- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6328
- Title
- Object: A freeborn Englishman, the admiration of the world, the envy of surrounding nations
- Description
-
A man in ragged clothes stands, heavily shackled, directed to the right. His mouth is closed by a padlock, his hands are tied behind him. Below the title: 'the Admiration of the World'; 'the Envy of Surrounding Nations'; '&c &c'. c.1795
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1793-1798
- Dimensions
-
Height: 159 millimetres
-
Width: 110 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
Probably a satire on the Sedition and Treason Acts, known as the Convention Acts, see BMSat 8687, &c. For the padlocked mouth see BMSat 8693, &c. It is probably aimed at Pitt's whole policy of repression, embodied also in the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, May 1794. See Rose, 'Pitt and the Great War', chap, vii; P. A. Brown, 'England and the French Revolution', pp. 150 ff. Cf. BMSat 8711.
A copy with alterations by W. Spence was published by T. Spence in 1796.
(Supplementary information)
A subversive print, with no publication line. See David Bindman, 'The shadow of the Guillotine', BM 1989, cat.197.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
1989 May-Sep, BM, Shadow of the Guillotine: Britain and French Revolution
1990 Jan-Mar, Manchester, Whitworth AG, Britain/French Revolution
1990 June-Sep, Vizille, Mus Rev/Francaise, Britain/French Revolution
2004-2005 July-Jan, London, Tate Britain, Art and National Identity
2009 June-Sep, BM, Room 90, Medals of Dishonour
2012-2013 Sept-Jan St Petersburg, Hermitage Museum, Medals of Dishonour
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6328
