print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.6996
- Title
- Object: The balance of justice.
- Description
-
From the opposite ends of a horizontal balance hang (left) a triangle from which are suspended the corpses of thirteen sailors, and (right) the body of a military officer in uniform (Governor Wall); all have bandaged eyes. The balance hangs in front of a stone building, in the centre of which is an open door showing men seated at a council table, a messenger stands in the doorway giving a dispatch box marked 'GR' to another messenger, saying, "Deliver this Immediatly He must Die." The pilastered doorway is inscribed: 'Justitiae Soror Fides'; above it are kneeling statues of Truth and Justice; between them they support an inscribed tablet: 'It is determined that British Justice shall never be Stained by Partiality, while the poor & ignorant suffer for their Folly the Rich shall also suffer for their Brutality and Infamy.' On the wall are two placards: (left) 'An Account of the Mutiny', and (right) 'A Full True and Particular Account of the Trial of . . . For the Murder of. . .' This is headed by a print of a man being tied to a cannon and flogged, while an officer looks on and soldiers stand at attention. 3 March 1802
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1802
- Dimensions
-
Height: 261 millimetres
-
Width: 391 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
A mutiny broke out in the Bantry Bay squadron in Dec. 1801, on a report that ships were to be ordered to the West Indies, despite the peace. Thirteen men were courtmartialled, and six were hanged in three ships at Spithead on 15 Jan. On 20 Jan. Joseph Wall, Governor of Goree, was tried for the murder of a sergeant in 1782, by having him brutally flogged without trial on a charge (unsustained) of mutiny. After being twice respited he was executed on 28 Jan., the Privy Council having held several deliberations on his case. His fate was probably decided by the fear that public opinion would resent his escape just after the execution of the sailors. 'Ann. Reg.', 1801, 65*-6*; 1802, 7*-9*, 174*-86*; 'Lond. Chron.', 18 Jan. 1802; 'D.N.B.' Cf. BMSat 9911.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.6996
