- Museum number
- 1865,1111.921-930
- Description
-
Political pamphlet of 20 pages entitled: “The Radical House that Jack Would Build.” Lettered beneath the title: “With Ten Caricature Engravings.” Below:
“What makes freedom persecution?/ Being out of power, and contribution. Hudibras.”
“Printed by and For S. Hedgeland, 53 High Street, Exeter: G.&W.B Whittaker, Ave-Maria Lane, London.”
1. BM Satires 13331. The vignette illustration on the title-page, entitled “Liberty & Equality,” represents a parodied liberty figure sitting on a barrel of 'Smuggled Gin'. She waves a goblet and a cap of Liberty decorated with leaves; with her bare feet she tramples on (torn) papers: '[Bill of] Rights', 'X. Commandments', '[Magna] Charta'; with these lie a crown, coronet, sceptre, and a (constable's) crowned staff. Beside her (left) is a pillar: 'The Wolesley Pillar', on a base inscribed: 'To the Sovereign People'. In the background a mob assail with sticks and stones a blazing building.
The text is a verse-satire against Hone's famous pamphlet “The Political House that Jack Built”, BM Satires 13292, 1865,1111.388-400. For Wolseley and Reform see BM Satires No. 13251. The other illustrations are etched across the upper part of each page, see BM Satires Nos. 13332-40.
2. BM Satires 13332. No title except the inscriptions on the two banners of a revolutionary mob with pikes, bludgeons, and caps of Liberty. One man is seated astride the 'Wool Sack'. Three bodies dangle from the projecting beam, inscribed 'In Place', of a demolished building (right). In the background one man is being guillotined, another hanged. In the foreground lie a 'Holy Bible', crown, and sceptre, 'Magna Charta', and fragments of pillars, one inscribed 'Law'. The men:
'. . . would pull down an Old House, England's Glory,
In order to live in its uppermost story,'.
3. BM Satires 13333. Lords King Common[s]
No title except the words on scrolls entwining the three pillars of the Temple of the Constitution, as in BM Satires No. 13293, the dome surmounted by a cross in place of the figure of Liberty. In the middle are three documents: 'Magna Charta', '[Bill] of Rights', '. . . Press'. Three ruffians are attacking the Temple with pikes and bludgeons, while a respectably dressed man in a top-hat, evidently Hunt, urges them on.
4. BM Satires 13334. A radical hunt.
Hunt (left) runs off, pursued by a constable (right), who holds up a crowned staff, and has a warrant inscribed 'Capias ... Hunt' in his pocket. Hunt holds two papers: 'Radical Reform' and 'The Orator of the Smithfield Meeting'. See BM Satires No. 13252, &c.
5. BM Satires 13335. ...Watch dogs, and wolves of the state,
A man wearing a star, evidently Lord Fitzwilliam, raises his hat and grasps the hand of a ragamuffin with a bludgeon; a second ruffian stands by; and a man wearing a top-hat and top-boots holds out to them a pen and a paper headed: 'Proceedings at the Yorkshire Meeting'. At a meeting of Yorkshire free-holders, summoned by Fitzwilliam and others, resolutions were passed demanding an inquiry into the events at Manchester, see No. 13258, &c. Bands of reformers, 'with their usual insignia', were present, but allowed the business of the day to be conducted by the gentry. Fitzwilliam was at once dismissed from his office of Lord-Lieutenant. 'Ann. Reg.', 1819, p. 113. Cf. BM Satires No. 13302.
6. BM Satires 13336. ...Brave watch dogs...
Yeomanry (seven men) in a close line, with horses reined in, confront a mob who attack with pikes, bludgeons, and brick-bats. The former have a banner: 'Our God & Our King', the latter a makeshift flag: 'The Devil & Dr W—ts—n'. Evidently an allusion to Peterloo, see BM Satires No. 13258, &c., adapted to Ministerial interpretations of the general situation. For Watson see BM Satires No. 13327, &c.
7. BM Satires 13337. [House of Commons] A debate, the Speaker and the two Clerks being the centre of the design. Tierney is speaking. There is a foot-note referring to the speeches of Mr. T—r—y and L—d M—lt—n (Milton). Tierney, leader of the Opposition, opposed the Address on the Regent's Speech in the November Session called on account of the disturbances. The verses seem (confusedly) to ridicule the embarrassments of the Whigs in defending the extremists, while dissociating themselves from their political views. See Olphin, 'George Tierney', 1934, pp. 211-15.
8. BM Satires 13338. Bedfordshire hemp.
A band of ruffians is hanging from a lamp-bracket, decorated with a cap of Liberty, a young man wearing a star. The one holding the rope grins, saying, "You till—I tie," illustrating the line: 'Jack one day will say,— I doubt your you till—I tie [your utility]'. They have a makeshift flag inscribed 'True Liberty'. One of the mob rides a child's wooden hobbyhorse; he is Hobhouse, 'the W—stm—nster hack', see BM Satires No. 13204, &c. The corner of a squalid house, from which the lamp-bracket projects, is 'Hob's House'. The victim is evidently Lord Tavistock, said to have 'left his fine house of nobility' 'to ape humility'. He took a leading part in opposing the Six Acts, and he and his father the Duke of Bedford headed the subscription to Hone, see BM Satires No. 12899. Cf. BM Satires No. 13302.
9. BM Satires 13339...That dog Cobbett...
No title. A big dog with Cobbett's head, and a skeleton tied to its tail, is chased by two 'Yankees' with sticks and stones towards the sea where there is a ship (right) with a flag inscribed 'For England'. See BM Satires No. 13283, &c.
10. BM Satires 13340. [Hone] No title. An ape sharpens the head of a pike on a hone, representing William Hone, as in BM Satires No. 12886.
Lettered at the end of the text, 5, Hedgeland, printer, 53, High Street, Exeter.
c. December 1819
Etched vignette illustrations to a letterpress pamphlet
- Production date
- 1819
- Dimensions
-
Height: 213 millimetres (approx. page size)
-
Height: 150 millimetres (plate-mark)
-
Width: 138 millimetres (approx. page size)
-
Width: 113 millimetres (plate-mark)
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
Bound as part of "Political Tracts Volume 6”. Number 6 of 10 volumes of "Political Tracts" Published circa 1819-1822. The pro-government and anti-"radical" tone of this volume’s content contrasts with the pamphlets in the earlier volumes which often satirise George IV, his court and his ministers.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: Peterloo 1819
- Associated titles
-
Associated Title: The radical-house which Jack would build
-
Associated Title: The Political House that Jack Built (A response to Hone's famous pamphlet see BM Satires 13292, 1865,1111.388-400)
- Acquisition date
- 1865
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1865,1111.921-930
