La bonnet-rouge - or - John Bull evading the tax hat

John Bull stands full-face on the pavement outside a shop window, holding on his head a red cap trimmed with fur of quasi-military, quasi-libertarian shape. He is a yokel with wrinkled gaiters, with a tattered great-coat is held together by a military belt. In his left hand is a ragged hat. The shop is that of 'Billy-Black-Soul [Pitt], Hatter, & Sword-cutler.' Above the door (right) are the royal arms and 'Stamp-Office' (the tax on hats being levied by a stamp). Within the window are crossed swords and military cocked hats with a number of stamps bearing the royal arms. In the foreground (left) is a pile of dead cats with a paper (BM). / The hat tax was one of the new ways of increasing the revenue discovered this year. It is said to have led to an immense addition to the trade in caps, as a method of evading the direct tax. John Bull himself is here trying the experiment, but has chosen an objectionable colour (red). It is intimated that the excessive and increasing taxation under Pitt's government was making John Bull less and less hostile to the terrible "bonnet rouge" (Wright/Evans).
Courtesy of Boston Public Library