William Pitt the younger, standing on a tea chest, declares that he will reduce the tax on tea in order to stop smuggling. Etching, 1784.

Date:
July 9 1784
Reference:
31526i
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About this work

Description

"Pitt addresses a crowd of women in Leadenhall Street outside the India Office, on his measure to reduce the duty on tea in order to prevent smuggling. He stands in profile to the right on a tea-chest, which rests on the back of Fox who lies prone. All the women except the foremost are of the poor and disreputable sort; the foremost, who is stout and whose hair is fashionably dressed, may be intended for Mrs. Hobart but more probably for a bawd. Pitt says: "Ladies, notwithstanding I secure universal approbation by reducing the price of tea, a weed, so nourishing that it may be called the Manna of females, I shall in good time, turn the waste lands into juniper grounds, that you may never be in want of a drop of gin, to comfort your bowels and reconcile you to the loss of day light, fire-light & candle light". Behind Pitt (left) stands Sam House, shaking his fist and saying, "Dam your Catlap - give us windows, coals and candles, or my eyes and limbs, I'll thump Your bread-basket". Fox, whose head is close to Sam's feet, says, "Push him off, Sam, or, he'll squeeze my lights out". The foremost woman says, "Billy for ever, Huzza!" The next, who wears a ragged apron, says, "Bless the little cock of wax". One behind says, "Give us glorious gin and then you'll be a greater man than your father". The tea-chest on which he stands is inscribed with quasi-Chinese characters and the words 'Bohea tea duty free' and 'East India Bill'. The India House (left) is shored up by two beams inscribed 'Majority' and 'Prerogative' ... On its cornice stands a spurred game-cock saying "Cock a doodle doo"."--M. Dorothy George in the British Museum catalogue, loc. cit.

Publication/Creation

London (No.51 New Bond Street) : H. Humphrey, July 9 1784.

Physical description

1 print : etching ; platemark 35 x 24.8 cm

Lettering

Catlap for ever, or smuggler's downfal. Catlap: "Stuff fit for a cat to lap: contemptuously applied to tea or other weak drink"--Oxford English dictionary

References note

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires in the British Museum, vol. VI, London 1938, no. 6634

Reference

Wellcome Collection 31526i

Type/Technique

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