- Museum number
- 1865,1111.981
- Description
-
Political pamphlet of 66 pages (numbered pages 2-64) entitled: 'Radical State Papers. Now First Collected.'
The frontispiece illustration represents five Radicals standing on a platform addressing a proletarian audience. One, with a cap of Liberty on a staff, is shouting. Next stands Gale Jones; then Hunt, making a speech; then Wooler in the persona of 'The Black Dwarf' (title of his satirical publications), see BM Satires No. 12988. On the extreme right is Cobbett, with a pig's head (as the Hampshire Hog, cf. BM Satires Nos. 11568, 13642, 13655), making a speech with his back to the others.
The block was used again in the pamphlet, 'The loyal man in the moon.' See BM Satires 13658, 1865,1111.894-906.
Lettered at the foot of the page: "London: Printed for W. Wright, 46, Fleet Street. 1820. [Price One Shilling.]"
At the end of the text: "J. Hill, Printer, Water Lane, Blackfriars, London."
The text parodies the language of radical agitators and contains a number of spoof documents attributed to radicals. The opening "document:" 'A humble petition of the sovereign people, assembled at Spa Fields to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent' presents the radicals as regicides hostile to religion and private property (p.2).
January 1820
Wood-engraving, vignette on titlepage to a letterpress pamphlet
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 220 millimetres
-
Width: 133 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952) Note the date of the Spa Fields Riots was 1816 not 1819 as stated in the catalogue entry.
The letters and documents are clearly parodies which caricature the views of the radicals.
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.
The emphasis on Spa Fields, where rioting broke out at a political meeting addressed by Henry Hunt in Finsbury London on 2nd December 1816, is striking as radical pamphlets were concerned with the more recent events of "Peterloo" August 16th 1819.
An earlier meeting at Spa Fields on November 15th had passed without incident.
See:
-William Hone, 'The meeting in Spa Fields Hone's authentic and correct account, at length, of all proceedings on Monday, December 2d; with the resolutions and petition of Nov. 15, 1816.
Calder Marshall, Arthur, 'The Spa Fields Riots 1816' in History Today, London, Vol 21, Iss 6, Jun 1, 1971.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated events
- Associated Event: Spa Fields Riots 1816
- Associated titles
-
Associated Title: Radical state papers
-
Associated Title: The loyal man in the moon (The illustration is reused in this publication see BM Satires 13658, 1865,1111.894-906.)
- Acquisition date
- 1865
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1865,1111.981
