File:The board of controul. or the blessing of a Scotch dictator. (BM 1868,0808.5631).jpg

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The board of controul. or the blessing of a Scotch dictator.   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: James Gillray

Published by: R Phillips
Title
The board of controul. or the blessing of a Scotch dictator.
Description
English: A sitting of the Board of Control (established by Pitt's India Act 1784): Dundas, Pitt, and Sydney are seated behind a narrow cloth-covered table, but Dundas (left) monopolizes the business, while Pitt, his back to Dundas, plays push-pin with Sydney who is on the extreme right. Pitt complacently defeats Sydney who starts back in dismay at the position of the pins. Dundas turns his head in profile towards four ragamuffins in Highland dress who enter from the left. These, but not the members of the Board, are caricatured. The foremost, with shaggy hair, torn garments, and bare feet, scratches himself (cf. BMSat 5940) as he presents a petition with an eager grimace:



'Almighty Sir
We your Countrymen & Kinsmen make humble application to be appointed Governors or Directors, in your India Department - but should that be incompatible with your present Engagements should be happy rather than not be employed under so mighty a Chief, to go in any capacity: however low trusting to your gracious favor and our persevering Industry for future advancement & we are &c &c &c'

A second petitioner carries a spade, a third scratches his head with an anxious expression. Dundas receives them with favour, holding out his hand for the petition. In his left hand is

'A list of fit Persons to succeed to the Direction
Elphinston Duncan Mcphers[on]
Fraser Andrew McLean
Stuart Donald McDonald
Alexr McLeod Jemmie McIn . . .
Sawney . . .
Dav . . .'

The only actual director named is the Hon. William Elphinstone, formerly commander of an Indiaman, member of a family which (later) had many honourable associations with India.
Other papers on the table before Dundas are:

[1] 'Gentn The inclosed Names you will adopt as the House list on the insuing Election I shall admit of no variation whatever. Yours &c. Henry Du[ndas] To the East India Directors.'

[2] A letter directed to 'Sir Thos Rumbold &c &c &c' (see BMSats 5341, 6169, &c).

[3] 'Directions for the Government of my [scored through] the Companys Servants in India - To whom they shall write. To whom they shall not write. To whom they may write. The length of their Letters. Nothing relating to the Company's affairs to be mentioned unless the Account is first sent them for that purpose from me or the Board of Controul by my Order - The Govr Genl to send over an Account of all the Company Servants with the place of their Nativity.'

[4] 'The humble Petition of the Bakers Company - May it please your Mightiness so large a number of raw young Scotchmen having been sent to India in different Departments since your appointment to the Dictatorship of that Company; We your humble Petitioners fearing a stop will be put to our business for want of Journeymen to carry on the same, hitherto having been supplied by that needy but laborious People. We implore your mightiness to take our case into consideration, and by dispensing some small part of that immens patronage you enjoy to Englishmen leave us hopes to be able to continue a Business so necessary & of such general concern -
and as in duty bound
We shall ever pray &c. &c.'

This paper is torn.

[5] 'Right Honorable Sir------
Our Porter being dead, We most humbly beg to know your Pleasure as to the appointment of a Successor - We do not presume to mention Our own Wishes on this Head, but hope you will believe that it is with the greatest Submission We inform you the custom has hitherto been usual to let the Deputy succeed. We should think ourselves however very culpable if we concealed from you Right Honorable Sir, that he unfortunately is an Englishman, as in all probability this will have great Weight with you in your determination. We desire at all times & upon all occasions to approve ourselves
Right honourable Sir
Your most faithfull and
Zealously devoted humble Servants
India House John Pliable Depy Chairman
March 17th 1787.'

The papers in front of Pitt and Sydney, with their pens and ink-stands, have been thrown to the floor to make room for their game, and are in shadow. Three are inscribed: 'Sir Elijah Impey', 'Major Scot &c &c &c', and 'War[ren] Hastings Esq.' On the wall, on each side of a candelabra, are two pictures: one (left) is 'Robbing'; Fox puts a pistol to the head of a stout Englishman who holds a document inscribed 'India Patronage'. The other (right) is 'Stealing'; Pitt picks the pocket of a sleeping oriental, taking from it a roll: 'India Patronage'. Under the title is etched: 'Seriously recommended & humbly Dedicated to those it most particularly concerns, the Proprietors of East India Stock, by their most obedient, humble Servant, John English.' 20 March 1787


Etching and aquatint
Depicted people Associated with: Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville
Date 1787
date QS:P571,+1787-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 273 millimetres
Width: 373 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.5631
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938) The Board of Control for India (the six 'Commissioners for the Affairs of India') was established by Pitt's India Bill (1784). Sydney was its President, Dundas its virtual head. Rose, 'Pitt and National Revival', p. 220; Wraxall, 'Memoirs', 1884, iv. 11. The allegations against Pitt in the pictures anticipate the clamour which was raised in 1788 over his Declaratory Bill. Ibid., v. 72 ff., and BMSat 7280, &c. The relations between Pitt and Sydney probably indicate general repute: Sydney was replaced as Home Secretary by Grenville in June 1789. Dundas wrote to Cornwallis, 29 July 1787, 'Out of delicacy to Lord Sydney, the alteration in the constitution of the India Board was not made as intended, last winter, but certainly will in the course of next. Lord Sydney never attends, nor reads nor signs a paper. . . . Mr Pitt is a real active member. . . .' 'Cornwallis Corr.' i. 321. The position of the leading member (Dundas) of the Board of Control was virtually that of a Secretary of State for India. 'Camb. Hist. of India', v. 200 ff. Elphinstone was to prove 'the most violent opposer and the most formidable Government has had at the India House'. Bulkeley to Buckingham, 10 March 1788, 'Courts and Cabinets of George III', i. 361. For the popular theme of Dundas as lord of India and distributor of patronage to Scots cf. 'Probationary Odes', xii, and BMSats 7139, 7149, 7183, 7280, &c. Push-pin is called 'the old game of the Board' in 'The Album of Streatham', 1788, p. 60. For Gillray's imitation of Sayers's signature cf. BMSat 7146.

Grego, 'Gillray', p. 85. Wright and Evans, No. 22.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-5631
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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