool's cap crouches on it, grinning at his reflection in a hand-mirror."--British Museum online catalogue