File:The repeal of the Test Act A vision. (BM J,1.7).jpg
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Captions
Captions
Summary
[edit]The repeal of the Test Act A vision.
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Artist |
Print made by:James Sayers |
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Title |
The repeal of the Test Act A vision. |
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Description |
English: A complicated design: advocates for religious toleration in a church, the pulpit occupied by Priestley, Price, and Lindsey. The central figure is Price, to whom the clerk standing below has passed up in a cleft stick a paper inscribed: 'The Prayers of this Congregation are desired for the Success of the patriot Members of the national Assembly now sitting in France'. Price takes the paper, and, raising his left hand sanctimoniously, says: "And now Let us fervently pray for the Abolition of all unlimited and limit[ed] Monarchy, for the Annihilation of all ecclesiastical Revenues and Endowments, for the Extinction of all Orders of Nobility and all rank and Subordination in civil Society and that Anarchy and Disorder may by our pious Endeavours prevail throughout the Universe - See my Sermon on the Anniversary of the Revolution" (see BMSat 7629, &c;). Priestley leans over the left edge of the pulpit, his right arm raised; flames issuing from his mouth expand into four columns of smoke inscribed respectively 'Atheism' (smaller than the others), 'Deism', 'Socinianism', 'Arianism'. This blast strikes an angel carrying a cross; he flies out of a window (left), looking over his shoulder at Priestley with an expression of horror. Through the window is also seen a church steeple, being pulled down by a rope. Seated in a pew below is Fox (left) who looks up at the preacher, smiling; a similar column of smoke issues from his mouth and rises towards Priestley, inscribed 'Hear hear hear'. Lindsey leans over the right side of the pulpit, holding out 'A Table of the Thirty nine Articles' in a frame, this he tears to pieces. The back of the pulpit, above Price's head, is ornamented with an inverted and irradiated triangle containing the letters 'PPL', the initials of the three preachers. Above it is suspended a marquess's coronet with Lord Lansdowne's beehive crest. On the sounding-board are (left) two books: 'Priestley on civil Government' and 'Price on civil Liberty'. Beside them hangs from the roof a striped flag inscribed 'America' (Price's 'Observations on civil liberty . . .' (1776) had encouraged the Declaration of Independence, see BMSat 5644). On the books stands a small demon. Another demon, wearing the steeple-crowned hat of the puritans of the Commonwealth, sits on an open book (right) inscribed 'a Sermon on the Anniversary of the glorious Revolution'.
Etching |
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Depicted people | Associated with:Charles I, King of England | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Date |
1790 date QS:P571,+1790-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 |
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Medium | paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Dimensions | Height:502 millimetres Width:352 millimetres | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Collection |
institution QS:P195,Q6373 |
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Current location |
Prints and Drawings |
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Accession number |
J,1.7 |
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Notes |
(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938) The first print showing hostility to the French Revolution. There had been motions for the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts on 28 March 1787 and 8 May 1789; the print anticipates Fox's motion on 2 March 1790 and illustrates the effect of Price's famous sermon, see BMSat 7629, &c.; Dissent is associated with irreligion and republicanism, with the sectaries of the seventeenth century, and with the 'enthusiasm' which leads to regicide. There is also a tracing on oiled paper of an earlier version (1788) of this print, in which the head of the Jew bending over the ecclesiastical chest is 'Mr Bell of Yarmouth'; on publication he was,altered to a Jew and the figure of a Jew standing behind him was removed. The large label issuing from Priestley's mouth was absent; the paper he receives from the clerk was blank; the book of Watson's tracts was also absent; and there are other variations. The book was probably added to change the identification from Law (d. 1787) to Watson. The characters, except the exciseman Paine, have been identified by Miss Banks, doubtless on information from Sayers. Price, Priestley, and Lansdowne (Shelburne) had been satirized in 1780 as associates in irreligion and sedition, see BMSat 5644. Kippis, Rees, and Lindsey were prominent and learned dissenters of similar views to those of their friend Priestley. Law was a bishop of advanced views who had been suspected of Unitarian opinions, see Abbey, 'The English Church and its Bishops', ii. 245-51. Sir Henry Hoghton, M.P. for Preston, seconded Beaufoy's motion for repeal in 1787 and 1788, and Fox's motion in 1790. For the voluminous literature relating to the movement for repeal see 'An arranged Catalogue of the several publications . . .from . . . 1772 to 1790 inclusive' (B.M.L., 126. i. 9); Belsham, 'Memoirs of the Reign of George III', 1796, iv. 277 ff. See also BMSats 7347, 7480, 7629, 7630, 7632, 7633, 7635, 7636, 7637, 7642, 7643, 7822, 8276. This print is described in the 'St. James's Chronicle', 20 Feb. 1790, as 'the happiest of his [Mr. Sayers's] performances', the portraits being excellent likenesses, and the incidents 'the most forcible strokes of satire, that, since the time of Hudibras, have been aimed at the cause of fanatacism'. (Supplementary information) Accompanied by a written note that identifies the figures. |
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Source/Photographer | https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_J-1-7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Permission (Reusing this file) |
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 |
Licensing
[edit]This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate {{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag. ![]() |
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current | 21:11, 4 May 2020 | ![]() | 1,118 × 1,600 (595 KB) | Copyfraud (talk | contribs) | British Museum public domain uploads (User:Copyfraud/BM) |
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Date and time of digitizing | 11:00, 15 June 2007 |
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File change date and time | 11:00, 15 June 2007 |
Date metadata was last modified | 11:00, 15 June 2007 |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop Elements 3.0 Windows |