print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6382
- Title
- Object: Diogenes alias a. b in ton looking for an honest lawyer!!!
- Description
-
A well-dressed man (not caricatured) stands holding out a lantern in his left hand. He turns his head in profile to the right, his right hand extended. He wears a round hat, swathed neckcloth, double-breasted waistcoat, long closely fitting breeches with half-boots. [1794].
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1794-1806
- Dimensions
-
Height: 349 millimetres
-
Width: 190 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942)
Lord Abingdon made a speech on 17 June 1794 on 'Pettifogging Attornies', a tirade against Mr. Thomas Sermon, who had declined to continue to act as his solicitor ('black as this 'qui tam' gent, is ... he is not half so black as those rotten limbs of the law . . . who have aided and assisted him . . . but let them and him know, that unprofessional as I am, they will find me more than a match for them'). This he sent to the newspapers, some of which printed it, in one case at a charge of '£4. 4s. od.' He was tried on a criminal information in the King's Bench, Erskine appearing for Sermon. He was convicted (6 Dec. 1794) and on 12 Jan. was sentenced to three months' imprisonment in the King's Bench and a fine of £100. 'Parl. Hist.' xxxi. 932-5; 'Lond. Chron.' 5 July 1794, &c.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6382
