Artist: James Gillray. After: Sir John Dalrymple. Published: James Gillray. The title continues: 'Me teach de English Republicans to work. - Scene. A Ploughed Field'. Beneath the title is etched on a separate plate: 'Description - A Row of English People in Tatters, and wooden Shoes, hoeing a Field of Garlic. A tall raw-boned Frenchman, with a long Queue behind, like a Slave Driver with a long Waggoner's Whip in each Hand, walking by their side. The People very sulky, but tolerably obedient and tractable for so short a Time ; John Bull being a bad Lad only when you are very good to him. The Group of the hoers are, a Husbandman, his Wife, a Manufacturer, a Curate, and an Old man; - in another Part of the Field [middle distance, left], four other English people, a Father and Son (Husbandmen) with two Seamen, in a Yoke, drawing a Plough ; a French Farmer guiding it with one Hand, and with the other flourishing and cracking a French Postillion's long Whip ; a French Boy walking by the side of the Yoke with a Goad, which has a Point as sharp as a Needle, the French Hoe-driver gives his Instructions thus: "Jacques Roast-Beef, hoe straight, deep, quick and rest not." - The Instructions of the French Holder of the Plough are - "Monsieur John Bull mon Ami", (in English) My Friend, Mr John Bull, pull hard, plough deep, trot quick, turn sudden, and rest not," - A Messager d'Etat, (in English) a Messenger of State in his Habit of Office, with a Letter in his Hand, comes to hurry on the work for the Exigencies of War. - In another part of the Plate [left] stand the Farm Offices ; a vast oak, withered, above them, - A Caldron boiling, on which is engraved, 'Soup Maigre', with a stack of Onions and Turnips close by it. On a large Board is painted - 'Regulations of this Farm., - [At Five o'clock in the Morning the Hogs and English Slaves are \ to be fed; at Twelve O'Clock at Night they are to be suppered, \ and littered up with the best Straw that the Scotch and Irish part \ of the Slaves can steal from the neighbouring Farms, and then \ locked up. But there are Holes in the Bottom of the Walls \ for the Hogs to go out, and get the Benefit of Fresh Air. - \ Punishment of Laziness, for the first Offence, five hundred \ Lashes; for the second, the Guillotine. All other Crimes, ex \ -cept those which affect Frenchmen, are forgiven on Promise \ of Amendment.' - A Ballad is lying on the Ground in the English Language, entitled, 'Recantation of British \ and Irish Republican Husbandmen and Manufacturers'. - The Burden of the Song is - "Oh, England, England! \ King, Wife, Sons and Daughters of our King, of \ whom the Sons are all brave, and the Daughters \ all beautiful: Parliament and Judges, who covered \ us with Blessings, which are repaid with Reproaches. \ Clergy who taught us to die as well as to live for \ our country - Landaff, Landaff. - Nobles and \ Squires in whose Hospitality and Bounty we shared. - \ St Vincents and Duncans. Merchants, Master Manufacturer[s] \ who lived as simply as ourselves, but both of us well; how could we forget you? You would not have de- \ serted us; but we deserted you. - But with the same \ Weapons which should have defended you, we will \ punish ourselves. We despise Life, we could submit to \ Misfortune, but cannot bear the Consciousness of \ not having stood or fallen with you. Oh England, \ England, Country of every Bliss, for ever farewell!' [Dalrymple, op. cit., pp. 5-6, 33-5.] The hoe-driver stands on the left of the line of hoers (right), who advance diagonally. The husbandman is a fat John Bull, his wife a comely woman. Beyond the 'old man' is a fifth man on the extreme right Gillray has added in the foreground a ragged hoer suspiciously like Fox. The four men yoked to the plough do not resemble seamen. The print otherwise follows the description. All the Englishmen wear large wooden shoes, emblems of servitude. Description from the British Museum.