"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.
"A very fat lady crouches in a shell drawn by two swans; she holds (tricolour) reins attached to the birds' necks; a carriage-whip is in her right hand. She has a blotched profile; snaky curls hang oddly over her face; she wears a swathed neck-cloth over her chin, a riding-habit with a sleeve slashed in the manner usually denoting theatrical dress, and a hat trimmed with tricolour feathers. Behind her (left) ride two little cupids, each on a swan, with postilion's caps and coats; each plies vigorously a whip made of a bow; a quiver with arrows hangs at the back of the nearer cupid, who has butterfly wings; the back of the other is hidden. Their reins, &c., are tricolour. Their swans stretch their necks angrily at the back of the 'Venus'. Foreground and background are sea and sky."--British Museum online catalogue.
Alternative Title:
Swansea Venus, Swan-sea Venus, and Venus a la coquille
Description:
A lightly etched letter "P" precedes imprint statement., Printmaker identified as Gillray in the British Museum catalogue., and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
H. Humprey, No. 27 St. James's Street
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., and Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher.