Engraving (coloured impression), by Newton. A pugilistic encounter between Pitt and Thurlow, who is seated on the Woolsack. Pitt, stripped to the waist, stands defiantly in profile to the right saying, "I'll soon kick you from your stool you old, hard hearted, brow beating monster". Thurlow, contemptuous of his opponent, sits confidently in shirt and breeches, arms outstretched, saying, "Afraid of him, b---t me, a dried eel skin! an ill shap'd figure of one, b--t me! no, no, I've got some bottom but he's got none". Pitt's backer is the King, who stoops forwards, hands on knees, saying, "Ward off that blow, Billy, never mind his looks, at him again". Behind the Chancellor is the Queen, holding the mace and the bag of the Great Seal; she says, "He never gave a good stroke in his life, dont be afraid of him". Behind her, and on the extreme right, appears the head and shoulders of the Devil, saying, "My pupil will beat for a Million". Behind the King and on the extreme left is Dundas, holding his nose, and saying, "I have not smelt such a stink since I left Edinburgh! Somebody has dropp'd a daisy I'm sure." Thurlow has shown his spleen against Pitt by opposing his measures in the Lords. In April 1792 he opposed the abolition of the Slave Trade, on 15 May he spoke with contempt of Pitt's proposal that to every new public loan a sinking fund should be attached. On 16 May Pitt wrote to the King asking him to choose between himself and the Chancellor, writing to Thurlow to inform him of his letter. The King, on whose favour Thurlow had relied, wrote to Dundas directing him to inform Thurlow that he must surrender the Great Seal, his resignation being deferred to the end of the Session (15 June), when the Great Seal was put into Commission. Stanhope, 'Life of Pitt', i. 435-7, 493. Rose, 'Pitt and the Great War', pp. 33-5. Common opinion would have reversed the positions in the Print of the King and Queen. See Grenville's letter of 15 May: he thinks the consequences (of Thurlow's opposition to the National Debt Bill) 'must be decisive, but it requires some reflection, and some management in the quarter that you know' [the King]. Buckingham, 'Courts and Cabinets of George III', ii. 207; see also pp. 208-9. Partial description from Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Vol. VI. 8096.