"A scene in the House of Commons, showing the Ministerial benches, with the Speaker's Chair and the Table partly cut off by the right margin. The Speaker (Manners Sutton) and one of the Clerks are just within the design. Castlereagh is speaking; he stands in profile to the right, hat in hand, with the Pope on his shoulders. The Pope holds crosier and keys, and wears an odd tiara. A demon crouches on his shoulders dressed as an acolyte, but displaying a cloven hoof; a mask with bland features (a device deriving from Gillray, cf. British Museum Satires No. 11384) is tied in front of his black horned head; he holds up a lighted candle, and clutches the Pope's hair. Castlereagh, with a blandly disingenuous smile: "I have the authority of the Head of the Catholic Church, for saying that there is no solidity in the objection taken on the other side: thus I am legislating with the Pope at my back!!!" The benches behind Castlereagh are crowded; the members listening intently; all wear hats, except Peel who sits immediately behind Castlereagh's empty seat, on the corner of which he has put a hat, inscribed 'Peel'. He looks up to say: "I hope that when the noble Lord observed that [he was legislating with the Pope at his back] he had no allusion to me, even if the noble Lord were willing to put the Popedom in Commission, I should not be willing to accept the office of one of the Commissioners." Men look down from the gallery. On the floor is a paper: 'St Steevens March 28 1821'."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Whatever is, is right. Pope! and Weighty argument in favour of the Catholic Emancipation
Description:
Title etched below image. and Watermark: J. Whatman 1820.
Publisher:
Pubd. April 1821 by G. Humphrey, 27 St. Jamess Street, London
Subject (Geographic):
Great Britain.
Subject (Name):
Castlereagh, Robert Stewart, Viscount, 1769-1822, Canterbury, Charles Manners-Sutton, Viscount, 1780-1845, Pius VII, Pope, 1742-1823, Peel, Robert, 1788-1850, and Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons,
Subject (Topic):
Catholic emancipation, Legislative bodies, Politicians, Public speaking, Popes, Crosiers, Keys (Hardware), Demons, Masks, and Candles
"A parody of G. Cruikshank's 'My Eye', see British Museum Satires No. 14168. The eye is as before but much enlarged, filling the design. It contains a printing-press, inscribed 'Radical Press', and on it rests the Queen's bust portrait wreathed in laurel, closely copied from British Museum Satires No. 14150. Below the eye: 'See Hone's eulogium on the Radical Press. I'll watch them [him] tame. Shakespeare' ['Othello', III. iii; quoted in British Museum Satires No. 14168]."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched at top of image., Text at bottom of image: See Hone's eulogium on the Radical Press., Text in lower right corner of image: I'll watch them tame. Shakspeare., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., 1 print : etching ; sheet 14.9 x 22.3 cm., Printed on wove paper., Mounted to 58 x 39 cm., Mounted (with one other print) on leaf 69 in volume 2 of the W.E. Gladstone collection of caricatures and broadsides surrounding the "Queen Caroline Affair.", and Figure of "Q. Caroline" identified in ink at bottom of sheet; date "May 1821" written in lower right corner.
Publisher:
Pubd. May 1821 by G. Humphrey, 27 St. James's St., London
Subject (Name):
Caroline, Queen, consort of George IV, King of Great Britain, 1768-1821