print; satirical print

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Object Type: print; satirical print
Museum number: 1868,0808.6554
Title: Object: Promis'd Horrors of the French Invasion, or Forcible reasons for negotiating a regicide peace
Description: French troops march with fixed bayonets up St. James's Street, the houses receding in perspective to the gate of the Palace, which is blazing. In the foreground on the left and right are 'White's' and 'Brookes's'. The former is being raided by French troops; the Opposition is in triumphant possession of the latter. In the centre foreground a 'tree of Liberty' (see BMSat 9214, &c.) has been planted: a pole garlanded with flowers and surmounted by a large cap of 'Libertas'. To this pole Pitt, stripped to the waist, is tied, while Fox (left) flogs him ferociously, a birch-rod in each hand. Between Fox's feet lies a headsman's axe, bloodstained; on it stands a perky little chicken with the head of M. A. Taylor (see BMSat 6777). On the right is an ox, his collar, from which a broken cord dangles, inscribed 'Great Bedfordshire Ox' (the duke of Bedford); it is tossing Burke, goaded on by Thelwall, who holds its tail, and flourishes a document inscribed 'Thelwals Lectures' (see BMSat 8685). Burke flies in the air, losing his spectacles, and dropping two pamphlets: 'Letter to the Duke of Bedford', see BMSat 8788, &c, and 'Reflections upon a Regicide Peace', see BMSat 8825. Behind the ox, Lord Stanhope holds up a pole to which is tied, by a ribbon inscribed 'Vive l'Egalite', the beam of a pair of scales; this is balanced by the body of Grenville, suspended by his breeches, and by his head, suspended by the hair; both drip blood. Stanhope, in profile to the left, looks up with a pleased smile; Lauderdale stands facing him, raising his arm to applaud. Behind is an advancing band of British Jacobins waving bonnets-rouges. Sheridan, with furtively triumphant smile, enters the door of Brooks's; a large porter's knot on his head and shoulders supports a sack: 'Remains of the Treasury £'; under his arm is another: 'Requisition from the Bank of England'. Beside the door (right) stands a pestle and mortar inscribed 'J. Hall Apothecary to the New Constitution Long Acre'; the mortar is filled with coronets. On the balcony above the door, Lansdowne, with his enigmatic smile, is working a guillotine; his left hand is on the windlass, in his right he holds up (towards Erskine) Loughborough's elongated wig; the purse of the Great Seal is attached to a post of the guillotine. On the left corner of the balcony rests a dish containing the heads of (left to right) Lord Sydney, Windham, and Pepper Arden, 'Killed off for the Public Good'. Behind stands Erskine, leaning forward and holding up in triumph a firebrand composed of 'Magna Charta', and a 'New Code of Laws'. On the right corner of the balcony four men stand watching the guillotine with quiet satisfaction: Grafton, in profile to the left; Norfolk, clasping his hands, and Derby. Only the hat and eyes of the fourth are visible. In the club windows behind, staring faces are indicated. The lamp beside the door is crowned with a bonnet-rouge. On the door-post a broadside, 'Marsoiles[e] [sic] Hymn', is placed above 'Rule Brit[annia]' (torn). In the street outside and in the foreground (right) is a basket containing the head of Dundas and a set of bagpipes; it is labelled 'To the care of Citizen Horne Tooke'. Beside it lies a bundle of documents labelled 'Waste Paper 2d pr £6'; they are 'Acts of Parliament, Bill of Rights, Statutes.' The left (east) side of the street is filled with goose-stepping republican soldiers, headed by a grotesque and ferocious officer, a drawn sword in his hand, who strides past the decollated head of Richmond, beside which lies a paper: 'Treatise upon Fortifying the Coast' (see BMSat 6921, &c). A grotesque and dwarfish drummer marches in front (left); on his drum is the cap of Liberty and the motto 'Vive la Liberté'. He is immediately outside the door of White's, up the steps of which French officers with fixed bayonets are pressing; one tramples on a prostrate and bleeding body, another transfixes the throat of a member; behind are the hands of members held up to beg for mercy. Other soldiers have reached the balcony and are using daggers; they push over the bleeding body of the Duke of York, indicated by his ribbon and the dice-box and dice which fall from him. The Prince of Wales falls head first, the Duke of Clarence is about to be stabbed. From a projecting lamp-bracket beside the door hang the bodies of Canning and Hawkesbury, tied back to back. Their identity is shown by a placard: 'New March to Paris by Betty Canning (an allusion to Elizabeth Canning, convicted of perjury, cf. BMSat 7982) & Jenny Jenkison'. The (broken) lamp is surmounted by a broken crown. On the club steps and in the street lie a broken 'EO' (roulette) board and playing-cards. The street is filled with close ranks of French soldiers, except for the small body of British Jacobins on the right. 20 October 1796 Etching with hand-colouring
Producer name: Print made by: James Gillray; Published by: Hannah Humphrey
School/style: British
Production date: 1796
Production place: Published in: London (England)
Materials: paper
Technique: etching; hand-coloured
Dimensions: Height: 322 millimetres; Width: 432 millimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments: (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VII, 1942) A satire on the Opposition and the prospects of invasion, on Pitt's peace overtures, see BMSat 8829, &c, and Burke's 'Thoughts on a Regicide Peace' (two pamphlets, published 19 and 20 Oct.), see BMSat 8825. The King's speech, 6 Oct., referred to the threat of invasion: 'the enemy has openly manifested a threat of attempting a descent on these kingdoms . . .'. 'Parl. Hist.' xxxii. 1173. This paragraph was debated on 18 Oct. (see BMSat 8836, &c), when Pitt's measures of defence were proposed and the Opposition declared their disbelief in a project of invasion. The projects of Hoche were as yet unknown to the English public. Jenkinson was much ridiculed over a long period (especially when as Foreign Secretary he negotiated the Peace of Amiens, see vol. viii) for saying (10 Apr. 1794) 'that the marching to Paris was practicable; and he, for one, would recommend such an expedition'. 'Parl. Hist.' xxxi. 249. (See BMSats 8631, 9046, 9364.) Canning made a vigorous defence of the Ministry in the same debate. See D. Marshall, 'Rise of Canning', 1938, pp. 63-5. Hall, apothecary, and Secretary of the Whig Club, was a prominent supporter of Fox at Westminster elections, see vol. vi. Horne Tooke had violently attacked Dundas at the recent Westminster election. Jordan's 'Complete Collection of. . . Speeches', 1796, p. 25. Grego, 'Gillray', pp. 204-5 (reproduction). Wright and Evans, No. 155. Reprinted, 'G.W.G.', 1830. Reproduced, Bagot, 'Canning and his Friends', 1909, i. 118. Broadley, i. 94-6.
Bibliographic references: BM Satires / Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (8826)
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 and French Revolution 1990 Jun-Sep, Vizille, Mus Rev/Francaise, Britain and French Revolution 2000 May-Jul, Brighton, Museum and Art Gallery, 'Carnivalesque' 2000 Jul-Sep, Nottingham, Castle Museum, 'Carnivalesque' 2000 Oct-Dec, Edinburgh, City Art Centre, 'Carnivalesque' 2001 Jun-Sep, London, Tate Britain, 'Gillray and the Art of Caricature'
Subjects: satire
Associated names: Representation of: William Pitt the Younger; Representation of: Charles James Fox; Associated with: Richard Pepper Arden, 1st Baron of Alvanley; Associated with: Francis Russell, 5th Duke of Bedford; Associated with: Edmund Burke; Associated with: Elizabeth Canning; Associated with: George Canning; Associated with: Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby; Associated with: Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville; Associated with: Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine; Associated with: Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany and Bishop of Osnabrück; Associated with: George IV, King of the United Kingdom; Associated with: Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton; Associated with: William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville; Associated with: Nathaniel Brassey Halhed; Associated with: Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool; Associated with: William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Lansdowne; Associated with: James Maitland, 8th Earl of Lauderdale; Associated with: Alexander Wedderburn, Ist Earl of Rosslyn; Associated with: Charles Howard, 11th Duke of Norfolk; Associated with: Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond and Lennox; Associated with: Richard Brinsley Sheridan; Associated with: Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope; Associated with: Thomas Townshend, 1st Viscount Sydney; Associated with: Mrs Michael Angelo Taylor; Associated with: John Thelwall; Associated with: John Horne Tooke; Associated with: William IV, King of the United Kingdom; Associated with: William Windham
Acquisition name: Purchased from: Edward Hawkins (estate of)
Acquisition date: 1868
Department: Prints and Drawings
Registration number: 1868,0808.6554

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