File:The Times Past, Present, and to Come (BM 1868,0808.4359).jpg

English: A broadside on the public support of John Williams, bookseller, who was fined, imprisoned and made to stand in the pillory in Palace Yard, Westminster, for re-publishing number 45 of John Wilkes's "North Briton" in January 1765; with an etching showing an open space crowded with people, in the centre, raised on a platform, Williams in the pillory, a man handing him a laurel branch. Above the pillory hovers the figure of Liberty approaching Williams with a laurel wreath, she is welcomed by Britannia, enthroned in clouds. On the left, two ladders joined together to form a scaffold from which hang a woman's hat and a boot (representing Princess Augusta and Lord Bute); on the ladder beneath them stands a man holding a burning brand and saying, "My Eyes I wish we had the originals"; he is encouraged by a woman below saying, "Burn the Old Hat tis good for nothing Else"; a man carrying an axe and another boot climbs up the other ladder. A man beneath the ladders says, "Off with his Head so much for B[ute]"; another suggests, "Put the perjur'd Solicitor there". Two Scotsmen speak to each other anxiously, "Troth Man our muckle laird munn a come in public" and "I ken these fellow would demolish him if an he did". In the background, a man, evidently a King's Messenger, addresses his fellow, ""We'd better sneak away Brother Carrington we shall get no good here". A well-dressed man collects money for the cause of Liberty and a farmer(?) dressed in riding boots holding a whip puts his hand in his pocket saying, "I give this more chearfully than to the Cyder Tax". A soldier to the left of the pillory cries out his support for the Duke of Cumberland and his ally Henry Seymour Conway, both opposed to Bute. In front of the pillory two men discuss a coach which has appeared in the lower left hand corner: one cries out angrily, "That's Jefferries Coach by G[o]d we'll burn it", but his neighbour corrects him, "No, it's the Speakers or by G[o]d I'd help ye" (the Speaker of the House of Commons during the Wilkes debates was John Cust). Other men cry, "No Mortimer no Jeffries" or cheer those who sided with Wilkes, "Temple, Pitt & Pratt". Two grenadiers, stand to the right of the pillory: one, a black drummer, expresses his support for "Wilkes, Williams and Liberty", the other agrees, "Ay by G[o]d that's right tho we be Soldiers we wont be Slaves". On the right is a hackney carriage with the number 45, in which Williams had evidently arrived at the pillory. In the foreground the ghosts of historical figures rise from their graves, representing the "Times Past" of the title: 1(J). John Ayliffe, hanged for forgery in a case in which Henry Fox was involved; 2. Walter Raleigh who is saying that he "fell a Sacrifice to Court Favoritism"; 3. the Duke of Buckingham, favourite of James I, shown with the dagger that killed him in his breast; 4. Judge Jeffereys warning that Bute will not "be quiet till he meets my wretched fate"; 5. Bastwick, Prynne and Burton, three Puritans who suffered under Charles I; 6. Archbishop Laud, executed in 1645, who confesses that he "suffered with Justice for the pesecution of these honest Men". Lettering engraved below: date, title, and key to the historical figures in three columns, including verses by Charles Churchill warning "all those Favorites", i.e. Bute in particular, that they may follow the fate of Buckingham. (n.p.:1765)
Etching with engraved lettering