- Museum number
- 1862,1217.550
- Title
- Object: The Present state of France Exemplified.
- Description
-
Heading to a printed broadside. The (printed) title continues: '/ in the / First Chapter of the Second Book / of / The Restoration of Kings'. Louis XVIII sits enthroned on a platform supported on the points of giant bayonets in close formation. These rest on the bodies of dead (Allied) soldiers who lie at the base of the design. The King sits directed to the right, his head in profile, his expression malevolent. In the right hand is a sceptre which rests against his shoulder, in the left is a small cross. His throne is formed of weapons of war: cannon resting on wheels for arms, the back is a trellis of daggers and pistols between bayonets; from it floats a tattered flag with one fleur-de-lis. One swathed and gouty foot rests on a footstool; the other is hidden by the back of a friar who sits at his feet, his legs hanging over the platform. The friar bends over a paper, writing with fierce concentration: 'Son of St Louis, ascend to Heaven'. Talleyrand (left) stands at the King's right; Fouché is on his left. These four completely fill the small platform. Talleyrand, like Louis XVIII, is looking to the right. He holds a large pouch containing documents: 'Proclamation' and 'State Papers'. Fouché turns to the King, pointing to the paper which he holds: 'Restrictions on the Press'. He and Talleyrand smile craftily; both wear large white favours.
Below on the left two hussars with their backs to the platform and having an Austrian (or Russian) flag, with a double-headed eagle, scatter largesse to a (French) crowd of men and women who eagerly hold up hats and hands. One sits on a large sack of coin, inscribed 'Contributions for the Allies'; he says: "thats your sort my Lads [see No. 8073, &c.] Louis for ever theres some coppers for you." The crowd shouts: "veve [sic] les Bourbons"; "Vive Louis 18th"; "vive Louis [twice]."
On the right are figures on a smaller scale: three French soldiers wearing cocked hats aim their muskets at Ney (right) who stands facing them, with extended arm, saying, "above all, miss me not." In the background is a prison surmounted by two gibbets from which corpses dangle symmetrically. The building is filled with tiny figures; from the arched gateway issues a line of men linked to one another by a chain attached to their necks. The foremost says: "Vive l'Empreuer [sic]." They are headed by a goose-stepping executioner with a raised axe. In front of them another executioner raises an axe to decapitate a man kneeling at a block. Behind are other blocks and a file of gibbets. In the background tiny soldiers with fixed bayonets are drawn up on a hill dominating the execution-ground. In the centre is a huge flag inscribed: 'It is not the wish of the Allies to interfere with the internal government of France.'
? December 1815
Hand-coloured etching and letterpress
- Production date
- 1815
- Dimensions
-
Height: 170 millimetres (image)
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Height: 440 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 290 millimetres
-
Width: 310 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
The text, in Old Testament phraseology, relates (mendaciously) the return of Napoleon, his defeat, and the restoration of Louis XVIII. Among Napoleon's crimes in the eyes of the Allies are that he had 'liberated the Negro' (sic) and given liberty to the Press (see No. 12546, &c.). The Allies pay the French one sou a day to 'cry out for Louis', 'And all those that would not cry out for the King, they put to death'.
See No. 12609, &c. The treaty of 25 Mar. 1815 was for the purpose of maintaining entire the conditions of the first Peace of Paris. This was ratified by the British Government, 25 Apr., with the reservation that it was 'not to be understood as binding his Britannic Majesty to prosecute the war with a view of imposing upon France any particular government'; though the Regent's desire for the restoration of Louis XVIII was acknowledged. 'Ann. Reg.', 1815, pp. 387-9; C. K. Webster, 'Foreign Policy of Castlereagh', i, 1931, pp. 443-7. The sack of 'Contributions for the Allies' is an attack on subsidies, cf. No. 12614, &c. For Louis XVIII supported on bayonets cf. Nos. 12588, 12786. The outstanding executions of the 'traitors' regarded as responsible for the war were those of Ney, 7 Dec, who refused to have his eyes bandaged, and Laboyédère (at Grenoble), 19 Aug. 1815. The Faucher brothers were shot at Bordeaux, 27 Sept. See No. 12707. Lavalette was sentenced to death but escaped, see No. 12706. Fouché had given warning to those in danger to escape (Ney refusing to do so). Webster, op. cit., p. 464 f. At this time neither Talleyrand nor Fouché was in office, see No. 12614. The bitterness of the satire is characteristic of the 'outburst of sedition and blasphemy' in the Press, 1815-17, and of the unstamped Press of 1815-32, in which Wooler took a prominent part. See J. H. Rose, 'The Unstamped Press, 1815-1836', 'Eng. Hist. Rev.' xii. 711-26 (1897).
Also published as a caricature, without the text.
Reid, No. 510. Cohn, No. 1867. Listed by Broadley.
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The following extract from Tim Clayton, "Waterloo" (2014) is also relevant: "Sergeant Thomas Morris of the 73rd foot derived some pleasure from the idea that King Louis' satisfaction at his restoration must have been 'somewhat damped by [the return of cultural treasures to the countries from which they had been expropriated], as well as by the fact, that he was only secure on the throne of his ancestors, so long as he was supported by foreign bayonets. Morris remained with the army of occupation, designed 'to prevent any further out-break against 'Louis le Désiré', as the French King was most inappropriately styled'. The Bonapartist Cockney Sergeant was not alone in registering the distaste of Parisians for their new ruler. The aristocratic John Fremantle was fairly shaken by it, writing to his uncle on 17 July, 'I never could have believed there had existed such a rooted aversion to the Bourbons as I now find reigns.' There were parades and reviews throughout July as the Austrians and Russians turned up. The last British regiment left Paris on 23 November 1818."
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2015 Feb-Aug, BM, Rm 90, Bonaparte and the British
- Acquisition date
- 1862
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1862,1217.550