Petition mongers in full cry to St. Stephens!! [graphic] : beware of wolves in sheeps clothing.

London : Published Novr. 26, 1795, by S.W. Fores, No. 50 Piccadilly, [26 November 1795]

1 print : etching ; sheet 26 x 35 cm

laid paper

Temporary local subject terms: Bills: Treasonable Practices bill -- Seditious Meetings bill.

"Sheridan and Fox walk (left to right) one behind the other, bending under the weight of huge bundles of petitions which they carry on their heads. Both wear bonnets-rouges; Fox is dressed in a tattered shirt and breeches. Smaller petitions project from their pockets. Sheridan's petitions are: 'House of Correction', 'Petition in Favor of Sedition', 'for Sedition', 'Girls Petition', 'Boys Petition', 'Washerwomens Pn', 'Pickpocket from Newgate', 'Drunkards', 'Marshalsea', 'Burow Clink' [the Clink prison in the Borough of Southwark], 'Bridwell'. He says: "These will serve for a few hours Jaw, & if we can but procrastinate the Bill a few days we may be able to Effect something in that Time." Fox's petitions: 'St Lukes from Thelwal with an Essay on Deism' [cf. BMSat 9286], 'Gamblers Peti[ti]on Dustmens', 'an adress from that oppresed body of Men on Board the Hulks [convicts]', 'Bankrupts P [above Banker's, scored through]', 'Nightmen', 'Scavengers', 'Card & Dice Makers', 'an adress', 'Fish Women'."--British Museum online catalogue.

English

November 30, 2007

Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum, v. 7, no. 8697