A Charm For A Democracy, Reviewed, Analysed, and Destroyed Jany 1st 1799 To The Confusion Of Its Affiliated Friends, 1 February 1799
Scope and Contents
Artist: Thomas Rowlandson. Published: John Wright. From the 'Anti-Jacobin Review', ii, frontispiece. The interior of the 'Cave of Despair', with demons put to flight by a ray of divine light from the letters 'I A H' in a triangle in the upper left corner of the design. Three wizards (right) in monkish robes tend a boiling cauldron inscribed:
'Eye of Straw and toe of Cade
Tylers bow and Kosiuskos blade
Russels liver tongue of cur
Norfolks boldness Foxs fur
Add thereto a tygers chauldron
For the ingredients of our cauldron'
Facing them (right) sits the Devil enthroned, holding a trident, with a three-headed scaly monster beside him; he says:
"Pour in Streams of Regal Blood
Then the Charm is firm and good."
Burning pamphlets feed the fire under the cauldron; they are being heaped up by Horne Tooke, from whose mouth issues a label: 'H - T. Tis time tis time tis time'. The next, stirring the contents, says "Thrice! and Twice King's Heads have fallen". The third (? Dr. Towers), [Perhaps Dr. Parr; Towers died 20 May 1799.] flourishing a broom-stick, says, "Thrice the Gallic Wolves have bayed"; he holds an open book: 'Lying Whore \ False Swearing'. Behind the wizards is a procession of the Opposition. The first three (abreast) are Bedford, Norfolk, and Lord Derby. They say respectively: "Where are they! - gone Pocketed the Church and Poorlands The Tythes next" [alluding to the basis of the Russell fortunes]; "Oh fallen Sovereingty degraded Counseller"; "Poor joe is done No test or Corporation Acts". The next three are Fox, Erskine, and Tierney; they say respectively: "Where can I hide my secluded Head"; "Ah woe is me - poor I"; "Would I had never spoke of the Licentiousness of the Press". Behind them is Burdett, saying, "What can I report to my Friends at the Bastile". Behind there is an undifferentiated crowd entering the cave and headed by Thelwall holding a volume of 'Thelwalls Lectures', exclaiming, "Tm off to Monmouthshire". The procession is watched by a snaky monster (left). Above their heads and resting on clouds are small figures: the King, allegorically depicted, holding a serpent in each hand. Behind him are Pitt, saying, "Suspend their Bodies", (?) Grenville, (?) Windham, saying "Almighty God has been pleased to grant us a great Victory", and Kenyon, saying "Take them to the Kings Bench and Cold Bath fields". The divine ray is inscribed: 'Afflavit Deus et dissipantur \ Your Destruction cometh as a Whirlwind \ Vengeance is ripe.'
Four winged demons fly off (right) in the smoke of the cauldron, three have collars on which their names are engraved: 'Robesp[ierre]', 'Voltaire', and 'Price'. An ape dressed as a newsboy, with 'Courier' on his cap, blows his horn towards the cauldron. Behind him, in the extreme right corner, is an open book: 'Analitical Review \ Fallen never to rise again.' The seditious papers which feed the fire are: 'Equali[ty]'; 'Blasphemy Sedition'; 'Sophims' [sic]; 'Heresy'; 'Atheism'; 'Resistance is Prudence'; 'Belshams History'; 'Whig Club'; 'The Vipers of Monarchy and Aristocracy will soon be strangled by the Infant Democracy'; 'Fraud'; 'Third of September'; 'Rights of Nature' [by Thelwall, attacking Burke, 1796]; '21st of January'; 'Frends Atheism'; 'Quigleys Dying Speech'; 'O'Connors Manifesto'; 'Oakleys Pyrology'; 'Deism'; 'Kings can do good Joel Barlow'; 'Uritaranism' [sic]; 'Sedition'; 'France is free'; 'Duty of Insurrection'; 'Darwins topsy turvy Plants and Animals Destruction'; 'Kings are S------TS' [serpents, as in Barlow's 'Conspiracy of Kings', pub. J. Johnson, 1792]; 'Political Liberty'.
Description from the British Museum.
Dates
- Creation: 1 February 1799
Conditions Governing Access
Physical item available by appointment in our Reading Room
Extent
1.0 Item(s)
Language of Materials
English
Repository Details
Part of the Special Collections and Archives Repository
Western Bank Library
University of Sheffield
Western Bank
Sheffield South Yorkshire S10 2TN United Kingdom
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