print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.7578
- Title
- Object: 8th commandment- thou shalt not- Steele
- Description
-
The interior of a room or vault with solid stone walls. In the wall (r.) is an opening to an arched recess or tunnel, with heavy doors, which open on to a massive slab inscribed 'Treasury-Bench', supported by four columns, round each of which is twined a scroll inscribed (twice) 'Tax'. A heap of coin and money-bags pours from the dark interior of the recess on to the 'Treasury-Bench'. A well-dressed man, Steele, his hair rising in terror, clasps two money-bags, inscribed '£12.000' and '£7.800', Placing one on the 'Bench'; he looks round in furtive terror, saying, "He is a good Paymaster who refunds with Interest, when he is detected." Under his arm is a document: 'Arm[y] . . . Pay Office'. Behind him is an open sash-window hrough which Melville looks in, saying, "Hoot Mun neer mind that paper - ye re surrounded by friends." He points with his thumb at the wall (1.) where a large paper is posted up headed '10th Report' [see BMSat 10377, &c.]. Above this is a print of a man hanging from a gibbet. On the wall behind Steele, and below the window, another paper is placarded: 'Report of the Committee of Enquiry . . . [illegible] Steele . . . Public Money.' Beside it is a print of the Devil inscribed 'Usher of the Black Rod'. On the ground by Steele is a roll of 'Army Accounts . . . S[teele]'. By the 'Treasury-Bench' are stacked papers inscribed 'Income Ta[x], Ten Pr Cent [twice]', see BMSat 10557. In the lock of the solid (open) door by which Steele has entered is a large key. June 1807
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1807
- Dimensions
-
Height: 240 millimetres
-
Width: 339 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
In the First Report of the Finance Committee (presented to the House of Commons on 22 July, printed 'Parl. Debates', ix, pp. lxvii ff.) was the examination of Steele, admitting that while Paymaster-General he had (in 1800) taken two sums of '£7,000' and '£12,000' from the cash in his hands giving his own receipt, for his own purposes and without authority from the Treasury or War Office. He had been ordered by the Treasury to repay the amount, with interest, by instalments. His defence was that his action was incorrect but not dishonest. 'Pol. Reg.', 22 Aug. 1807. The Committee's report was anticipated in the newspapers (quoted ibid., 2 May), and it was alleged by the outgoing Ministers that the sudden dissolution (see BMSat 10727) was in order to stifle the pending presentation of the Report. Ibid., 9 May 1807-12 Mar. 1808; see BMSat 11241. 'Tommy Steele', a friend of Pitt, was Treasury Secretary Dec. 1783-91, Paymaster-General 1791-1804, Privy Councillor 1791 (see vol. vi).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.7578
