- Museum number
- 1868,0808.12317
- Title
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Object: A monumental design to be used on some future occasion.
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Object: The second reading | Short memory
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Object: Candour
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Object: Dr. Fullpots running over
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Object: More neighbourly than friendly.
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Object: Horrible attempt.!
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Object: A low high constable.
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Object: Madame Berry, the Parisian bill sticker.
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Object: The modern Achilles, amidst the learning and wisdom of the country!
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Object: The printer's devil's walk.
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Series: McLean's Monthly Sheet of Caricatures or the Looking Glass. No. 29.
- Description
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Lithographic caricature magazine of four pages on two leaves, in the form of a (monthly) newspaper; illustrations as follows. 1 May 1832
Page 1.
A MONUMENTAL DESIGN TO BE USED ON SOME FUTURE OCCASION. (17002)
A mural monument on a semicircular stone bracket supported on three winged heads. The figures are in the round. In the centre is a vase inscribed `OLIGARCHY and NO REFORM`, with handles of coiled and spitting serpents. Wellington (left) and Eldon (right), both seated, bend towards it, one puts in a sword, the hilt inscribed `SPAIN`, the blade `WATERLOO`, the other a Chancellor`s wig inscribed `JUDGMENTS IN EQUITY`. The Duke sits on a cannon, Eldon on a corresponding cylindrical document inscribed `PRECEDENTS`. The former wears Roman draperies of military type and a conical cap inscribed `THE PROTEST` from which he takes a garland of laurel. Eldon wears voluminous toga-like draperies. On the monument, above their heads, is a star inscribed `WE SCAN THE FAULTS OF GREAT MEN BY THE LIGHT OF THEIR PAST GLORY`. On the base of the monument: `CLEOPATRA DISSOLVED PEARLS, THESE DISSOLVED THEIR FAME`. The three winged heads are (left to right) Londonderry, Wetherell, and Croker. Below the first is inscribed `TRUTH`, below the last `HISTORY`. The monument, with marble veinings, is light against the darker wall.
Page 2.
THE SECOND READING [i.e. in the Lords; heading to the whole page]
SHORT MEMORY (17003)
Wellington speaks, standing with his back to the Woolsack, where Brougham sits holding his hat to his mouth. He says: `There was no call for reform in eighteen twenty nine nor in eighteen thirty * * * The King cares nothing about it!!!` Listening intently from the front Opposition bench are (left to right) Eldon (applauding), Newcastle, and Londonderry.
CANDOUR (17004)
Londonderry makes a rhetorical gesture, saying, `For my part, nothing of delicacy ever deters me from speaking any thing`. The peers seated just behind him register shocked amusement. Eldon covers one eye with a handkerchief, smiling up at the speaker. Cumberland, behind Eldon, covers his face with his hand, Ellenborough listens, Wellington draws his cape-collar across his mouth.
DR. FULLPOTS RUNNING OVER (17005)
A section of the benches in the Lords, seen from behind. A bishop (Phillpotts) in back view is speaking, right arm raised: `I say the extracts-the extracts that appeared in the Times* prove a breach of confidence, and that the latter must be sent by some members of the ministry`. The Bishop of London sits on his left hand; behind him a third bishop is intently reading a newspaper, the `Morning . . . [? `Post`]`. From the front bench Durham turns to glare at Philipotts (an old enemy); next him is Grey. A footnote below the title: `* There never appeared any extracts of the letter in the Times`.
MORE NEIGHBOURLY THAN FRIENDLY. (17006)
Lord Wharncliffe sits next to Wellington (left) on the front bench in the Lords, turning apologetically to say `I`ve lost my place, your grace`. The Duke, drawing his cloak from his unwelcome neighbour, answers `Oh! don`t mention it`. On a cross-bench behind (right) is the bulky Buckingham, asleep, beside a hat inscribed `Wha[rnclijfe]`. Other peers are indicated; only Cumberland, just behind Wellington, is characterized. Below: `At the conclusion of Lord Wh-rnc-s speech, he was compell`d to sit down next to his grace of W-gt-n, the great duke of B-ng-m having occupied the place where he was previously sitting`. (Wharncliffe`s speech (10 Apr.) was directly opposed to that of Wellington, who was uncompromising, cf. No. 17003. The Times (18 Apr.) adds a footnote to a letter by `Radical` on the debate: `An amusing circumstance rose during Lord Wharncliffe`s speech. . . .` The substance is as above.)
Page 3.
HORRIBLE ATTEMPT.! (17007)
The Duke of Buckingham, grasping a child representing the Reform Bill, `burkes` it by placing a hand over its face, holding up the infant by its frock. He exclaims: `Die, you egg of Treason;-I have a prettier babe of my own`. From his coat-pocket projects a small squinting infant wearing a coronet and inscribed `New Bill`. Below the title: "So much for Buckingham! (For Buckingham`s projected Reform Bill see No. 16996, &c. The quotation from Richard III beginning `Off with his head, . . .` was made in a letter to The Times (13 April) from `Philo-Radical`. )
A LOW HIGH CONSTABLE. (17008)
A man wearing breeches and high boots, his hat awry, supports himself tipsily against a post, pointing with his constable`s staff. He says: `Pass on, you wretch you`r in-toxicated`. (He is William Lee, the High Constable of Westminster (see No. 16758), who was charged with an assault, while intoxicated, on a gentleman at the door of the House of Commons. The charge was dismissed. This evoked an attack on him and on the police (`blue devil corps`) in `Le Figaro`, 21 April, but is not mentioned in The Times.)
MADAME BERRY, THE PARISIAN BILL STICKER. (17009)
The duchesse de Berri (three-quarter length) as a bill-sticker, looking slyly over her shoulder, affixes a bill to a high wall in the `Rue St Honore` [sic]: `Napoleon vous à [sic] mitraillé! Charles vous à aimé! Phillïppe vous empoisonne! Henri vous aime Choisissez`. At her waist is a money-bag: `. . . 000 fr`.
THE MODERN ACHILLES, AMIDST THE LEARNING AND WISDOM OF THE COUNTRY! (17010)
Wellington, surrounded by a bevy of ladies in flamboyant hats, adjusts his spectacles to look out of a window. He wears skull-cap, loose coat, and slippers, and has a senile appearance, standing with flexed knees. One lady takes his hand protectingly; another says: `How fascinating his grace appears in his cap and morning gown! what interesting langour in his looks`. Below the design: `At Waimer, last year, where the chosen party were assembled, an easterly wind prevailed, and shut out the view of the opposite coast of France. On it`s being remarked, a lady, deserving the Kentish uniform from her light blue qualification, exclaimed, "Oh dear, if any eyes can see France, those of the dear Duke can, let us seek him to ascertain the fact.-Times, April 11`. [Not traced in The Times.`] (For Wellington and women of fashion cf. No. 17244, &c.)
Page 4.
THE PRINTER`S DEVIL`S WALK. (17011)
A parody of `The Devil`s Walk` arranged in two columns, each design having the relevant lines engraved in a border. In all the `Devil` is a man with horns, tail, and rough hair. [1] Wearing an apron and holding up an ink-ball he stands behind a printing-press, stretching and yawning cavernously. Below: `From his dreams o`er the reams at the middle of day, / Hiding his tail and each horn, / To see what evil may lie in his way, / The Printer`s Devil is gone`.
[2] A bishop`s carriage with a fat coachman, two footmen, four horses, and a postilion drives (left to right); the bishop is seen through the window. On the roof stands a tall sheaf of corn, from which tithe-pigs project to left and right, forming a cross; at its base money-bags are heaped. The `Devil` is a shadowy figure in the background raising his hat. Below: `He saw some princely prelates, who / Were grasping at this world`s dross, / And the Devil smiled when he did view / What they call`d bearing their cross`.
[3] Now more smartly dressed, the `Devil` leans across a dinner-table to touch glasses with Wellington who also stands. The other guests are (left to right) Cumberland, a bishop, probably Philipotts (on the Duke`s right), Newcastle, and Eldon. Dessert and decanters are on the table. Below: `He drank No Reform!!! with Lords this and the other, / Hob and nob`d that the soldier`s would fight. / And he lov`d the men that would slay their brother / For a prescriptive wrong they call`d right`.
[4] The `Devil`, seated at a round table, throws dice with a dandified man; both have piles of coin. Behind, gamblers play at a large table under a hanging gas-chandelier. Below: `With high-way robbers, at Crockey`s he play`d, / And a smile lurked in his eye / "You call this Hell" thought he, "my blade, / "You`ll know better bye and bye."
For Crockford`s see No. 15934, &c.
[5] He sits next a jovial magistrate who carves a brace of birds on a well-covered table. On a wall behind the grinning `Devil` hang `The Game Acts`, framed. In the background is a prison cell in which a wretched yokel in a smock sits heavily ironed. Below: `He dined with a sporting mittimus man, / And the devil was pleased, for he knew, / For each bird that was eaten, the game-laws ban, / In prison a poacher threw`.
The ban on the sale of game had been removed, see No. 16817.
[6] Dressed as the printer`s devil of [1], he fiercely works a printing-press, `The Public Press`, squeezing in it characters from the earlier scenes: Wellington, the bishop, the top-booted legs of the `mittimus man`, and the gamester. Below: `From Satan Job held his life safe, we learn, / But might suffer in any thing less. / So now as he`s forbid, for a time, to burn, / He puts all these sad rogues in his press`.
(One of several parodies of the poem by Coleridge and Southey, see No. 16519. The original was illustrated with wood-engravings after R. Cruikshank (1830), who also illustrated The Real Devil`s Walk and The Devil`s Visit, both 1830. The best-known illustrations of the original are the ten etchings by T. Landseer (1831). For the printing-press cf. No. 15776, &c.
- Production date
- 1832
- Dimensions
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Height: 417 millimetres (approx. page size)
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Width: 292 millimetres (approx. page size)
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Notes to No. 17002:
On 13 April Wellington entered a Protest in the Journals of the House of Lords against the Reform Bill, subsequently signed by seventy-three others, including Eldon; the document was published broadcast by both parties for the next few weeks. Parl. Deb., 3rd s. xii. 459-63; J. R. M. Butler, The Passing of the Great Reform Bill, 1914, p. 360. Shortly afterwards Parliament was adjourned for Easter to 7 May, and the excitement in the country was tense. For the Protest see also Nos. 17013, 17040, 17088, 17108, 17117, 17118, 17161, 17163, 17164, 17346.
Notes to No. 17003:
Wellington attributed the popular demand for Reform to the French Revolution of 1830: before that, and in 1829 there had been no such demand. It had been increased by the use of the King's name, but it was not 'to be supposed that the King took any interest in the subject . . .'. Parl. Deb., 3rd s. xii. 159 ff. (10 Apr.). For the King cf. Nos. 16633, 16673, &c.
Notes to No. 17004:
Londonderry, denouncing Grey for a reported use of the King's name in connexion with the creation of peers, said: 'For himself, he was not debarred nor deterred from stating every thing he heard, by delicacy, or any other feeling.' Parl. Deb., 3rd s. xii. 78 f. (9 Apr.). He was the acknowledged bully and buffoon of the House of Lords, cf. Nos. 16138, 16405, 16645, 16793, &c., 17040, 17199.
Notes to No. 17005:
The Bishop of Exeter had accused Ministers of being in direct relations with The Times. Challenged aggressively by Durham, he said that he thought the rumours pointing to Durham as The Times' source of information 'not unlikely to be in some degree true'; he asserted that passages from a confidential letter to the King (from Buckingham), known only to Ministers, had been printed. 'Radical' (Col. Jones, see No. 16554) then wrote to The Times (16 Apr.), declaring that he had sent extracts from the letter to the paper. This The Times (17 Apr.) denied, pointing out that 'Radical's' original letter (23 Jan.) had contained only the fact of the letter to the King and his communication of it to Ministers. Durham was in fact in communication with both Barnes and Jones (who boasted in The Times of his knowledge of confidential matters); cf. No. 17318. Parl. Deb., 3rd s. xii. 278, 352, 365-7 (11 and 13 Apr.); New, Lord Durham, 1929, pp. 130, 169 f., 172 f., 179; Hist, of The Times, 1935, pp. 278-81. Phillpotts was a hated pluralist (and a very able political pamphleteer), see Nos. 16372, 16808, 16811, 17044, 17182, 17190, 17238, 17260.
Notes to No. 17009:
The duchess (who landed in France on 28 Apr.) was financing an agitation against Louis Philippe on her son's behalf; her followers exploited the cholera which was raging in Paris: she sent 12,000 fr. for the relief of the poor attacked by cholera, but the Préfet de la Seine refused the donation. Figaro, 28 Apr.
Bound in a volume ("The Looking Glass, Vol. III") containing nos. 25 to 36 for 1832. Vols. I to VII (1830 to 1836) are kept at 298.d.12 to 18.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated names
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Associated with: Marie Caroline Ferdinande Louise de Bourbon-Sicile, Duchesse de Berry
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Associated with: Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London
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Associated with: Henri d'Artois, Duc de Bordeaux, Comte de Chambord
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Associated with: Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
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Associated with: Richard Grenville, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
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Associated with: Charles X, King of France and Navarre
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Associated with: William Crockford
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Associated with: John Wilson Croker
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Associated with: John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham
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Associated with: John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon
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Associated with: Edward Law, 1st Earl of Ellenborough
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Associated with: Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and King of Hanover
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Associated with: Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
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Associated with: William Lee
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Associated with: Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (as Charles William Stewart)
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Associated with: Louis Philippe, King of the French
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Associated with: Napoléon I, Emperor of the French (Napoleon)
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Associated with: Henry Pelham-Clinton, 4th Duke of Newcastle
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Associated with: Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter
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Associated with: Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
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Associated with: Sir Charles Wetherell
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Associated with: James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 1st Baron Wharncliffe
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Associated with: William IV, King of the United Kingdom
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.12317