File:Excise Inquisition erecting by English Slaves under the Scourge of their Task masters the Excise Officers (BM 1876,1014.41).jpg

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Excise Inquisition erecting by English Slaves under the Scourge of their Task masters the Excise Officers   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: William Dent

Published by: J Barnes
Title
Excise Inquisition erecting by English Slaves under the Scourge of their Task masters the Excise Officers
Description
English: Britannia lies asleep in a cradle inscribed 'Delusion' which is rocked by Pitt (left) and Rose (right). The rockers are 'Law' (on which Pitt places his foot) and 'Excise'. Pitt, holding a rolled document inscribed 'Plans', and a key (the 'key of the back-stairs', see BMSat 6564, &c), sings "Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves". Rose, who holds a rose and a pen to show his identity, sings "Britons never shall be Slaves". Britannia holds a drooping spray of leaves in her hand; her coverlet is: 'Extention of Excise'. On the left stands Thurlow in his rightobes, looking at Britannia with clenched fist and angry scowl; he holds a paper inscribed 'For Trial without Jury the Head of the best Min------r cannot make sufficient Attornment', and sings: "How fast the drowsy Bitch doth lie." On the right behind the head of the cradle stands a man singing 'By, by, lullaby'; he holds behind his back Britannia's shield (inscribed 'Maner') and spear. He is perhaps Mainwaring, M.P. for Middlesex and Chairman of the Middlesex Quarter Sessions (excise offences were tried before two commissioners or two J.P.'s without a jury).


In the background (right) from a pile of stones inscribed 'Bastille' (see BMSat 7550, &c.) flies a large flag on which is a figure of Liberty holding up her cap on its staff. The flagstaff is decorated with a fleur-de-lis. In front is a fleet of ships in full sail inscribed 'Channel of St Denis French Fleet'. In the foreground on the extreme right the head of the British Lion appears; he is blindfolded and chained to the ground. Beneath the title is etched :

'"Their Persons, their Property, their Reputation, their Lives were aban-"
"doned to the arbitrary decisions of a Court of Inquisition and sanctioned" "against the backs of a certain Class of British Subjects, the sanguine hand"
"of Tyranny hoped soon to flourish with undiscriminating fury over our heads" "her vilifying rod, reeking with the blood of Englishmen at large, already"
"terrified into Submission, tamed by example and gradually fashioned for"
"the Yoke - " Vide. Alarming Progress of French Politics. Page 24.' 12 March 1790


Etching with hand-colouring
Depicted people Associated with: William Mainwaring
Date 1790
date QS:P571,+1790-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 248 millimetres
Width: 352 millimetres (badly damaged)
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1876,1014.41
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)

An attack on the transference of the tobacco duties from customs to excise, see BMSat 7545, &c. The attempt to revive the clamour of 1733 failed. For the contrast between English 'slavery' and French liberty cf. BMSats 7546, 8145. Pitt and Thurlow were known (since the Regency crisis, cf. BMSat 7377) to be on strained terms.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1876-1014-41
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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current19:41, 10 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 19:41, 10 May 20201,600 × 1,127 (499 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1790 #4,342/12,043

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