print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1868,0808.9130
- Title
-
Object: John Bull's complaint to the public schoolmaster.
-
Series: Political Sketches
- Description
-
No. 34. John Bull (right), very obese, more country-gentleman than farmer or "cit", and too large for his upright chair, rests his right hand on a small table, where he has thrown his broad-brimmed hat, looking with a worried frown at Brougham. The latter sits on the edge of his chair, leg across his knee, elbow resting on an 'Edinbro Review' (to which he was the leading contributor) on his table. He wears barrister's wig and bands, with tail-coat and knee-breeches. On a closed door behind him is a placard: 'School | for | Grown Children | Birchbroom | Master.' J. B. says: 'Ah Master Birch, this Steward of mine gives me much uneasiness—His Military spirit is so ready to take fire—a little while ago, he quarrelled with a rash young fellow, one Winchelsea, placing his own life and my affairs (then in a critical state), in great jeopardy.—Now he has got into a Law suit with a paltry Printer & a fanatical Parson, because they have written some d—n'd nonsense about him, which nobody believes—I wish Mr Schoolmaster you would read him a bit of a Lecture upon these follies.' Brougham: 'Friend Bull! Thy request shall be complied with—but hark ye—that same Fanatic is methodical in his aberrations— more be token—he is a Gorgonian mark protruded by thy Steward's potential foes Nathless thy man doth a prejudice to himself by waring [sic] with such scriblers—Of a verity, too, the duello was repugnant to all principle—ethics, physics, & mathematics—But I'll send him an admonitory lucubration—Per deos immortales!' September 1829
Hand-coloured lithograph
- Production date
- 1829
- Dimensions
-
Height: 259 millimetres
-
Width: 326 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', XI, 1954)
A protest against Wellington's libel actions against the ultra-Tory 'Morning Journal', see No. 15910, &c. The trials were on 22, 23, 24 Dec. 1829. The "Fanatic" was a domestic chaplain of the Duke of Cumberland, the writer of an anonymous letter to the paper, see No. 15774. For the duel see No. 15696, &c.; for Brougham as schoolmaster cf. No. 15535. H. B.'s John Bull is a new type, first appearing in No. 15658.
Pen and pencil drawing (9¼ x 14⅞ in.). Binyon, ii. 48.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1868
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1868,0808.9130
