- Museum number
- 1868,0808.7927
- Title
- Object: The wise men of Gotham puzzled or great doubts about the thing!!!
- Description
-
A discussion on how to deal with the problem of the execution of the Speaker's warrant against Burdett, here called 'the Thing'. Ministers are grouped at a table (left) on which stands a truncated egg-shaped object supported on three legs, two of which have fallen off. The upper part is formed of the head and folded arms of a sub-human and malevolent creature; it is inscribed 'The Thing—Die [Aprilis] Warrant'. The remaining leg is 'Commons', the others are 'King' and 'Lords'. Perceval supports it on its single leg, saying, "What's to be done with this Thing". Liverpool, much caricatured and very thin, sits on his right and on the extreme left, saying, "What the Deivel is to be done". Beside him on the ground is a paper: 'A New Song, calld O Dear what . . . Oh! Dear what will become of us what shall we do nobody can advise us nobo[dy] know". A general (Sir David Dundas, the Commander-in-Chief) looks towards Perceval, saying, "I can't tell no more then you". The head, smothered in his wig, of the little Speaker, Abbot, is only slightly above the table; he says: "nor I dash my Wig". Next him sits Wellesley, a handsome man in oriental dress, wearing a turban with a star; he says: "I should Know what to do in Bengal". Lord Eldon, in Chancellor's wig and gown, sits full face, turning his eyes towards Perceval and Liverpool; he says: "I don't know". Lord Ellenborough (Edward Law) leans on the table behind Eldon, saying, "I am decidedly of Opinion that if there was any Law to go by I could advise but as there is none, Why D------n the Thing". Between Perceval and the Speaker a man stands in profile to the right, saying, "Curse that Letherbreeches" [Lethbridge, see No. 11538]. He is perhaps the Home Secretary, Ryder. On the right stand less important people: Reed, the chief Magistrate at Bow Street, stands holding a paper: 'Riot Act', and saying, "I know nothing about the Thing I can only Read the Riot Act". Next is a top-booted tough-looking man clasping a bludgeon (a constable); he says: "I don't like the Thing tis not in my way at all, but if you dare not break the door, Why Mill the Glaze" [break the window]. A man stands in back view addressing unheeded two men who face each other. He says: "My Master [? Mulgrave, Secretary for War and Colonies] is not to be found & I don't know what to do—but I'll give you Plenty of Soldiers". He is perhaps Peel, Under Secretary for War. The Serjeant-at-Arms, very neat in a bag-wig, stands with clasped hands and flexed knees addressing his Deputy, John Clements, a dapper little man wearing Hessian boots: "Why Deputy this is no information at all, we shall go away no wiser then we came". The Deputy answers: "Not a bit".
21 April 1810
Hand-coloured etching with stipple
- Production date
- 1810
- Dimensions
-
Height: 267 millimetres
-
Width: 403 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947)
See No. 11538, &c. The Ministry were at a loss what to do when Burdett refused to recognize the Speaker's Warrant as legal, and barricaded his house, which was surrounded by a mob, see No. 11543. When Perceval was asked on 7 Apr. by the Serjeant whether the Warrant authorized him to break open the doors, he said he did not know, and referred him to the Attorney-General, who thought it 'a delicate thing to recommend an act upon which a question of murder may ensue'. On 8 Apr. the Chancellor, Prime Minister, and Speaker held a conference on the question. The Riot Act was read on that day by Mr. Birnie, not by Reed. Patterson, 'Burdett and his Times', i. 255 ff. Burdett, in the 'Argument' appended to his Letter to his Constituents, called the Speaker's Warrant against Gale Jones 'this Instrument—this thing 'sui generis' ('Pol. Reg.' xvii. 449). Lethbridge instanced this as an 'obnoxious passage', in his 'Complaint' against Burdett, 27 Mar. 'Parl. Debates', xvi. 178. For the Warrant see also Nos. 11543, 11546, 11547, 11552, 11556, 11560.
(Supplementary information)
Reid, No. 108.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.7927
