- Museum number
- 1868,0808.8928
- Title
- Object: The Irish catholic Jubilee at Dublin, or the bullettin express of the late majority.
- Description
-
A Dublin street-scene; a small platform backed by a sea of heads with banners; in the foreground are H.L. figures of (proletarian) spectators, including a newsboy with a paper inscribed 'Sun' in his hat and a 'Sun [News]paper' under his arm. He blows through his horn the words: 'The "Sun" paper from London, in 37 hours! Glorious News, Express Extronary!—Majority of 1801 in the Commons, for all the Catholics! Great News!!' The crowd receives the news with exultation, a few 'Protestants' excepted. In the foreground on the extreme right is an old man in judge's wig and gown with papers inscribed 'Norbury Puns' under his arm to show that he is Lord Norbury. He is held up on the shoulders of a man smoking a pipe, and thumbs his nose towards Sir Harcourt Lees, in top-boots, who capers frantically on the platform, waving his hat and a shillelagh. The latter shouts: 'My Lord Norbury—I am named the Crazy, Reverend, Irish-Orange Baronet! Yet I'II be d—d if all my old friends at St Stephens are not trans-mogrified into a batch of Papists! Our Minority were all drunk; or, we had the start of the Rebels, the Devil burn them all Huzza! Hu-rue! Och!!!' Norbury answers: 'Dear Harcourt, you're a clerical Knight of the Cross—don't run rackelly. If all fails my Brother-in-Law (Old Bags) is a game shot,—he shall attack the Pope for Contempt; and give the Pontiff, a quietus, at Shooters Hill, or Chalk Farm!! [resorts of duellists near London] hee! hee! Ah! Oh! Ih! A!!!' A bystander asks: 'Is this your Lordships last joke from the Bench?' With Harcourt on the platform are two barristers in wig and gown, holding briefs; one inscribed 'Donnely . . . cation'; the other Murphy '. . . ization'. They harangue the mob; one shouts: 'Elevation!—Shielization, Association!—Transubstantiation!' The other: 'Equalization!—Exultation!—Illumination!—Presentation! O'Connellization.' Two ragged fellows looking up at them shout: [1] "De Cat'lic Claimes again de Globe! Frank Burditt, and fair play, Opposite Owld Noodle;—he's a pine Apple to a Chany Orange Peel!—" [cf. BM Satires No. 15683] 'Hurra! Hurra!! My darlings! by de powers Owld Ireland for ever!' [2, flourishing a spiked blugeon] "D—mn—n! Infatuation! Botheration!—Blow up the Nation!!!"— An old woman shouts: 'Long life to ugly Broom, Brountam, Macintosh, Husky [Huskisson] and last of all, doe last expected, young Parsival! and de Devil fly away wid de top of de house dat shuts dem out!' A man shouts 'Freedom of Elction! Franchise de Blind Quay, de Poddle Pill Lane, and, Ring's-end' [Dublin slums]. A grinning man shouts '353 over 173 all de World over. Huzza!!' A constable holding up a staff looks up at Lees, saying, "You all know that I was a Major in 1798. I am now a Policeman. Where's Jemmy O'Brian my old Crony to read the Riot Act?—I'll read it myself & dispute the rebellious majority (Mob I mean)". (He is seemingly Henry Charles Sirr (1756-1841), Town Major (Chief of Police) of Dublin 1798-1826 when he retired on full pay.) A man in a skull-cap shouts: 'The Minority above the Majority, always I say! Erin Go Brah! the—Catilic Mimbers against the field! Shilloo!! Shilloo! Shilloo!!!' All these stand round the platform. There are shouts from behind it: '353 Com [sic] A'Boo' [see BM Satires No. 5572] and 'Huzza Huzza'. A man perched on a chimney-stack in the background shouts 'Huzza! my Jewel my Darling my Honey for ever!!' In the foreground behind Norbury is the corner of a house in Sacville St Dublin; a tipsy toper looks from a window holding out a bottle; he says: 'Och! take a drap of de Crater—and God bless his Majesty, and George Canning and the Duke, if he deserves it; & d—m—n de Gout!—Och Judy's de darling for me!' Three banners wave over the heads of the mob: 'George the 4th and the British Constitution for ever Huzza!!'; 'Gentle when stoked [sic], fierce when provoked Honi Soit, Qui Maly Pense'; 'G. R. The Protestants and Catholic's at last united!!! Huzza!!' (the last is surmounted by a crown). [March 1829]
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1829 (c.)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 246 millimetres
-
Width: 350 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- The date 'March 1829' is inscribed beneath the image (bottom right corner) with pen and ink.
(Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', XI, 1954)
The second reading of the Catholic Relief Bill passed the Commons on 18 Mar. by 353 to 173. Norbury (1745-1831), C.J. of the Common Pleas in Ireland, was strongly anti-Catholic and was notorious for gross partiality, buffoonery, and scanty legal knowledge; he retired in 1827. For Eldon (Old Bags) as sportsman see No. 14805. Spencer Perceval (1795-1859), M.P. Newport, I. of W. (M.P. Ennis 1818-20), voted for Emancipation though previously a 'Protestant'; he was eccentric and became an Irvingite, cf. No. 16533. For Sir Harcourt Lees see No. 14508. The print is inconsequent, but seems directed against Irish inconsequence and ignorance (of Canning's death, &c).
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.8928
