File:March 1829 (BM 1948,0214.917 1).jpg

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March 1829   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Published by: John Chappell

Printed by: Jardine
Title
March 1829
Description
English: The beam of scales inscribed 'Public Opinion' hangs from clouds on a chain. The two scales are (left) 'Liberality, March of Intellect' [see BM Satires No. 15604, &c], and (right) 'Prudence, Experience'; the former is for, the latter against, Emancipation. O'Connell stands in one with a rolled document inscribed 'Association' [see BM Satires No. 14766, &c]; Eldon is in the other which is lower, though both are well above the ground. Both are weighted by newspapers. In O'Connell's scale are (Irish) bayonets and pikes, the 'Morning Chronic'[le], the 'Globe', and a broom labelled 'Schoolmaster' to indicate Brougham, see BM Satires No. 15535. But more weighty is a big cylinder, 'The Times', dangling from the scale by a rope, which the Devil clutches: if he succeeds in pulling the scale down it will fall into the pit of Hell, whence flames rise between the green 'Hill of Howth' (left) and the English plateau (right).


Eldon (cf. BM Satires No. 15680) holds Britannia's shield and the 'Act of 1688' [connoting the Revolution of 1688-9]; he stands on a chest inscribed 'Constitution' beside which is a roll, 'John Bull', here representing the paper; he shouts 'No Surrender!!' Other papers tied together dangle from a rope to serve as a counter-weight to 'The Times': 'Morning Herald', 'Standard', 'Post', and 'Morning Journal' [some letters obscured]. A chain of four parsons, diminishing in size, pull down the scale: one bishop uses his crosier, another holds the first round the waist, a fat parson holds the second bishop, and a very thin one (unbeneficed), with one foot on the ground, is at the end of the chain. Behind them is a building representing perhaps the gateway of St. James's Palace or the west front of a cathedral. Above it, and partly cut off by the right margin, is the canopy of the throne from which a hand (the King's) projects, holding a royal crown towards Eldon.
Below and between the two scales, but nearer the right, is a bridge on which stands Cobbett, holding a huge gridiron (see BM Satires No. 16123, &c.) and looking to the right; he says 'which way shall I turn'. From the left end of the bridge a rope-ladder ascends to O'Connell's scale; up this climb two 'Rats' with human heads; the leader wears an academic cap to indicate Peel (M.P. or ex-M.P. for Oxford, see BM Satires No. 15683). On the sky-line of the Irish hill on the extreme left a family of Irish peasants caper in delight towards their scale; they are 'Part of the 7,000,000!!!' The profile of Wellington wearing a cocked hat, and much bigger in scale than the other figures, projects into the design from the left margin; he frowns down on the Emancipation scale, saying, 'It wont go down!!!' 1829


Hand-coloured lithograph
Depicted people Associated with: Henry Peter, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
Date 1829
date QS:P571,+1829-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 254 millimetres
Width: 338 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1948,0214.917
Notes

(Description and comment from M. Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', XI, 1954)

Cobbett, by dint of violent attacks on O'Connell, Wellington, and Sadler (for his speech against the Bill) in relation to Catholic Relief, was establishing a non-committal attitude, with a considerable measure of hostility to the Bill (but with expressions of sympathy for Catholics), seemingly influenced by fear of unpopularity in what he called 'The No-Popery Battle'; he prophesied ('Pol. Reg.', 7 Mar.) the Bill would never be passed. The 'rats' in the Emancipation contest were the Tory apostates, Peel being rat or rat-catcher-in-chief (a part taken by Wellington in No. 15806), see No. 15734. They had already been traduced as rats for deserting Canning in 1827, see No. 15383. The Duchess of Richmond had "stuffed 'rats' under glass cases on her drawing-room table, to which Her Grace affixed the names of all the apostates". A live rat was introduced into the Lords during one of the debates. 'Croker Papers', ii. 15 (7 May). This was a manifestation of the Tory revolt, see No. 16302; cf. No. 15896. For the Press and Emancipation see No. 15677, &c. An amateurish but effective design, similar in manner to No. 15695.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1948-0214-917
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
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current20:47, 15 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 20:47, 15 May 20202,500 × 1,915 (650 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Coloured lithographs in the British Museum 1829 image 2 of 2 #7,806/21,781

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