File:Point-blank at the Constitution, a hasty sketch of yesterday's business Jany 20th 1789 (BM J,4.80).jpg
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Captions
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Summary
[edit]Point-blank at the Constitution, a hasty sketch of yesterday's business Jany 20th 1789
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| Title |
Point-blank at the Constitution, a hasty sketch of yesterday's business Jany 20th 1789 |
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| Description |
English: Probably an answer to BMSat 7483. Pitt (left), much caricatured, fires a blunderbuss at a bull (John Bull), resting it on the back of a zebra on which is a saddle-cloth ornamented with a large crown and the motto 'Avarice'. Thurlow, on the extreme left, holds the bridle and offers the animal a bowl filled with coins labelled 'Motive'. Pitt's blunderbuss is inscribed 'Fourth Estate'; a series of large pear-shaped bullets issues from it, striking the bull: they are (left to right) 'Council', 'Household', 'Separate Establishment', 'New Burthen', 'Last Resolution'. From the bull, who appears mortally wounded, drop in fragments the 'Power | of the | Com | mons' and the broken staff of liberty. Behind Pitt and the zebra is a placard: 'Address (For supporting) For creating (the Rights) a Fourth (of the People) Estate', the words in brackets being scored through. Pitt tramples on torn documents : 'Consistency', 'Oeconomy', 'Parental Affection'. Thurlow's foot rests on a broken pair of scales inscribed 'Balance of Power'. 20 January 1789
Etching |
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| Depicted people | Portrait of: William Pitt the Younger | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Date | 1789 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medium | paper | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dimensions |
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| Collection |
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| Current location |
Prints and Drawings |
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| Accession number |
J,4.80 |
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| Notes |
(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938) A satire on the debate on the fifth restriction on the Regency voted on 19 Jan., the first four having been carried on 16 Jan. This committed to the Queen the care of the King's person and the control of his household, with the advice and assistance of a council. 'Parl. Hist.' xxvii. 1004 ff. and BMSats 7485, 7486, 7489, 7493, 7497, 7502, 7507. The zebra, which Pitt uses as a stalking-horse, represents the Queen, in allusion to the animal known as the Queen's Ass, see BMSat 3870, &c, and cf. BMSat 7384; the crown and motto make the meaning doubly clear. The Queen's control of the Household and its patronage was denounced in the Press, &c, as a fourth estate, see 'Morning Post', 22 Jan. 1789, and BMSat 7498. The addresses to Pitt thanking him for supporting the rights of the people (see BMSat 7480, &c.) are also satirized. Leeds records a conversation (29 Aug. 1792) with the Duke of York in which he 'mentioned to H.R.H. the cruel reports which had been circulated with so much injustice respecting the Queen's eagerness to have the care of the K's person, and in fact to interfere in Govt, which I knew to be false, as it was with very great difficulty she could be prevailed on to take any part in the melancholy business entrusted to her'. 'Pol. Memoranda of the Duke of Leeds', ed. O. Browning, p. 200. For her 'Avarice', cf. BMSat 7498. (Supplementary information) Pasted on the verso is a slip in the hand of Sarah Banks identifying Pitt and Thurlow. It has been given the register number J.4-211, but has not been entered on computer. |
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| Source/Photographer | https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_J-4-80 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
© The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Licensing
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| Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
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| current | 18:50, 12 May 2020 | | 1,600 × 1,171 (627 KB) | Copyfraud (talk | contribs) | British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1789 #6,110/12,043 |
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