"Sola Virtus Invicta" - "Vitue (SIC) alone is Invincible" (BM 1868,0808.6703)

The Duke of Norfolk drives a triumphal car furiously over the bodies of his political opponents. He rises from his seat, flourishing above his head a whip with a long knotted lash. His head is the centre of a disk with star-shaped rays, from which issue flashes of lightning. A cap of 'Liberty' decorates his car, and a meretricious-looking woman floats through the air towards him holding an irradiated cap of liberty with a tricolour cockade on her staff; she is about to crown him with a laurel wreath. Prostrate bodies, raising heads and arms, lie thickly on the ground under the car and the hoofs of the wildly prancing pair of horses. All are burlesqued ; four only are recognizable: the front wheel passes over the neck (much elongated) of Pitt and of the King. The latter's face is almost blank, resembling a wig-block; his crown and wig have fallen off, his sceptre lies beside them. A bishop (Horsley, see BMSat 8703, &c.) sprawls under the horses; he wears a mitre; one lawn sleeve is inscribed 'R-ch-er'. Next him is Dundas, at whom lightning is particularly directed. Over the heads of some of the prostrate men (right): 'Placemen and Pensioners Spies and Informers.'
The car is about to pass the door (right) of the Crown and Anchor tavern, in which stand the Duke of Bedford (left) and Fox (right), cheering wildly. Bedford holds up a goblet containing a fox's brush, and his hat; Fox waves his hat, both arms above his head. Behind them, inside the door, is a background of raised arms and hats, grotesquely small and cheering frantically. Above the door is the sign: the anchor, sign of Hope, rests on an inverted crown, cf. BMSat 7890. Below the title: 'To the Whig Club of England this Plate is inscribed with all due respect by Their most devoted servant Richard Newton.' 26 February 1798

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