[Frontispiece to The Queen and her pawns against the King and his pieces, or, The Royal checkmate] [graphic]

"A scene in the House of Lords, the foreground being filled by a fantastic game of chess. Gifford (left) and Brougham (right) play on a large chess-board supported on the heads of three witnesses against the Queen: Rastelli (?), Demont, and Majocchi. Copley watches behind Gifford's chair; both register consternation. Denman leans on Brougham's chair; both smile. The King, as a Chinese mandarin at Q.R. 4 is in check to the Queen (Q.R. 2), who stands beside Alderman Wood, her 'chief pawn'; both are whole length portraits. At the back of the board are two knights (men on horseback): ' Sir Exoff' (Gifford, so styled from the ex-officio Informations of the Attorney-General, see British Museum Satires No. 11717), and 'Birch' (Brougham). In the centre of the board stand five tiny men, the Queen's pawns, surrounding a woman in white (the Queen, who thus appears twice). The only pieces represented as chessmen are castles with the heads of Castlereagh and Wellington and two bishops, Canterbury and Exeter. Gifford has lost all his pawns: they are Italian witnesses who lie on the ground, broken, by Brougham's chair. Behind, the benches converge in perspective on the throne; Eldon, seated on the Woolsack, registers dismay. Peers, crowded on the ministerial benches (left) are alarmed. Those opposite are fewer: some are mildly pleased, others indifferent."--British Museum online catalogue