File:Public credit, or, the state idol. (BM 1868,0808.6063 1).jpg

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Public credit, or, the state idol.   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: William Dent

Published by: James Aitken
Title
Public credit, or, the state idol.
Description
English: The gigantic figure of a man in back view with bared posteriors stands astride facing a gateway; between his legs the interior of a vaulted building recedes in perspective. His arms are raised as if supporting the building, the hands being cut off by the upper margin. The inscription on the bag of his wig: 'For particulars enquire under the Rose' shows that he is George Rose, Secretary to the Treasury. Within the building seen through his legs are two men, minute figures in obsequious attitudes, probably pensioners: one with a wooden leg is Brook Watson; the roof is inscribed 'Treasury Army Navy &c.' Rose's posteriors emit a blast inscribed 'Surplus' which strikes Sheridan, throwing him to the ground. He lies on his back in the foreground with outstretched arms, saying, "This is surely a proof of a Foul Statement". Beside him is a paper inscribed '35 Resolutions'. Fox stands (right) looking down on Sheridan, saying, "This proves the Surplus not a fair one".


On the left is a flight of steps against the left leg of Rose, inscribed 'Sure Steps to Preferment'. The steps are: 'Flattery', 'Humility', 'Pliability', 'Servility', and 'Apostacy'; Burke has reached the top step (Apostasy) and, hat in hand, obseqiously approaches Rose's back. Beneath the title is etched:
'And the* * * * [King] made unto himself a great Idol, the likeness of which teas not in Heavan above, nor in the Earth beneath, and he reared up his Head unto the Clouds, and extended his Arms over all the land, his Legs also were as the Posts of a gate, or as an Arch stretched forth over the Doors of the public Offices; And whoever passed in beneath with idolatrous Reverence First lifted up their Eyes, and kissed the cheeks of the Postern.' 3 June 1791


Hand-coloured etching
Depicted people Associated with: Edmund Burke
Date 1791
date QS:P571,+1791-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 352 millimetres
Width: 244 millimetres (corner missing)
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.6063
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)

The print was probably published to coincide with Sheridan's expected attack on Pitt's finance: on 3 June 1791 he moved, not thirty-five, but forty resolutions on the public income and expenditure, attempting to show that the reports of the Finance Committees in 1786 and 1791, showing a surplus, were fallacious, and making complaints against Pitt's financial measures. 'Parl. Hist.' xxix. 703 ff., cf. BMSat 7842. For Burke's supposed apostasy cf. BMSat 7866, &c.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-6063
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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current08:54, 15 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 08:54, 15 May 20201,724 × 2,500 (1.29 MB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1791 image 2 of 2 #9,582/12,043

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