(The State of the Nation) (BM 1868,0808.13404)

No title. In the foreground (left) a fountain spouts gold coins into a basin, at which a bishop and three peers, one wearing a black mask, kneel to drink. The bishop has cloven feet and he drinks from his mitre. The fountain is topped by an irradiated royal crown and the coin pours through the mouths of two little tax-collectors back to back and leaning on a tablet inscribed Tax. Other peers, wearing their coronets, one or two wearing black masks, and two bishops, stand round the fountain, enviously watching the golden stream. Among them is Cumberland on the extreme left, next Wellington, who holds up his hands as if to intercept the rays from the crown (cf. BM Satires No. 15774). Next him is a bishop (? Howley) holding a sword and a crosier. Others are Londonderry, wearing a fool's cap and smiling (see BM Satires No. 17004), and Eldon. A man in armour with his hand on his sword stands, with a proprietary gesture, as if presiding over the fountain.
John Bull, unnoticed, stands with arms flung wide, trying to attract attention to impoverished people on the right: a woman with a starving infant and little girl, an aged man with two children at his knee, and a despairing woman. Behind these foreground figures (right) is a dense crowd of men, grimly angry, one or two with cudgel or raised fist. These are being addressed by Brougham dressed as a schoolmaster (cf. BM Satires No. 15535) and holding a birch-rod. He stands on a huge pile of books (cf. BM Satires No. 17267). In the distance the same crowd is being addressed by a mob-orator. On the sky-line are blazing ricks; a long procession of tiny emaciated figures, almost in single file, stretches from the horizon to the middle distance, where the foremost is kneeling. Near them cavalry (left) are riding down unarmed fugitives. c. Dec 1830

Lithograph