Aldermen of the City of London Corporation represented as Chinese and as monsters in procession to Westminster to protest against the Treaty of Paris, 1763. Etching after J.H. O'Neale, 1763.

The 1763 Treaty of Paris, which ended the Seven Years' War, was opposed by some who considered that Great Britain had yielded too much to the other European powers in North America. The procession is described as a "body without a head in the East" because the Corporation of the City of London was in the east of the city and because its head (the Lord Mayor William Beckford) was absent. The "great body in the West" presumably refers to the Houses of Parliament, in Westminster

"Aldermen in procession along Fleet Street wear jack boots to show their allegiance to Bute and carry emblems of their professions; they are caricatured, several with animal heads; some of their mounts are also presented grotesquely. Groups of people observe and comment, most of them in supposedly eastern dress to emphasise the fact that the procession is moving westwards towards St James's. At the front (to right) Sir Charles Asgill, the banker (in place of the Lord Mayor, William Beckford) carries a pole with money bags and is attended by a zany who holds a parasol over his head to "screen him from the rage of the Populace"; a bystander remarks, punningly, "'Tis money makes the Mare to go", and a small boy urges his dog to attack. Next come, Sir Robert Alsop, a Scottish hosier, with a thistle on his head, carrying a pole with gloves, stockings and ribbons, beside Sir Thomas Rawlinson, with a tea-chest, coffee-canister and sugar loaf on a pole, and another sugar loaf for a hat; they ride on mules. Next are Marshe Dickinson, a lawyer with the head of a fox, carrying a pole with a writing desk and legal documents, riding with Sir Henry Bankes, grocer and oilman, with jars, bottles and two dried fish on his pole. Next ride, Sir Samuel Fludyer, clothier, mounted on a ram and carrying bales and rolls of cloth on his pole, and Sir Francis Gosling, banker, with the head of a goose, carrying a volume of "Mother Goose's Tales" on his pole. Next, Richard Blunt, distiller, with a funnel on his head carrying a still, bottle and barrel on his pole, and Sir James Eyre, with a judge's wig and wolf's head, carrying a portcullis and noose. Next, Sir Thomas Challoner, sheriff, with a dog's head carrying a gallows from which is suspended a corpse, and Sir Thomas Harrison, the City Chamberlain, carrying a urinal and chamber pot. The final figure is Sir James Hodges, stationer of London Bridge and Town Clerk, wearing a fool's cap, his horse with a horn book attached to its poll, and books and broadsides attached to his pole."-British Museum catalogue, loc. cit.

Sir Thomas Rawlinson was master of the Grocers' Company 1746-1747 and had been Lord Mayor of London in 1753-1754

[London] : [publisher not identified], [1763]

1 print : etching ; image 20.3 x 37.7 cm

An exact representation of a certain wise body without a head in the East going to pay a visit to a certain great body in the West. To pay a grand visit on peace being made See the wise men of Goatham in solemn parade, With signs of their trade marching on to the P_ [i.e. palace] Two by two just like criminals led to the gallows. Distillers & grocers, attorneys & oilmen, Amazeing! that gold should thus shamefully spoil men Sr. Charles Locum Tenens that spruce gallant man, As proud of his office appears in the van. The rear is brought up by the Knight of the Primmer, The giants in Guildhall by Jove ne'er look'd grimmer While Bow and St Bridget to show approbation Have muffled their bells on this joyful occasion. May 12 1763. The date "May 12 1763" is written in pencil in the lower right corner of the impression catalogued

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, no. 4056

William Schupbach, 'Hieroglyphicks of the City Fathers', Wellcome Library blog, 25 July 2016 https://wayback.archive-it.org/16107/20210312210735/http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2016/07/hieroglyphicks-of-the-city-fathers/

Wellcome Collection 31512i

The British Museum catalogue attributes the design to Jefferyes Hamett O'Neale