"Cobbett, surrounded by flames and beset by ghosts, starts back in his chair, overturning his writing-table and dropping his pen. Behind him and on his right is a black replica of himself (his shadow). Over this shadow's shoulder leans the Devil, naked except for a bonnet rouge, bending menacingly towards Cobbett. In the foreground (right) the head and shoulders, in back view, of Sir Charles Gould emerge from clouds, holding up a long scroll: 'the Forfieted Pledge--"my Black Soul I pledge to the Devil for the Truth of my Accusation Wm Cobbett--Witness . . . Goold Judge' [Advocate]. On the opposite side, surrounded by clouds, are the ghosts of three officers, with blank eyes, standing stiffly behind the bar over which hangs a paper: 'Court Martial Chelsea' [see No. 11377]. The centre figure declaims: 'Remember Powel', the others add: 'Hall' and 'Seton'. Just behind and to the right of Cobbett the arms of a woman holding the equally balanced scales and the flaming sword of 'Justice' emerge from flames. Her head is covered by a large scroll: 'the Groans of Hampshire with the Cries of Little Jessey and the Screams of his blasted Brandy-Faced Bitch of a Mother'. Behind the Devil, and partly concealed by a festooned curtain, is the wall of a pawnshop as in No. 11376, with the sign of three balls; over the doorway: 'Beelzebub Pawnb[roker] Nota Bene. Damag'd Souls taken in Pawn'. Four bat-like creatures fly away, upwards and to the left. Three have human heads and are Wardle, nearest to Cobbett, Burdett, and (?) Horne Tooke. From Cobbett's tilting table ink, pens, candle-sticks, and lighted candles fall to the ground, the candles setting fire to the many papers which have fallen and are falling: two copies of 'Cobbett's Political Register' are already blazing. Three other copies are still on the table, one inscribed: 'Cobbetts Register--The Hell-Fire-War in Spain--Oh damn Wellesley'. Other copies have titles referring to the tenor of actual and imaginary articles in the Register: 'Plan for to Hang up all the Public Robbers without Judge or Jury'; 'Hints on ye Rights of Napoleone the Great to the Throne of Great Britain'; 'The Jubilee--a Damned Ministerial Humbug upon the country'; Cobbett's Political Register--. . . Navy . . .'; 'Stupidity of the Whigs'; 'Bank Notes our Rum'; 'New Parliamentary Reform'; 'Necessity of a new Party'; 'Blasted Ignorance of Ministry'."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
Below image is printed a second plate etched with text only: Plate 8th. But alas, in the midst of my towering prospects while I was yet hesitating between a radical-reform & a revolution ... Vide, my own memoir's in the Political Register, 1809., Eighth print of eight in a series entitled: The life of William-Cobbett, written by himself., and Title etched below image.
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Burdett, Francis,--1770-1844--Caricatures and cartoons., Cobbett, William,--1763-1835--Caricatures and cartoons., Gillray, James, 1756-1815, artist., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher., and Wardle, Gwyllym Lloyd,--1762?-1833--Caricatures and cartoons.
"Sir Francis Burdett declaims, holding up a bonnet rouge shaped like a fool's cap; he addresses those who are making a bonfire of statutes, &c., on the cobbles of Palace Yard (left). His raised left arm is flung back, pointing towards Westminster Hall, which is being stoned and demolished by a mob. He says: "It is only in the House of Commons / "that the People of England are spoken of / "with Contempt, & calumniated!!!-- / "--can things be remedied by Bills? No!-- / "it must be by an Honest House of "Commons!--what is the use of Magna-Charta, Habeas-Corpus, / "or the Bill of Rights?-- / See, my own Speech at Westminster--Vide, "Cobbett's Patriotic Register. He tramples on a sceptre beside which lies a crown, reversed and covered by a long scroll: Resolution[s] of the Whig-Club; Resolved--That it is the decided Opinion of this Club that no Substantial & permament [sic] Good can be derived by the Country, from any change of Ministry, unless accompanied by an entire change of Systemn--accomplish'd by an entire Reform of the Parliament. A great pile of documents with a Holy Bible in the centre, is ready for the flames; Horne Tooke, in bonnet rouge, dressing-gown, and slippers, kneels at Burdett's feet, holding a dark lantern (as in No. 10738), and applying a flaming brand, inscribed Sedition, to the pile. Three simian and negroid creatures holding papers like sub-human newsboys, as in Gillray's New Morality [No. 9240], apply torches to the pile. One, with a tartan cloth round its waist, holds the Edinburgh Review, another the Morning Chronicle; the third wears a wig inscribed Independ[ent] Wig. Under Tooke's firebrand are the Rights of the House of Brunswick to the Throne Brunswick Succession; Magna Charta; Bill of Rights; Habeas Corpus. Other documents are Act for Punishing Libelers of the State, and Act to Suppress Inflamatory Libels (attacked by the Independent Wig and Morning Chronicle respectively); Legal Authorities; Rights of the Establish'd Church; Rights of the House of Lords; Priviliges of the He of Commons; Act of Protestant Succession; Freedom of Election; Old-Bailey Trials. ..."--British Museum online catalogue.
Alternative Title:
Patriots lighting a revolutionary bonfire in New Palace Yard
Description:
Title etched below image.
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Buckingham, George Nugent Temple Grenville,--Marquess of,--1753-1813--Caricatures and cartoons., Burdett, Francis,--1770-1844--Caricatures and cartoons., Cobbett, William,--1763-1835--Caricatures and cartoons., Grattan, Henry,--1746-1820--Caricatures and cartoons., Grenville, William Wyndham Grenville,--Baron,--1759-1834--Caricatures and cartoons., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher., Radnor, William Pleydell-Bouverie,--Earl of,--1779-1869--Caricatures and cartoons., Tooke, John Horne,--1736-1812--Caricatures and cartoons., Wardle, Gwyllym Lloyd,--1762?-1833--Caricatures and cartoons., and Whitbread, Samuel,--1764-1815--Caricatures and cartoons.