"An allegorical design. Britannia, holding her shield and a cap of Liberty on a staff, rushes (right to left) with a calm expression to the edge of a cliff, urged on by Wellington and five other Ministers (scarcely characterized). On her right a man snatches the drapery from a small cloud-borne figure of Fortune with her wheel, who is directed towards an oval portrait of Queen Caroline supported by an angel. Fame holds a laurel wreath above the portrait. Below the cliff or rock from which Britannia steps so heedlessly is a patch of ground surrounded by sea. On this stands Burdett, holding out a scroll inscribed 'Magna Char[ta] Liberty of Napoleon' and holding out his left arm to prevent Britannia from falling. Justice stands behind him, holding evenly balanced scales. Four other men stand close behind him, one holding out a scroll inscribed 'Reform', and supporting the arm which holds the scales. A man in shirt-sleeves kneels at Burdett's feet, making a gesture of urgent entreaty. On a rock (right), symbolizing St. Helena but merging with Britannia's cliff, sits a spotted, sub-human Caliban-like creature, who holds a small image of Napoleon, which he is about to cover with an extinguisher. At the base of the rock, but in the background, are two tiny officers in military uniform, seated together at the edge of the sea, directed to the right. In the foreground (left) sits a woman (? France) in classical draperies, holding a sceptre, with a (? Bourbon) crown falling from her head, and with a second (? imperial) crown in her lap. She gazes towards St. Helena. Inset in the title and enclosed within a border inscribed 'Honi soit qui mal y pense': 'Wilson sçut délivrer une Noble victime Burdett, Hobhouse, Holland, sauvez Napoléon, Arrachez-le aux tourmens de l'exécrable Hudson, Vengez l'honneur Anglais flétri par un grand Crime Et sauvez Albion sur le Bord de l'Abême [sic]!!!'."--British Museum online catalogue, description of a later state
Alternative Title:
Nation and her m-n-t-r's and Nation and her ministers
Description:
Title etched below image., Early state, before border and imprint statement added. For a later state with border present and the imprint "Pubd. by Milleville, Hampstead" etched in lower left, see no. 14050 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 10., Mounted to 58 x 39 cm., Mounted (with one other print) on leaf 90 in volume 2 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair.", and Typed extract of twenty-nine lines from the British Museum catalogue description is pasted opposite (on verso of preceding leaf).
Publisher:
John Milleville?
Subject (Geographic):
Saint Helena,
Subject (Name):
Caroline, Queen, consort of George IV, King of Great Britain, 1768-1821., Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, Duke of, 1769-1852, Burdett, Francis, 1770-1844, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821., Broughton, John Cam Hobhouse, Baron, 1786-1869., Wilson, Robert, Sir, 1777-1849., Holland, Henry Richard Vassall, Baron, 1773-1840., Lowe, Hudson, Sir, 1769-1844., and La Valette, Antoine-Marie Chamans, comte de, 1769-1830.
Subject (Topic):
Britannia (Symbolic character), Cliffs, Shields, Liberty cap, Angels, Justice, Scales, Military officers, and Crowns
