Asset number
1613703230
Description
After the title: 'Take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. Proverbs.' A pair of scales hangs in a landscape, suspended from a hook in a block against the upper margin inscribed 'Constitution', the central pivot inscribed ('Equilibrium'). The left scale is weighted only by a document headed 'Acts for the more effectually Sarving' [sic], on the right scale, inscribed 'Prices of Provisions.', are a leg of mutton, a frothing tankard, and a loaf; it is much outweighed by the other, inscribed 'Old England', which descends below the level of the ground into a rocky pit or 'Abyss of Corruption'. On the ground below the right scale lies a starving and half-naked peasant who raises his arm to touch it, crying, "Oh! I shall famish if you don't fall." The 'Acts' enumerated on the scroll are 'Butter and Cheese Laws 56 G 3d—3d Corn Bill 55th G 3d—-2d Corn Bill 45th G 3d—1st Corn Bill—' A well-dressed man, his hands on his knees, stoops in profile to the… (See Merlin record for full description)
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