Promised Horrors of the French Invasion or Forcible Reasons for Negotiation of a Regicide Peace. Vide, The Authority of Edmund Burke

Promised Horrors of the French Invasion or Forcible Reasons for Negotiation of a Regicide Peace. Vide, The Authority of Edmund Burke

This highly sophisticated political cartoon by the noted engraver James Gillray from October 1796 responds to Edmund Burke’s pamphlet, "Reflections on a Regicide Peace." This image argues against further war with France to avoid bankrupting the British treasury and exposing England itself to invasion. This cartoon mocks that idea, attributing it to the supposedly "radical" tendencies of opposition leader Charles James Fox, who here is depicted as a sans–culotte with no pants at all, having tied his rival, Prime Minster William Pitt, to a "Liberty Tree."

James Gillray

Museum of the French Revolution

1796

Unknown

http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/41/|<em>Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist with the History of his Life and Times</em>. Edited by Thomas Wright. London

JPEG

English

41

Etching

32.5 x 43.5 cm

Promis'd horrors of the French invasion, or, Forcible reasons for negociating a regicide peace : vide, the authority of Edmund Burke