- Museum number
- 1882,0610.63
- Title
- Object: Iohn Bull reading the extraordinary red book.
- Description
-
John Bull, a spectacled citizen, sits by the table in the Commons reading an 'Extraordinary Red Book' and registering frantic anger. He shouts: "Oh!!—Monstrous!!!—that twenty six State Cormorants should swallow annually an aggregate sum: under the name of salaries, independent of the indefinible emoluments which result from other sources of gain amounting to—£453,692. Can we any longer wonder that the love of Place in these men should supersede every more exalted consideration." The mace rests on a scroll which hangs from the table: 'Plac[es] Earl of Liverpool 14,000,— Mr Vansittart £7,500, &—Ge Rose £16,551—Vist Melville £11,000— Mr Wellesley Pole £10,000.' On the floor is a paper: 'Droits of Admiralty' [see No. 10967]. On the right behind John's chair Ministerial members sit in a close row, with a second row standing behind them. One stands on the extreme right holding a long scroll whose coiled end is under John's chair. It is 'A List of Placemen Pensions and Sinecures—Lord Arden £38,574 [cf. No. 12802]—Earl Bathurst and C°—£37,225—Lord Castlereagh for Two Years Service £71,000—Ld Ellenborough £24,100—Ld Eldon £40,000 & & &c—Marquis Camden £23,000.' The members are burlesqued; four of them say: "I swallow—£10,000 and do very little for it"; "and I £16,000— for doing next to nothing"; "and I 40,000£—for doing less"; "and I [Castlereagh] £71,000—for doing nothing at all." A fifth, wearing tartan with a Scots cap and taking snuff from a ram's horn mull (evidently Melville), says: "and I 18,000—for doing worse!"
Plate numbered 205.
1816?
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1816
- Dimensions
-
Height: 247 millimetres
-
Width: 349 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', IX, 1949)
A recurrent theme: the names show that the print is after 1810, when the agitation against the 'Red Book' ('Royal Kalendar'), i.e. against placemen and sinecurists was active, see No. 11537. In 1816 'The Extraordinary Red Book' by 'A Commoner' appeared (4th ed. 1821). Castlereagh's large sum probably connotes his expenses as plenipotentiary in 1814 and 1815, cf. No. 12778. Arden (elder brother of Perceval) heads a list of sinecurists in the 'Examiner' of 18 Aug.; he, Camden, with a Tellership of the Exchequer (see No. 12867), and Bathurst were the arch-sinecurists from the Whig and Radical standpoint (the Grenville family being the corresponding target of Tories). Rose, cf. No. 12800, was a special butt of Cobbett. Wellesley-Pole was Master of the Mint, see No. 12865. The words of Melville (First Lord 1812-27) reflect his father's reputation, cf. No. 10377. For the 'Red Book' see Nos. 5657, 10745, 11537, 12756, 12778, 12798, 12818, 13277.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated names
-
Associated with: Charles George Percival Arden, 1st Baron Arden
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Associated with: Henry Bathurst, 3rd Earl Bathurst
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Associated with: John Jeffreys Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden
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Associated with: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh and 2nd Marquess of Londonderry
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Associated with: John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon
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Associated with: Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough
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Associated with: Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool
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Associated with: Robert Saunders Dundas, 2nd Viscount Melville
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Associated with: Right Hon George Rose
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Associated with: Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley
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Associated with: William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington
- Acquisition date
- 1882
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1882,0610.63
