The British lion is tormented by apes wearing coronets sitting on its back, prodding it, cutting off its tail and pulling it by a hook through the nose; representing Great Britain losing the Second Reform Bill in 1831 owing to the opposition of the House of Lords. Lithograph, 1831.

On the defeat of the Second Reform Bill in the House of Lords on 8 October 1831, after the bill had been passed in the House of Commons. The defeat was followed by riots in several British cities. Possibly derived from a French wood-engraving in which Huguenot-apes ride and torment the lion (British Museum, loc. cit.). The apes that beset the British lion represent peers, among them (on the lion's head) is the Duke of Cumberland who tried to sway the King's opinion against the Catholic reform bill of 1831