Navy victualler and contractors reading the extraordinary gazette announcing the Spanish convention [graphic].

"A man seated behind a rectangular table holds a paper: 'Extraordinary Gazette Convention'; he looks up with an expression of dismay, saying, "Oh! Dam the Dons! if they keep their Word what am I to do with my Oxen". On the table, which is in reversed perspective, are two tea-cups, an overturned tumbler, and papers: 'Mayor['s] Letter'; 'Oracle'; 'The World' [ministerial newspapers, cf. British Museum Satires No. 7369, &c.]. The title is etched on the vertical front of the table-cloth. Two stout men (left) standing together in profile to the right, equally dismayed, answer respectively, "Your Oxen! (fatten them for Market) what are we to do with our Biscuits? and We shant have one broke, if we are not to crack the Spaniards crowns, no, not one, dam it." The first is Alderman William Curtis, the other (who resembles him) is probably his elder brother and partner Timothy; they were (ship's) biscuit-bakers at Wapping, cf. British Museum Satires No. 8075. A thin man with a wooden leg (Brook Watson) stands (right), his hands held out, face upturned, exclaiming, "Convention! Dam the Convention! but a little time back amused with a Dutch Squabble, now tantalized with a Spanish Rupture - Oh! curse it! are we never to have a War?""--British Museum online catalogue