"The members of the Secret Committee of the Commons are seated round a table examining the documents relating to the United Irishmen and other revolutionary societies. A lamp on the table illuminates a large framed transparency [The transparency, a large pictorial design lit from behind, was a popular form of street illumination. On 5 Nov. 1813 (for the battle of Leipzig) Ackermann displayed on the façade of his 'Repository' Rowlandson's 'The Two Kings of terror, afterwards published as a print. Broadley, i. 338.] divided into four equal sections which hangs from the ceiling and conceals the heads of the Committee ; the four scenes depict the supposed intentions of the revolutionaries. The transparency is irradiated, throwing into deep shadow members of the Opposition in the foreground (right), who flee from the room in a body, terror-struck. The nearest (three-quarter length) are Erskine, clutching a brief-bag, Fox, M. A. Taylor, and Norfolk. Behind these are Tierney, Sheridan, and Nicholls; in the last row are Sir J. Sinclair, Burdett, Moira, Bedford. The two most prominent members, though in back view with heads obscured, suggest Pitt (left) and Dundas (right); they read papers inscribed 'Scheme to Overthrow the British Constitution, & to seize on all public Property and Invitation to the French Republic'. Over the edge of the table hang the bulky 'Reports of the Secret Committee of the House of Commons.' On the floor are four papers: 'Names of Traitors now sufferd to remain at large'; 'Oath of the Members of the Society of the United Irishmen in London'; 'Account of ye Lodge of United Englishmen, & of the Monks of St Ann's Shrine' [see BMSat 9217]; 'Proceedings of the London Corresponding Society with a list of all the Members.' [See BMSat 9189, &c] The transparency is suspended on tricolour ribbons. Titles are engraved on the frame: [1] 'Plundering the Bank'. A scene in the Rotunda; tiny figures hasten off with sacks of gold, the most prominent being Tierney with '£10000'. Sir William Pulteney (identified from his resemblance to BMSat 9212) staggers off to the left with two sacks; the poker-like Moira has a sack on his head; two men dispute over a sack, one being Walpole with his huge cocked hat, the other resembling Jekyll; Sheridan (right) slouches off with two sacks. Proletarians exult over small money-bags. [2] 'Assassinating the Parliament'. The interior of the House of Commons is realistically depicted; the Opposition violently attack the occupants of the Government benches, daggers being the chief weapon. Erskine (left) is about to murder Dundas; Fox strikes at Pitt, holding him by the throat, while Sheridan is about to stab Pitt in the back. The puny Walpole tries to drag the Speaker from his chair, while Burdett raises the mace to smite him. Sir John Sinclair raises a broadsword to smite a man held down by little M. A. Taylor. Volumes of 'Acts and Statutes' fall to the floor. [3] 'Seizing the Crown. \ Scene the Tower'. Exulting plunderers emerge from the gate of the Tower on to the drawbridge. Bedford, dressed as a jockey (cf. BMSat 9380), walks ahead with two sacks: 'New Coinage' and 'New Guineas'; Fox, [Identified by Grego as Lansdowne.] smiling, holds the crown; Lauderdale, wearing a kilt, carries the sceptre. Just behind is Sir George Shuckburgh. Stanhope (or Grattan) carries a sack, 'Regalia of E[ngland]'. On the right a chimney-sweep and others dance round a bonfire in which 'Records' are burning. Cf. BMSat 7354, where Fox carries off the crown from the Tower. [4] 'Establishing the French Government. \ St James s Palace'. French troops march with arrogant goose-step and fixed bayonets into the gateway of the palace; their large tricolour flag is inscribed 'Vive la Republique Français'. In the foreground is planted a tall spear surmounted by a bonnet-rouge (a tree of Liberty, cf. BMSat 9214, &c.); at its base are decollated heads wearing coronets and a mitre. They are cheered by spectators (right): Grattan holding 'Grattans Address', Norfolk holding his staff, Lord Derby in hunting-dress standing on an overturned sentry-box, Moira standing like a ramrod. ...."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Two lines of text below title: Representing the Secret-Committee throwing a light upon the dark sketches of a revolution found among the papers of the Jacobin societies lately apprehended ..., Sheet trimmed to plate mark., 1 print : etching & aquatint on wove paper, hand-colored ; plate mark 36.9 x 44.9 cm, on sheet 38.8 x 47.2 cm., and Mounted on leaf 10 of volume 5 of 12.
Publisher:
Pubd. April 15th, 1799, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. James Street, London
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Erskine, Thomas Erskine, Baron, 1750-1823, Taylor, Michael Angelo, 1757-1834, Norfolk, Charles Howard, Duke of, 1746-1815, Tierney, George, 1761-1830, Nicholls, John, 1745?-1832, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Burdett, Francis, 1770-1844, Sinclair, John, Sir, 1754-1835, Bedford, Francis Russell, Duke of, 1765-1802, Hastings, Francis Rawdon-Hastings, Marquess of, 1754-1826, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Dundas, Henry, 1742-1811, Jekyll, Joseph, 1754-1837, Walpole, George, 1761-1830, Pulteney, William, Lauderdale, James Maitland, Earl of, 1759-1839, Shuckburgh-Evelyn, George Augustus William, Sir, 1751-1804, Smith-Stanley, Edward, 1752-1834, Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, Earl, 1753-1816, and Grattan, Henry, 1746-1820
"'The Feast' is a steaming sirloin in a dish inscribed John Bull's Comfort, flanked by (left) a frothing tankard decorated with the Royal Arms and (right) a plum-pudding. The three harpies, Tierney (left), Shuckburgh, and Jekyll (right), malignantly vomit and excrete on the feast. Tierney hovers over the tankard, Shuckburgh over the beef; Jekyll, with webbed wings and barrister's wig and bands, is planted on the pudding. All do their worst to the beef, against the dish of which lies a carving-knife and fork."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Harpies defiling the feast
Description:
Title etched below image., No. 3 in a series of six prints with a frontispiece entitled: New pantheon of democratic mythology., Temporary local subject terms: Roast beef -- Table settings: utensils -- Food: plum pudding -- Dishes: tankard with royal arms -- Mythology: harpies -- Reference to John Bull., 1 print : etching on wove paper, hand-colored ; plate mark 26.3 x 19.9 cm, on sheet 33.4 x 23.7 cm., and Mounted on leaf 14 of volume 5 of 12.
Publisher:
Pubd. May 7th, 1799, by H. Humphrey, No. 27 St. Jamess [sic] Street
Subject (Name):
Tierney, George, 1761-1830, Shuckburgh-Evelyn, George Augustus William, Sir, 1751-1804, and Jekyll, Joseph, 1754-1837
Tentative identification of Fox, Sheridan, Moira, Sir John Sinclair, and Sir George Shuckburgh in chairs, leaning against the sides of bunks in a ship, all sleeping or being ill
Alternative Title:
Margate hoy
Description:
Title from Draper Hill; alternative title from pencil inscription on verso: A Margate hoy. and Date from Draper Hill, who suggests that the drawing is a preliminary for one of the illustrations for the abandoned de luxe edition of Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin.
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Sinclair, John, Sir, 1754-1835, and Shuckburgh-Evelyn, George Augustus William, Sir, 1751-1804
"Windham, not caricatured, lies in bed dreaming, his right hand extended, his left hand against his head. The coverlet is patterned (inconspicuously) with dragons, &c. The bed is surrounded by solid clouds, supporting visions. At its head (right) is an olive branch bent down by the weight of a vulture, which clutches a bleeding hare, while it savagely croaks 'Peace!' On the left Death, a skeleton on stilts formed of spears (skeleton A stilts coloured red), bestraddles a pile of British trophies; one spearpoint pierces a 'List of British Conquests: Cape of Good Hope Malta Egypt West India [Islands]'; the other rests on a tilted dish inscribed 'Oh! the Roast Beef of Old England', from which a sirloin is slipping. The other objects are steaming pudding, an overturned tankard inscribed 'J. Bull's Old Stout', small cask of 'True British Spirits', spilling its contents; two coronets, a mitre, and a mace. The skeleton, reminiscent of Death in BMSat 6699, by Gillray, is in back view, turning a grinning head towards Windham; ['London und Paris' quotes (p. 319), as probably in Gillray's mind, Milton, 'Paradise Lost', ii. 285-7: 'Death Grinn'd horrible a ghastly smile, to hear His famine should be fill'd . . .'] it wears a large bonnet rouge and in the right hand is a cord attached to the dripping blade of a guillotine. This emerges from clouds beside the blazing dome of St. Paul's, from which the ball and cross are falling. On the extreme left is the Tower of London flying the French flag. By the foot of the bed stands a fat demon with barbed tail, webbed wings, and the features of Fox; he plays a guitar and sings delightedly: "Caira! - Caira! - Ca-i-r-a!" [cf. BMSat 10566, where he has discarded the song]. By the near side of the bed sits (on a chamber-pot) a small figure, Justice, with bowed head registering despair, her scales broken and dismantled, her sword, inscribed 'Justicia', broken. Emerging from clouds are four figures: Hawkesbury, with a sulky, youthful profile, writes 'Peace' on Britannia's 'Death-Warrant'. Behind him stands Pitt guiding his hand, a finger to his lips. Near them Bonaparte, scarcely caricatured, stands arrogantly, holding a rope which is round the neck of Britannia, while he points imperiously towards the guillotine on his right. She stands full face, weeping, her wrists shackled, with a broken shield and trident. Behind her is a (captured) fleet, in full sail, with tricolour flags. Above their heads flies a demoniac Fame, blowing two trumpets. Two groups of tiny decapitated figures kneel at the head of the bed, appealing to the sleeper. The French are on Windham's right, those in the front row being evidently (left to right) the Dauphin, Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette, Mme Elisabeth; the King holds out a placard: 'Oh! Remember Our Cause! poor Ghosts of French Ladies and Gentlemen.' Behind, two bishops are conspicuous. On Windham's left are men in peers' robes; their placard is inscribed: 'Ah! See what is to become of Us poor English Men of Consequence'. In the foreground are two groups of (Opposition) politicians with the heads of rats. One eats from a dish of 'Cheese Parings', the other from a coffer of 'Candle Ends', inscribed 'Treasury' [both phrases derive from a speech by Windham in which he is alleged to have derided paltry economies, an old gibe, see BMSat 9515 and 'Windham Papers', ii. 178]. Both are filled with papers inscribed 'Place', 'Pension', 'Sinecure', 'Office'. The former group are identified (in Gillray's hand) [On a slip evidently written for Miss Banks, pasted to an impression from the Banks Collection.] as Erskine, Sheridan, Tierney, Norfolk, and Bedford; the latter are Nicholls, Grafton, Stanhope, and the Earl of Oxford (who is unmistakably Burdett), Sir G. Shuckburgh. Running towards the dish (left) are M. A. Taylor and Derby, (right) Jekyll (resembling Col. Walpole)."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image. and Mounted on leaf 41 of volume 5 of 12.
Publisher:
Publish'd Novr. 9th, 1801, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Windham, William, 1750-1810, Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Liverpool, Robert Banks Jenkinson, Earl of, 1770-1828, Pitt, William, 1759-1806, Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, 1769-1821, Louis XVI, King of France, 1754-1793, Marie Antoinette, Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France, 1755-1793, Elisabeth, Princess of France, 1764-1794, Erskine, Thomas Erskine, Baron, 1750-1823, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Tierney, George, 1761-1830, Norfolk, Charles Howard, Duke of, 1746-1815, Bedford, Francis Russell, Duke of, 1765-1802, Nicholls, John, 1745?-1832, Taylor, Michael Angelo, 1757-1834, Grafton, Augustus Henry Fitzroy, Duke of, 1735-1811, Burdett, Francis, 1770-1844, Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, Earl, 1753-1816, Shuckburgh-Evelyn, George Augustus William, Sir, 1751-1804, Smith-Stanley, Edward, 1752-1834, and Jekyll, Joseph, 1754-1837
V. 1. Caricature magazine, or, Hudibrastic mirror.
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
"Fox flees in terror through the doorway of the House of Commons, taking an enormous stride. Beside him runs a thin demoniac greyhound, Grey, wearing a collar: 'Opposition Grey-Hound'. A small animal runs behind with the head of M. A. Taylor. Through the doorway are seen half the Speaker's chair and the Opposition benches, while the hands of Pitt, who is speaking, project from the left, holding two scrolls: 'O'Conner's list of Secret Traitors' and 'Destruction of Buonaparte - Capture of the French Navy - End of the Irish Rebellion - Voluntary Associations - Europe Arming - Britannia Ruling the Waves'. His words float towards the dismayed Opposition: 'Read o'er This! - And after this! - And then to Breakfast, with what appetite you may!!!' The Opposition are furtively eating papers: Sheridan eats 'Loyalty of the Irish Nation'; Tierney, 'Homage to the French Con[? stitution]'. Between them is squeezed the hat of C. Fox, indicating that between them they have left little room for their leader. Erskine, the egotist [see BMSat 9246, &c], eats 'my own Loyalty'; Shuckburgh, 'French lib[erty]'; Nicholls, 'a Letter to W Pitt'; Burdett, 'Egalité'; an unidentified member eats 'Peace or Ruin'. All wear hats except Burdett and Erskine. The House is lit by candles burnt to the socket, suggesting an all-night sitting. After the title: '"------courageous Chief!) "The first in Flight!" { N.B. The back-ground contains, a corner of the House next Session; with the Reasons for Secession; - also, a democratic Déjeuné; - i.e. Opposition Eating up their Words.'"--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Prudent secesion and Prudent secession
Description:
Title etched below image., Date of publication from unverified data in local card catalog record., Two lines of text following title: NB. The background contains a corner of the House next sessions, with the reasons for secesion; also, a democratic dejeuné (i.e. Opposition eating up their words)., A reduced copy of a print by Gillray with the same title. Cf. No. 9263 in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 7., Plate from: Woodward, G.M. Caricature magazine, or Hudibrastic mirror. London : Thomas Tegg, [1808?], v. 1., Not in the Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires., Watermark: 1817., and Leaf 56 in volume 1.
Publisher:
Thomas Tegg
Subject (Name):
Fox, Charles James, 1749-1806, Grey, Charles Grey, Earl, 1764-1845, Taylor, Michael Angelo, 1757-1834, Sheridan, Richard Brinsley, 1751-1816, Burdett, Francis, 1770-1844, Erskine, Thomas Erskine, Baron, 1750-1823, Tierney, George, 1761-1830, and Shuckburgh-Evelyn, George Augustus William, Sir, 1751-1804
