File:A Picture of Great Britain in the Year 1793 (BM 1868,0808.10342).jpg

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A Picture of Great Britain in the Year 1793   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
A Picture of Great Britain in the Year 1793
Description
English: The forces of good (left) and evil (right) converge in perspective upon the temple of 'The British Constitution', a dome supported on three pillars, inscribed 'King', 'Lord[s]', 'Common[s]', under which sits Britannia, her lion at her feet (left). On the front of the dome is a profile of George III wearing a laurel wreath in an oval inscribed 'By the Grace of God'. The temple rests on a rock which has been undermined, leaving a cavern in which are barrels of 'Gun Powder'; a train of powder leads from them to Fox (as in BMSat 6389), who rushes forward holding out a torch inscribed 'Speech at the Whig Club'; in his left hand is a paper: 'The Hazard of the Die!' He looks over his shoulder at Sheridan, who runs up behind him with a lantern and a dagger, to say: "Thy visage & Design are refulgent! delectable!" Under his foot is a paper: 'No King. No Religion No Laws.' Sheridan says: "The light of my Countenance directs thee" [for his fiery face cf. BMSat 7528, &c]; from his pocket issues a paper: 'I will act my Part'. They are running forward from the jaws of Hell, the fanged and gaping mouth of a demon on the extreme right. From it issues a cloud of smoke with the words: 'Egalité' [Orléans], 'Hardy', 'Danton', 'Robertspierre', 'Tom Pain', 'Marat', 'Mor. Chro.'


['Morning Chronicle'], 'L------dale' [Lauderdale], 'New --rk H--rald', 'Abuse
of the Press', 'Margarote' [see BMSat 8507], 'Daere', 'Redhead', 'Towers'. From its nostril issues a blast inscribed 'Assignats'. Behind are the massed forces of Revolution, heads advancing through smoke and flames with banners inscribed: 'British Convention Scotland', 'London Corresponding Society', 'Equal Representation', 'Derby Meeting', 'Sedition', 'Murder Treason', 'Anarchy Rapine'. Two demons (over Fox and Sheridan) attack the rock of the Constitution, one with a spade, the other, who says "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven", with 'Reform', a barbed trident. In the upper right corner a flying demon surrounded with smoke and thunderbolts addresses them with outstretched arms: "My dear Children persevere thus till Chaos comes again". Small scorpion-like creatures fly among the flames. These forces of evil have thrown down a barrier and Fox and Sheridan are treading on it. Beside it are books: 'Laws', and 'God Religion', with a skull, bones, and a dagger. (Cf. BMSat 8350.)
On the left, behind a solid barrier, the forces of order are ranged, holding banners. The man nearest Britannia (presumably Pitt, but a poor portrait) leans forward to put an extinguisher inscribed 'Truth' on Fox's torch; under his left hand is a book: 'Association Tracts'. The others in the front row immediately behind the barrier hold banners. That of the man next Pitt (probably Reeves) is 'Association for Preserving Liberty & Property agt Republicans and Levellers'. The others (right to left) are: 'St Albans Tavern Association', 'Merchant Taylo[rs] Hall Association', 'Parish of St James's Assn', 'Parish of St Martins Assn', 'Country House Ass--n Exeter', 'Lloyds Coffee House Association', 'Edinburgh Association'. Behind these, a sea of heads with banners is indicated, suggesting vast multitudes; behind them is a pyramid inscribed 'Stability'. Above their heads flies an angel holding a palm branch and saying: "I will guard those from harm who serve God & keep the Law"". On the barrier are three inscriptions (right to left): 'Amor Patriae' (in front of Pitt); 'Britannia and the Constitution'. 'The Law and Security'. 'Liberty and Property.' 'Religion and Concord'; 'Honi soit qui mal y pense'. In the upper left corner is an eye surrounded by a star-shaped halo, inscribed 'Deus' and 'The wicked shall Perish I will cut them off.'
Beneath the centre of the design is inscribed: 'Dedicated to the Associations for Preserving Liberty and Property against Republicans and Levellers.' On the left and right are quotations from 'Paradise Lost':

'----------------"Seest thou what Rage
Transports our Adversaries, whom no Bounds
Prescrib'd, nor Bars of Hell, ----------------
---------------- nor yet the main Aby'ss
Wide-interrupt, can hold? So bent they seem
On desperate Revenge, that shall Redound
Upon their own rebellious Heads".
and,
"Impendent Horrors! threat'ning hideous fall
One day upon our heads"
Let us destroy or we shall be destroyed.
"To do ought good will never be our task
But ever to do ill our sole delight
Havock and Spoil and Ruin are our Gain".' 9 January 1794


Etching
Depicted people Associated with: Basil William Douglas, Lord Daer
Date 1794
date QS:P571,+1794-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 360 millimetres
Width: 415 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.10342
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942) One of many prints of Fox and Sheridan as Jacobins. For the British Constitution as a rallying-cry cf. BMSat 8287. The first and chief loyal association was that founded by Reeves (see BMSat 8316, &c), and imitated in almost every district in England and in Edinburgh. See Veitch, 'Genesis of Parliamentary Reform', pp. 230-3; P. A. Brown, 'England and the French Revolution', pp. 83-4. For the British Jacobins see also Rose, 'Pitt and the Great War', pp. 164-95; Meikle, 'Scotland and the French Revolution, passim'. Lord Daer was a prominent 'Friend of the People', ibid. For Hardy see BMSat 8814. For Redhead, or Redhead Yorke, a Sheffield radical, see 'State Trials', xxv. 1003, and 'D.N.B.' For Towers (of the Constitutional Society) see vols, v and vi. For the British Convention see BMSat 8506, &c.; for the London Corresponding Soc, BMSat 9189, &c. See also BMSat 8426. The symbolism of a temple for the Constitution belongs to an earlier type of satire or emblematic print, a late instance being BMSat 5984 (1782).

(Supplementary information)

Attributed to Isaac Cruikshank in M D George's cataloge.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-10342
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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