"Six men, seated and standing behind a table on which are decanters, punch-bowl, &c, drink a treasonous toast. This is given by Priestley (left) who stands in profile to the right, holding up an empty Communion dish and a brimming chalice, saying, "The------ [King's] Head, here!" Fox sits in the centre, raising his glass, his right hand on his heart; he looks up ecstatically, saying, "My Soul & Body, both, upon this Toast!!!" On his right. sits Sir Cecil Wray, saying, "O Heav'ns! why I would empty a Chelsea Pensioners small-beer barrel in such a cause!!" [see BMSat 7892]. On the extreme left Sheridan bends forward, avidly filling his glass from a decanter of Sherry; he says, "Damn my Eyes! but I'll pledge you that Toast tho Hell gapes for me." On Fox's left sits Horne Tooke, saying, "I have not drank so glorious a Toast since I was Parson of Brentford, & kept it up with Balf & McQuirk!" (He had tried to secure the execution of these two 'bludgeon men' for murder at the Middlesex Election of 1768; though convicted they were pardoned, see BMSats 4223-4226.) He grasps a decanter of 'Holland[s]' (perhaps indicating attachment to Fox, after previous hostility, cf. BMSat 7652). On the extreme right sits Dr. Lindsey, with (like Sheridan) a drink-blotched face; he drinks, saying, "Amen! Amen!" Before him are two decanters of 'Brandy'. Behind Horne Tooke and Lindsey stands a group of sanctimonious dissenters, with lank hair, much caricatured; three say respectively: "Hear our Prayers: & preserve us from Kings & Whores of Babylon!!!"; "Put enmity between us & the ungodly and bring down the Heads of all Tyrants & usurpers quickly good Lord - Hear us good Lord". and "O! grant the Wishes of thine inheritance". On the wall above Foxs head is a picture of St. Paul's Cathedral; from the façade emerge the heads of three pigs feeding from a trough. This is 'A Pig's-Stye \ a View from Hackney' (an allusion to Priestley's congregation at the Gravel Pit chapel. Hackney, where he had succeeded Price)."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue. and Title etched below image.
Publisher:
S. W. Fores, No. 3 Piccadilly
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Fores, S. W., publisher., Fox, Charles James,--1749-1806--Caricatures and cartoons., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Lindsey, Theophilus,--1723-1808--Caricatures and cartoons., Priestley, Joseph,--1733-1804--Caricatures and cartoons., Sheridan, Richard Brinsley,--1751-1816--Caricatures and cartoons., Tooke, John Horne,--1736-1812--Caricatures and cartoons., and Wray, Cecil,--Sir,--1734-1805--Caricatures and cartoons.
"Fox as Guy Vaux kneels on one knee beside a pile of three barrels which he is about to fire with a lighted paper inscribed 'Rights of Man', holding up a dark lantern in his left hand. Burke, dressed as a watchman, rushes towards him and seizes Fox's left wrist, turning the rays of the lantern on his face, while he springs the rattle in his outstretched right hand. His long staff rests on his shoulder and he wears a long coat with a triple collar, badged on the left sleeve with a crown. He says, ""Hold Miscreant - I arrest thee in the name of the British Constitution, which thou art undermining - I arrest thee in the name of human nature, which thou hast most cruelly outraged; - I arrest thee in the name of that Monarch whom thou dost wish to deprive of dignity, & of that people whom thou hast most basely deluded! - Nay, no fawning: - thy Tears & thy hypocrisy make no impression on the mind of truth & Loyalty: - therefore, Enemy of all good! yeild to that punishmt which has long waited those "crimes which are left as yet unwhipt of Justice"". Fox, who wears a slouch hat and a long cloak buttoned over his mouth, says, "O Lord! O Lord! that ever my aim should be discover'd when I had taken such pains to disguise myself - for Heavens sake, Watchman, what have I done that I should be apprehended? - what have I done only answer me that! - dare you accuse me only for what you think I intended to do ? - have I ever assassinated the King, or blown up the Lords ? - as to this Gunpowder here, I only intended to set fire to it merely to clear the Nation of Buggs: - for goodness sake do let me go: - or if I must suffer do let it be without holding up my own dark Lanthorn in my Face, for my Eyes are so weak with crying to think I should be charged with such Villainy, that I cannot bear the Light." Large tears fall from his eyes. The barrels are inscribed 'Gunpowder', one 'for the King', another 'for the House of Lords'. Behind, Sheridan escapes up a flight of steps, he follows another conspirator whose leg is visible on the extreme right. He says, I must be off while I can; as to my Friend there, why, if he does go to pot there's the more room for me! - I wish I could squeeze out a Tear or two as well as he, it might impose on the Mob, if they should stop me: - but I've come that humbug so often before, that my Eyes - Da-n my Eyes! there's not one drop left in them." ..."--British Museum online catalogue.
Description:
Printmaker from British Museum catalogue., Text below title: NB his associates were all taken afterwards & executed., and Title from text in lower right corner of image.
Publisher:
H. Humphrey, New Bond Street
Subject (Name):
Auchincloss, Hugh Dudley--Ownership., Burke, Edmund,--1729-1797--Caricatures and cartoons., Fox, Charles James,--1749-1806--Caricatures and cartoons., Harvey, Francis--Ownership., Humphrey, Hannah, active 1774-1817, publisher., Kirgate, Thomas,--1734-1810--Ms. notes., Sheridan, Richard Brinsley,--1751-1816--Caricatures and cartoons., and Walpole, Horace,--1717-1797--Ownership.