- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6654
- Title
- Object: The diplomatic squad, or harmony interrupted.
- Description
-
The representatives of four Powers are grouped along the nearer side of a long table covered with a heavy fringed cloth. On the left a Hollander sits on a high three-legged stool, smoking, and looking up at a Spanish don who sits on the table holding a guitar. On his stool is a map of the 'Cape of Go[od] Hope]'. From his bulky breeches pocket project (left) a pipe and tobacco-box, (right) a rolled 'Map of Ceylon'. The three bars which connect the legs of the stool are inscribed respectively: 'Spain', 'France', 'Holland'. Behind him are two small casks. He says: "You may as well let John Bull enjoy his Dream and go on with your Duett and I'll fill another pipe - ca Ira". He wears a bonnet-rouge. Spain answers: "A ha I see this is a Jostling Match between them by St Jago I'll at Malbroke again." France stands in back view, holding a violin and flourishing his bow: he looks to the left, singing,
"Monsr de Malbroke est mort -
Eh Vel, Vat now Objections encore -
est meme est enterrée"
Propped up on the table is his music-book with the words 'Malbrook s'en . . .' . [For the vogue of the song, both before the Revolution and under Napoleon, see de Vinck, i. 384-8.] Lord Malmesbury sits (right) in profile to the right in an arm-chair, asleep. He dreams: 'Lord Mac | [Malmesbury was accompanied by Lord Granville Leveson Gower (who returned to England, arriving 15 Aug.), Lord Morpeth, and Lord Pembroke. One of them is presumably 'Lord Mac'.] has got back | And all his trouble's ended | But I fear | I shall stay here, | Till all the Wine's expended'. He wears a ribbon and star. Two empty wine-bottles lie on the ground beside him. On the table is a decanter of 'Malms[ey]', while France has one of 'Cham-pa[gne]'. On the wall hangs a plan of a fort inscribed 'Lisle'. The words of Spain relate to two men who jostle each other in a doorway (left): an Englishman holds many bundles of papers under his left arm which have become entangled with a still larger bundle under the right arm of a Frenchman. Both bundles are docketed 'Objections ...'. The sturdy Englishman in riding-dress wears at his button-hole the greyhound of a King's Messenger. The lanky Frenchman, who wears a bonnet-rouge over hair in curling-papers, says: "O by Gar Jack Anglois you vil squeze my gob out vid your great bundle of Objections." The other answers: "Why you French foutre I think your own bundle is most likely to do it You have a rare lot of them, make way d'ye hear." 21 August 1797
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1797
- Dimensions
-
Height: 293 millimetres
-
Width: 459 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 negotiations at Lille between Malmesbury and three French plenipotentiaries for peace between France with her allies the Batavian Republic and Spain, and England with her sole remaining ally Portugal. The overtures to France, involving great concessions, were forced upon a divided Cabinet by Pitt (16 June). On 4 July Malmesbury reached Lille, on 17 Sept. he was requested to leave within twenty-four hours, failing immediate agreement to a complete restitution of all conquests from France and her allies. The French had quibbled over details, Malmesbury played for time. The Bonapartist and Jacobin 'coup d'état of 18 Fructidor' (4 Sept.) destroyed all hopes of peace and confirmed a policy of conquest. Malmesbury, 'Correspondence', iii; Rose, 'Pitt and the Great War', 1911, pp. 321-7; Sorel, 'L'Europe et la Rév. française', 1910, pp. 208-26; Guyot, 'Le Directoire et la Paix de l'Europe', 1912, pp. 372-475; E. D. Adams, 'Influence of Grenville on Pitt's Foreign Policy', 1904, pp. 55-67. The outcome was to strengthen the Government by showing the French demands to be unreasonable and offensive, and proof of a determination to continue the war. The documents were put before Parliament on 3 Nov. and received with approval. 'Parl. Hist.' xxxiii. 903-62; see also pp. 855-903. 'The conduct of the French at Lisle had raised a general feeling of indignation throughout the country.' Holland, 'Memoirs of the Whig Party', i. 96. See BMSats 9030, 9047, 9048. Cf. BMSats 9349, 9556. For the earlier negotiations at Paris see BMSat 8829, &c.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6654