print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.4307
- Title
- Object: The Roasted Excise Man or The Jack Boot's Exit
- Description
-
Satire celebrating the resignation of Lord Bute on 9th April 1763. Bute is shown in effigy suspended from a gallows over a bonfire on which a large boot burns; the effigy dressed in tartan with a Scotch bonnet and the ribbon of the Garter has ass's ears and a label around its neck that reads, "For giving a Stab to Liberty"; hanging from either hand are money bags, labelled "Corruption 500,000" and "Bribery 3,000,000". A sailor hauls on the rope from which hangs the effigy. A man approaches the bonfire from the right carrying an "Excise'd Cyder Barrel" on his shoulders and tipping from it on to the fire, "some Florida Turf", the "Briton" (Tobias Smollett's pro-Bute newspaper) and the "Cocoa Tree Letter" (a letter from the well-known club of Bute's supporters published in December 1762); at the edge of the scene a Scotsman despairs at the situation. On the left, Britannia is comforted by the Duke of Cumberland; the cap of liberty and the "North Briton" rest by her side. Behind her a large group of countryment approach the gallows with two flags lettered, "Magna Charta" and "Liberty Property and no Excise".
Etching
- Production date
- 1763
- Dimensions
-
Height: 226 millimetres (image)
-
Height: 246 millimetres (sheet)
-
Width: 283 millimetres (image)
-
Width: 290 millimetres (sheet)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The print was advertised by J. Williams, "next the Mitre Tavern in Fleet Street" in the Public Advertiser 22 April 1763, price 6d.
Access to "Florida Turf" (peat fuel) was granted to Britain in the Treaty of Paris; the concession was mocked by Wilkes in the North Britjon, no. 35.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.4307