print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.5452
- Title
- Object: Political Parachute, a coalition experiment
- Description
-
Fox and North descend by a parachute from a balloon, only the lower part of which is visible; it is inscribed 'Carlo Khan's East India Bill Ascended Decr 1783'. The parachute, descending from a short rope hanging from the balloon, is in the form of an umbrella with an anchor, emblem of hope, attached to it by three ropes. Fox (left) and North (right) stand on the fluke of the anchor, supporting themselves by its stock and by the side-ropes which attach it to the covering of the parachute. The stock is inscribed, 'This Gleam of Hope with Messrs Flood, Gratten & Co's Compliments to the Coalition'. Immediately beneath them is a seat inscribed 'Treasury Bench', to which Fox points with a satisfied smile. North also looks down smiling. The parachute is inscribed 'Irish Propositions'. Across the lower part of the print is etched:
'Death blow to their Hopes. The loss of Public Confidence, not restored by misleading the public opinion, and overthrowing the Propositions by gross inconsistency.
The Opposition in the British Parliament contended that the Propositions would ruin the Manufacturers of this Country.
The Same Party insisted, in Ireland, that the Propositions would ruin the Manufacturers of that Country.' 8 September 1785
Etching
- Production date
- 1785
- Dimensions
-
Height: 348 millimetres
-
Width: 247 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)
The Coalition hoped to recover the disaster caused by the India Bill, see BMSat 6271, &c, by their defeat of Pitt's Irish Propositions, see BMSat 6785, &c. The Opposition, by misrepresenting the Irish Propositions as ruinous to England, obtained alterations in protection of British trade; they then maintained that 'a regulation of commerce, purporting to be equal, may be advantageous to a rich country, and ruinous to a poor one', 'Parl. Hist.' xxv. 951. But the theme that the Propositions were destructive of Ireland's newly acquired liberty was that which was used with the most deadly effect, see BMSat 6809. For Fox and Ireland cf. BMSat 6659.
The first parachute experiment was that of Blanchard, in London, 2 June 1785, who dropped one attached to a dog.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.5452