File:The assembly of the grinders (BM 1868,0808.4515).jpg

English: Round a circular table sit members of the Ministry and others. Standing on the left, his left hand on the back of a chair, is Lord Bute. Behind him is a folding screen inscribed "This is a Horrid screen for Villany". To his right. in profile is the Duke of Grafton. On Bute's left and arranged round the table from left. to right. are Lord Suffolk (?), Jeremiah Dyson, as Mungo the African slave with a metal collar round his neck, and wearing a harlequin's dress. Next is Lord Rochford. [Identified by Mr. Hawkins as Halifax, but Halifax died in 1771; he resembles Portraits of Rochford, see BMSat 5125] Next sits Lord Sandwich, wearing a cricketing cap and holding a cricket bat. Next, the central and dominating figure, is Lord Mansfield in judge's cap, wig, and robes. Next come Lord North and the King, so posed as to stress their likeness to each other; each is wearing his ribbon and star; a bandage is over the king's eyes. They are squeezed in between Mansfield and Sir Fletcher Norton, the Speaker, in his rightobes, with bull's horns projecting from his wig, to indicate his nickname of Sir Bull-Face-Doublefee. The outside figure on the right., facing Grafton, is Lord Holland, with a fox's head. His r. hand, fist clenched, is on the table, on which lie three documents, the most prominent being "The humble Address, Remonstrance and Petition of the Lord Mayor". It lies across the "Bill of Rights"; "Magna Charta" is the third. The room is panelled, and in each of three panels is a picture: on the left faggots piled round a stake are burning in a mountainous landscape. Next is an axe suspended over a block, with an adjacent thistle plant. This is immediately behind Mansfield and North, the axe appearing to be suspended over their heads. Behind Fletcher Norton and Lord Holland (r.) are spears, crossed muskets, a sword, and a pyramid of cannon-balls inscribed "Provision for the Poor". Beneath the design is engraved:

"The Application of this subject is taken from Æsops Fables by Dr Croxall (Fab. 18 page 33) The Moral of this Fable is that no body looks after a mans Affairs so well as he himself Servants being but hirelings seldom have the true Interest of their Masters at Heart but let Things run on in a Negligent constant Disorder and this generally not so much for want of Capacity as honesty their Heads are taken up with the Cultivation of their own private Interest for the Service and promotion of which that of their Master is postpon'd and often intirely Neglected. If this be the case as it certainly is among ordinary Masters and Servants and it is of so ill consequence to a Man not to Inspect the (Economy of his own Household how deplorable must be the State of that People who have a King or Governor so Ignorant that he knows not or so Indolent that he Cares not what becomes of their Welfare & happiness Who leaves the Administration of every thing to the management of Servants and those Wicked self Interested ones perhaps some may fancy him a mild and good Prince because he does not like a Barbarian actually Butcher his people with his own hands But he is passivelly a sad Creature and the ultimate Author of all the Woe that his Subjects feel when by his neglect a Villanous Set of Ministers Triumph in the Ruin of the Nation or by his protection are screen'd from the just Resentment & Indignation of an injur 'd People." 22 December 1773

Etching and some engraving