print;
satirical print
- Museum number
- 1935,0522.12.157
- Title
- Object: The green bag, it's contents & all it's appendages are insufficient to turn the scale of public opinion
- Description
-
A hand, 'Manus Populi', extends into the design from the upper margin, holding a chain from which hangs a pair of scales. On one (right), close to the ground, sits the Queen, hands crossed on her breast, saying: "My innocence will support me & my Country will protect me— 10 Great Men against one unprotected Woman are fearful odds." The other scale, high in the air, is completely filled by a green bag, see No. 13735, from the mouth of which emerges the head of George IV, crowned. Attached to the beam, by a rope round his neck, hangs a military officer, holding a huge key; as a makeweight he dangles vainly against the left side of the King's bag. Three men standing below pull at the scale, trying to drag it down: they are Sidmouth (left), a judge in back view (? Leach), and Castlereagh (right), who says: "We cannot do it, and I told you so at first, & if she opens her bag we shall be stifled all of us." The King looks down at them with a distressed expression, saying: "Pull you lubbers."
11 July 1820
Hand-coloured etching
- Production date
- 1820
- Dimensions
-
Height: 341 millimetres
-
Width: 235 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- (Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', X, 1952)
The print reflects both the state of opinion and the unwillingness with which the Ministry had yielded to the King's insistence on proceedings against the Queen. The makeweight officer may be Lt.-Col. Browne, see No. 13755, or General Bloomfield, the King's Private Secretary.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1935
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1935,0522.12.157
