print;
broadside;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.3653
- Title
- Object: The Acquital.
- Description
-
Satire on the ineffectual opposition at the time of the parliamentary motion to remove Robert Walpole from office suggesting that they are motivated by self-interest. Walpole stands in a landscape assailed by arrows labelled "Ambition", "Want of Place", "Disappointment", "Self Interest", "Sham Patriotism", "affected Zeal", "Resentment", "Malice", "Prejudice", "Revenge", "Disaffection", "Want of Pension", and "Pique"; none of the arrows hit their mark. On the left opposition politicians with their bows stand or run away. They are identified in the verses beneath: Carteret, Argyll, the Bishop of Lichfield fallen to the ground saying "The D[evi]l owed me a Spite", Sandys crying "all mismanaged", Doddington, Lyttelton, Pulteney saying, "Z[ound]s I've mist him"; in the foreground, the tory William Shippen kneels laying down his bow and saying "I'll e'en not meddle"; a group of tories rushing away to left cry, "Let us make hast out"; the devil flies above them in the form of a winged pig, crying "yah! yah! yah!". In the background three men labour in vain to push a millstone up a hill twoards where another waits to receive it. On the right a group of Walpole's supporters mock the opposition, noting particularly the collapse of the Bishop Smalbroke, "Split Devil is down". Fifteen explanatory stanzas below, each ending with the chorus, "Doodle, &c."
- Production date
- 1741
- Dimensions
-
Height: 208 millimetres (etching)
-
Height: 298 millimetres (printed area)
-
Width: 304 millimetres (etching)
-
Width: 304 millimetres (printed area)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The motion for an address requesting the king to remove Walpole from his counsels was proposed in the House of Commons by Samuel Sandys on 13 February 1741 and in the Lords by John Carteret, Earl Granville, with the suppoort of the Duke of Argyll and Bishop Smalbroke; it was lost when a number of tories withdrew.
The print was advertised in the London Daily Post, 30 March 1741 as "A Curious Hieroglyphical Print; being a Sequel to The Motion".
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.3653
