Numbered "4" within plate at upper left.
The fourth of a set of 7 prints by Sayers entitled Outlines of the opposition in 1795 collected from the works of the most capital Jacobin artists.
Item no. 129 of a collection of prints by James Sayers (PML 146857); formerly part of an album of mounted prints, now disbound.
Inscribed "D of Bedford" at foot of sheet.
Print shows the gate of Bedford House (Bedford Square) with the double doors open to show a man descending the steps of the house carrying a sack of plunder. On one side of the gate sits the Duke of Bedford, dressed as a jockey and seated on a saddle supported by trestles; he looks down, his face is concealed by his cap, his arms are folded. At his feet is a paper: "Motion for Peace with France". On the opposite side sits a sansculotte astride a pile of plunder topped by a bundle of "Title De[eds] of Estates in -". His feet rest on money-bags and on a ducal coronet. He wears a bonnet-rouge and grasps a bag inscribed "£1000". A horizontal beam or 'Bedford Level' touches both their heads, from its center rises an upright against which hangs a plumb-line, exactly vertical. On each gate-post is a double-headed Sphinx, one head (left) looks down mournfully at Bedford, another (right), with snaky locks, grins down at his companion. Cf. George.