print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8500
- Title
- Object: A nation & her m-n-t-r's
- Description
-
An allegorical design. Britannia, holding her shield and a cap of Liberty on a staff, rushes (right to left) with a calm expression to the edge of a cliff, urged on by Wellington and five other Ministers (scarcely characterized). On her right a man snatches the drapery from a small cloud-borne figure of Fortune with her wheel, who is directed towards an oval portrait of Queen Caroline supported by an angel. Fame holds a laurel wreath above the portrait. Below the cliff or rock from which Britannia steps so heedlessly is a patch of ground surrounded by sea. On this stands Burdett, holding out a scroll inscribed 'Magna Char[ta] Liberty of Napoleon' and holding out his left arm to prevent Britannia from falling. Justice stands behind him, holding evenly balanced scales. Four other men stand close behind him, one holding out a scroll inscribed 'Reform', and supporting the arm which holds the scales. A man in shirt-sleeves kneels at Burdett's feet, making a gesture of urgent entreaty. On a rock (right), symbolizing St. Helena but merging with Britannia's cliff, sits a spotted, sub-human Caliban-like creature, who holds a small image of Napoleon, which he is about to cover with an extinguisher. At the base of the rock, but in the background, are two tiny officers in military uniform, seated together at the edge of the sea, directed to the right. In the foreground (left) sits a woman (? France) in classical draperies, holding a sceptre, with a (? Bourbon) crown falling from her head, and with a second (? imperial) crown in her lap. She gazes towards St. Helena. Inset in the title and enclosed within a border inscribed 'Honi soit qui mal y pense':
'Wilson sçut délivrer une Noble victime
Burdett, Hobhouse, Holland, sauvez Napoléon,
Arrachez-le aux tourmens de l'exécrable Hudson,
Vengez l'honneur Anglais flétri par un grand Crime
Et sauvez Albion sur le Bord de l'Abême [sic]!!!'
1820?
Etching
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 128 millimetres
-
Width: 193 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
An appeal for the liberation of Napoleon (cf. No. 14049); the reference to Sir Robert Wilson's rescue of Lavalette, see No. 12706, &c., seems to suggest a rescue like that by which Bazaine was removed from his island in 1874. For Napoleon and Lowe see No. 12903. Burdett, Hobhouse, and Holland had opposed the exile to St. Helena, and Napoleon's cause is associated with that of Radicals, Reform, and the Queen. The date is probably between the dropping of the Bill, see No. 13986, and news of Napoleon's death, see No. 14201.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8500