File:The ballance of power (BM 1868,0808.4745).jpg

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The ballance of power   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Title
The ballance of power
Description
English: A pair of scales whose beam is engraved "The Ballance of Power". On the left scale, which rests on the ground, stands Britannia holding her shield in her right hand, and in the left a short Roman sword inscribed "The Sword of Justice". She says, "No one injures me with impunity". On the other scale are the four enemies of England; in spite of the desperate efforts of Holland who clings to one of its ropes, his feet on its base, this scale is in the air, outweighed by Britannia. America as an Indian woman with a head-dress of feathers sits on the scale, her head resting on her hand, her eyes closed in an attitude of despondency; she says "My Ingratitude is Justly punished". France and Spain dressed in the conventional manner of caricature, one as a French fop, the other in the slashed doublet and cloak of a Spanish don, stand behind America. France says, "Myneer assist or we are ruin'd"; Spain says, "Rodney has ruined our Fleet". Holland, as a Dutchman smoking a pipe, is saying "I'll do any thing for Money"; coins inscribed "Ill got wealth", are pouring from his unbuttoned breeches-pocket; two papers are also falling from him, one inscribed "St Eustatia Saba St Martin", the other "Demerary Issequibo".


Beneath the design is engraved:

"America, dup'd by a treacherous train,
Now finds she's a Tool both to France and to Spain;
Yet all three united can't weigh down the Scale:
So the Dutchman jumps in with the hope to prevail.
Yet Britain will boldly their efforts withstand,
And bravely defy them by Sea and by Land:
The Frenchman She'll Drub, and the Spaniard She'll Beat
While the Dutchman She'll Ruin by Seizing his Fleet:
Th' Americans too will with Britons Unite,
And each to the other be Mutual Delight." 17 January 1781


Etching
Depicted people Associated with: George Brydges Rodney, 1st Baron Rodney
Date 1781
date QS:P571,+1781-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 253 millimetres
Width: 345 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.4745
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', V, 1935) This is an allusion to the "ill got wealth" of Holland by contraband trade in which she used her islands in the West Indies and her possessions on the South American coast, see BMSat 5557, &c. It anticipates the capture of the Dutch colonies: the capture of St. Eustatius, 3 Feb. 1781, with its dependencies, St. Martin and Saba, and the capitulation of Demerara and Essequibo to privateers, 14 Mar. 1781. Adolphus, 'Hist. of England', 1841, iii. 259, 261. See BMSat 5825, &c. Cf. BMSat 5712.

BMSat 5827 appears to be the original of a German print altered by the addition of a background showing Gibraltar, published "A Augsbourg chez J. Mart. Will Fauxbourg S. Jacques". Beneath the print is an explanation in German and bad French in two columns, the French being, (1) "La balance de la puissance". (2) "[England] Ne persone m'offense sans puni." (3) "L'Epee de la Justice." (4) "[Spain] Rodney a ruiné notre Flotte" (4) "[France] Monsieur, aides à nous ou nous somes perdu." (6) "[America] Mon ingratitude est puni come tous raison." (7) "[Holland] Je ferai quelque chose pour l'argent". Probably issued after the defeat of the attack on Gibraltar, see BMSat 6035, &c. 'Collection de Vinck', BMSat 1181.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-4745
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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