Political-dreamings! Visions of peace! Perspective horrors! [graphic]

"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