A landscape divided by a stream. On the left, a desolate wasteland with a man cutting down the remaining apple tree while several other men attack a cow with knives or drink its blood. The cow bears on its rump a large stamp, alluding to the Stamp Act of 1765. To the right a cow garlanded by flowers and standing on a yoke is milked by a woman while the milk is drunk from bowls by women and children. Other children dance in the background and a boy picks apples in a tree. Contrasts England's harsh rule of her American colonies with benign and more profitable policies, possibly those of Holland
Description:
Title from item., Sheet cropped into plate mark with some loss of text., Date from British Museum catalogue., Text in plate below image: "Let us not cut down the tree to get at the fruit. Let us stroke and not stab the cow, for her milk and not her blood can give us real nourishment and strength.", and Mounted on paper 30 x 48 cm.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain and America.
Subject (Topic):
Colonies, Children, Eating & drinking, Dancers, Milking, Cows, and Apple trees
A satire on governmental policy towards America. Depicts the Earl of Bute on the left and Earl of Mansfield with Lord North on the right dancing around a tall thistle which is draped with a Garter ribbon emblazoned with the motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense" having above it, at the center of a halo of light, the motto "Carduus benedictus." A devil hovers above the scene playing bagpipes. Mansfield holds a copy of the Quebec Bill, with a banner beneath him proclaiming "Nemo me impune lacessit". The banner beneath Bute is labelled "Noli me tangere."
Description:
Title from item. and Probably from the London Magazine v, 44, p. 56 of February 1775, although George gives date as March 1, 1775.
Publisher:
publisher not identified
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain, America., Canada, and Canada.
Subject (Name):
Mansfield, William Murray, Earl of, 1705-1793., North, Frederick, Lord, 1732-1792., Bute, John Stuart, Earl of, 1713-1792., and Québec (Province).
Subject (Topic):
Colonies, Politics and government, and Freedom of religion
