William Hogarth whitewashing a large jack boot; representing Hogarth's acceptance of patronage from Lord Bute. Etching, 1762, by Paul Sandby.

The print by Hogarth called 'The times' (British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires no. 3970) had been published on 7 September 1762: it supported Lord Bute against attacks by John Wilkes and the satirist Charles Churchill. Wilkes, Churchil and Sandby produced the present print anonymously as their response, mocking Hogarth, Bute, and the latter's Scottish associates. The whitewash from Hogarth's brush bespatters three opponents of Bute on the left: Earl Temple, the Earl of Newcastle, and William Pitt the elder. Charles Churchill brandishes his stick at Scottish journalists. Right, a Scottish procession marches towards St James's Palace, London, guarded by the Duke of Cumberland. Hogarth had been appointed Serjeant-Painter to the King in 1757: the pail of whitewash inscribed 'pension' alludes to this secure employment. One of the reasons for the faction was Lord Bute's terms at the Peace of Paris (November 1762), by which Great Britain ceded to France the sugar islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique that had been captured from France by the British under William Pitt in 1759 and 1762