print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.5469
- Title
- Object: Parliamentary Meeting 1786
- Description
-
Pitt and the Opposition fight for the loaves and fishes of office; these are represented by three loaves and two fishes on a pole behind and between the two sets of combatants. Pitt (left) and Fox (right) face each other with basket-hilted single-sticks. Behind Pitt is Pepper Arden, saying, "Zounds! at him again, Billy, bang him over his sconce with your Crab- d-mn it, the Sinking-fund will support you" Behind Arden is a very small man, also armed with a single-stick. His breeches-pocket is inscribed 'Agency'; from it protrudes a paper, 'Defence of Governor Hast[ings]', showing that he is Major John Scott, M.P. for West Looe, the agent of Hastings. Fox is tall and burly, he and his two supporters, North and Burke, look much more than a match for Pitt, Arden, and Scott. Burke, holding a single-stick, says: "Dont spare, Charley, peg him about the noddle with your Shillany - and I'll have a touch with the little Major - I have a tough bit of Bamboo, and dam'me I'll Macartney him". 23 January 1786
Etching with hand-colouring
- Production date
- 1786
- Dimensions
-
Height: 248 millimetres
-
Width: 350 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 print anticipates the meeting of Parliament on 24 Jan. 1786, and shows that the Opposition were expected to attack the Ministry on the question of Warren Hastings, on which public opinion had been violently at issue since his return to England in June 1785. A motion of censure had been carried in May 1782; Burke had given notice of a hostile motion in the House of Commons, but members of the Opposition urged at a private meeting at the Duke of Portland's shortly before 24 Jan. that this should be dropped. But the zeal of Burke and Fox was unabated: Fox raised the question of the East India Company, Hastings, and Macartney on the first day of the Session, giving 'the highest encomiums to Lord Macartney'. 'Parl. Hist.' xxv. 1010, &c. Wraxall, 'Memoirs', iv. 141 ff. Rose, 'Pitt and National Revival; Camb. Hist. of India', v. 307. Macartney arrived in England in Jan. 1786, having been offered the post of Governor-General in succession to Hastings. 'D.N.B.' See BMSat 6925, &c. For the Sinking Fund, see BMSat 7551. The loaves and fishes of office are a recurrent theme with Dent.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.5469