File:A picturesque view of the state of the nation for February 1778 (BM 1868,0808.10082).jpg

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A picturesque view of the state of the nation for February 1778   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
A picturesque view of the state of the nation for February 1778
Description
English: A cow representing the commerce of Great Britain stands passively on the sea-shore while an American with a feathered cap saws off her horns; one horn lies on the ground. A Dutchman milks the cow, looking over his shoulder with a grin. France, a foppishly-dressed Frenchman, and Spain, a don in slashed doublet and cloak, hold bowls of milk. In the foreground (r.) lies the British lion asleep, unconscious of a pug-dog which stands on his back, befouling him. Behind the lion stands a plainly-dressed Englishman clasping his hands in despair.


In the background across the sea is a town inscribed "Philadelphia"; in front of it, on the shore, two men on a minute scale (General and Admiral Howe) are seated at a table. Both are asleep, a punch-bowl is on the table, on the ground beside them are wine-bottles and a barrel. Beside them, laid up on dry land, is a man-of-war inscribed "Eagle" (Howe's flag-ship). 1 March 1778


Etching
Depicted people Representation of: Adm Richard Howe, Earl Howe
Date 1778
date QS:P571,+1778-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 114 millimetres
Width: 173 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.10082
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935) >From the 'Westminster Magazine', vi. 66. The explanation (p. 64):

"I. The commerce of Great Britain, represented in the figure of a Milch-Cow. II. The American Congress sawing off her horns, which are her natural strength and defence: one being already gone, the other just a-going. III. The jolly, plump Dutchman milking the poor tame Cow with great glee. IV and V. The Frenchman and Spaniard, each catching at their respective shares of the produce, and running away with bowls brimming full, laughing to one another at their success. VI. The good ship Eagle laid up, and moved at some distance from Philadelphia, without sails or guns, ... all the rest of the fleet invisible, nobody knows where. VII. The two Brothers napping it, one against the other, in the City of Philadelphia, out of sight of fleet and army. VIII. The British Lion lying on the ground fast asleep, so that a pug-dog tramples upon him, as on a lifeless log: he seems to see nothing, hear nothing, and feel nothing. IX. A Free Englishman in mourning standing by him, wringing his hands, casting up his eyes in despondency and despair, but unable to rouse the Lion to correct all these invaders of his Royal Prerogative, and his subjects' property."

These paragraphs are followed by an attack on the Conciliatory Propositions, see BMSat 5473, &c, as "proof of the above". There are no numbers on the plate. This print was copied for circulation in America with the title 'A Picturesque View of the State of Great Britain for 1778. Taken from an English Copy'. Beneath the plate in two columns is the explanation quoted textually from the 'Westminster Magazine' but omitting the paragraph on the Conciliatory Propositions. Reproduced, S. G. Fisher, 'True History of the American Revolution', 1902, p. 358. This copy may have been the immediate origin of a series of Dutch and French copies (1780) which it closely resembles, see BMSat 5726, 5726 A, B, and C, 5727. It was also copied in America as 'A Picturesque View of the State of Great Britain for 1780', attributed to Paul Revere, in which the word "New York" has been substituted for "Philadelphia" (evacuated June 1778), see Stauffer, BMSat 2692. These copies and BMSat 5859, a sequel to them, show how well the print illustrated the motives and hopes of France in the war, as also its value as enemy propaganda. Much was said in France of the capture of the trade of the colonies, but the real motive of Vergennes was rather the destruction of English trade (on Mercantilist principles) and so the enfeeblement of England, and the damaging of her prestige. See E. S. Corwin, 'French Policy and the American Alliance of 1778', 1916, pp. 14 f., 49 f. For Holland as a profiteering neutral see BMSat 5557, &c. For the Howe brothers see BMSat 5399, 5405, &c. Part of the design resembles and is perhaps imitated from BMSat 2665, 'The Benefit of Neutrality' (1745).

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The composition echoes that of BM Satires 1034, a satire on the relationship of the European powers during the Second Anglo-Dutch War where the cow represents the Netherlands.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-10082
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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