File:The Whig Club, or the state of the blue and buff council (BM 1868,0808.5394 1).jpg

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The Whig Club, or the state of the blue and buff council   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: William Dent

Published by: J Brown
Title
The Whig Club, or the state of the blue and buff council
Description
English: Fox in the chair (centre), with three leading Whigs on each side of him; all are seated as if in a latrine. All wear enormous wigs (indicating that they are Whigs) resembling those worn by the Speaker and by judges. After the title are the words 'Most heartily Inscribed to the Worshipful Company of Barbers...'. In the centre foreground is their secretary, a demon, wearing a similar wig and seated on a chamber-pot inscribed 'St Albans'. He holds a pen in his right hand; with his left he holds his nose. He is seated before a headsman's block inscribed 'K. Charles's Pillow', on which he is writing a 'Plan of Operations for 1785'. Beside him are an axe, a newspaper inscribed 'Morng Herald', and an open book, 'History of the Commonwealth'. He says:



"My Sirs, you'll shite great things I think,
You make such an infernal stink."

Labels issuing from the mouths of the members of the club are numbered. 'Ist' is the Earl of Surrey, on the extreme right saying, "Say, what's to be done, pray tell our Secretary - Scratch". Next him is Burke, '2d', holding a paper inscribed 'Oeconomy', indicating his Bill of Economical Reform (cf. BMSat 5657, &c.); he says, "India and Irish affairs will make - a good batch". Next, and on Fox's left hand is North, '3d', holding a paper inscribed 'Reform'. He says:

"Commutations & Juries shall be my Tale,
Such subjects - by straining hard - must sure avail."

North vigorously opposed, 16 June 1784, Sawbridge's motion for a reform of Parliament which Fox, of course, supported. 'Parl. Hist.' xxiv. 975 ff. Wraxall, 'Memoirs', 1884, iii. 424. Cf. BMSat 6636. The Commutation tax was attacked by the Opposition, cf. BMSat 6630, 6634, &c.
Fox, '4th', seated in a raised arm-chair, with a half length portrait of Cromwell behind his head, holds a paper inscribed 'Prerogative'; his face is contorted and he says:

"Reform & Scrutiny shall not be forgot,
No, no, I'll strain to give it them smoaking hot."

On his right sits Keppel, '5th', saying:

"To get them out I'll strain as I have strain 'd before,
Tho', dear Coz. they are as frightful as a Lee Shore."

One of many gibes at Keppel for his conduct at the Battle of Ushant, 27 July 1778, see BMSat 5992, &c.
Next, '6th', is Lord Derby, saying:

"We shan't get in, I fear, tho' we do our best",

Powys, '7th', on the extreme left, responds:

"No, we too compleatly did beshit our Nest." 24 December 1784


Etching
Depicted people Associated with: Edmund Burke
Date 1784
date QS:P571,+1784-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 250 millimetres
Width: 343 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.5394
Notes

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

A satire on the bankruptcy of the Whigs after the general election, cf. BMSats 6657, 6673, 6674, 6770, 6790, 6791. For Fox as Cromwell see BMSat 6380, &c. For Fox and Reform see BMSat 6636, and Ireland see BMSat 6659. For the Scrutiny see BMSat 6553, &c. The Whig Club was formed in 1780 at the time of the Westminster Committee of Correspondence, and in connexion with the adoption of Fox as candidate for Westminster (see BMSats 5650, 5675, &c), cf. also BMSat 8140. For India cf. BMSat 6915.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-5394
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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current03:08, 16 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 03:08, 16 May 20202,500 × 1,910 (1.24 MB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1784 image 2 of 2 #11,777/12,043

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