print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.11922
- Title
-
Object: Men of feeling!
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Series: Political Sketches
- Description
-
No. 606. A man standing behind a table at right (Thomas Spring Rice), handing a cheque to a man standing in front of the table at centre, holding a hat in his left hand (Lord Melbourne), with his head turned to front, looking back at a group of men standing behind him at left (Lords Russell, Palmerston, Normanby, Duncannon). 1 August 1839
Lithograph
- Production date
- 1839
- Dimensions
-
Height: 284 millimetres
-
Width: 372 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- For preliminary drawing see 1882,1209.451
Text from 'An Illustrative Key to the Political Sketches of H.B.', London 1844:
The true origin of revolutions in Cabinets and States is not unfrequently to be found only in that portion of the history of Courts which never transpires beyond a very narrow circle, or, of which, if some little portion finds means to escape, it reaches the public ear so ill-provided with the clothing of authority, that none but the most credulous will give it admission. Perhaps the sudden and unlooked for restoration to power of the Melbourne Administration after its overthrow in 1839, might be really owing to causes that were never openly made known; and those who believed that the personal predilections of the sovereign had some influence in the matter were confirmed in their belief by one remarkable expression made use of by Lord Melbourne in giving his explanation of the affair to the House of Lords. "I must have been," said his Lordship, "void of FEELING if I had not conformed to the wishes of Her Majesty that I should reconstruct the Cabinet." This expression did not pass unnoticed by a people eager to know what could have occasioned such extraordinary events; and the general impression was that it referred to the Sovereign's personal preference of the Whig party, to those by whom they must have been, and eventually were, succeeded.
It was the province of the Caricaturist to put a different and more humorous construction upon the particular expression of the Prime Minister, and accordingly he has, in the present sketch, made it refer to the pocket, certainly one of the most susceptible parts on which an injury can alight.
Kill a man's family, and he may brook it,
But keep your hand out of his breeches pocket.
Lord Monteagle, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, is represented as helping his colleagues, - (doubtless he has already taken good care of himself,) to their quarter's salaries. Lord Melbourne, as Premier, is of course, the first to "touch:" - Lord John Russell, next in importance, is not far behind; and Lords Palmerston, Normanby, and Duncannon "follow hard upon."
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.11922