The political activities of Benjamin Franklin represented by his electrical experiments. Engraving, 1770.

A prophetical satirical print about Benjamin Franklin and the unpopular 'chain' of political events that he generated in England at the time. It is composed of 26 scenes starting at top right (no. 1, the coast of France with Lord Bute in the form of an electrical machine). Bute is accompanied by three gentlemen, one of whom turns a handle in Bute's head to generate electricity. The chain crosses the English Channel to the Princess of Wales beside whom stands the King as a button-maker, with a book entitled 'History of Charles, a dissolution dangerous to the crown'. Lower centre is the last scene (no. 26) in which a group of men (ministers), among them the Earl of Bute, sit around a table in preparation for the 'Great (British) lion feast'. Top centre, a figure straddles a balance in which a group of men representing Vice (the 'treasury') outweigh the others who represent Virtue (liberty and the 'Bill of Rights', 'Magna Charta', etc.)

Those scenes that are connected by an electrical chain, a reference to Franklin's electrical scientific demonstrations at the time, feature figures who were alleged to have received bribes from French ministers to procure a damaging peace for England (Bute, the Princess of Wales and others). Franklin had been dispatched to England in 1764 to petition the King to make Pennsylvania a Royal colony, but wranglings over the stamp act of 1765 (which imposed a stamp duty on all colonial activities) obscured his original mission. Franklin openly opposed the tax, using all his powers to influence politicians: his efforts resulted in the repeal of the stamp act in 1766

[London] : published according to Act of Parliament, [1770]

1 print : engraving ; sheet 70.4 x 40.8 cm

Political electricity; or, an historical & prophetical print in the year 1770 ... Bute & Wilkes invent. Mercurius & Apelles fect. Lettering below title: 'References. 1. Represents Ld B-e on y'e coast of France ... Chains, shackles and neat ...' the rest of the line has been torn away

By an unknown author, though the lettering attributes the design to the Earl of Bute and John Wilkes, and the engraving to Mercury and Apelles

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. IV, London 1978, no. 4422

Dorothy George, English political caricature, a study of opinion and propaganda, 1793-1832, Oxford University Press, 1959, p. 143-3

Wellcome Collection 583497i