A forcible entrance into Leadenhall-Street; by Master Billy Declaratory upon a dun'd-ass

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Joshua Kirby Baldrey
1754-1828
A forcible entrance into Leadenhall-Street; by Master Billy Declaratory upon a dun'd-ass
London : Pubd April 24 1788 by Josa Baldrey No 19 H Holborn, [1788]
Peel 1606
Published: 
London : Pubd April 24. 1788. by Josa Baldrey No 19 H. Holborn, [1788]
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Printmaker Joshua Baldrey occasionally operated from 19 Holborn in London, under the imprint "S. Doughty & Co." Cf. British Museum online catalog.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

Print shows Pitt (right), seated on an ass with the head of Dundas, riding along Leadenhall Street preceded by Thurlow; on the left are Britannia, heavily burdened with taxes, and Justice, dropping her scales in alarm at the attitude of Thurlow who threatens to strike her with a rolled document inscribed "Law" while Pitt sits composedly on his ass; in his right hand is a sabre inscribed "Obstinacy", on his left arm an oval shield on which are a crown and the words "Patronage Numbers"; his rein is inscribed "Controul". From Dundas's neck hangs a large open book, its left page inscribed "A Volume of Considerations for dropping the Impeachment of Sr Thos Rumbold Humbly Dedicated to the Rt Honl H. Dundas by his most Obed. Humble Servt Thos Rumbo[ld]"; the opposite page consists of four bank-bills or cheques for £500. The ass tramples on papers inscribed "Rights", "Charters", "Privileges" and Thurlow tramples on Precedents (i.e. those of the impeachments of Strafford). Britannia, on the extreme left, walking away from the procession, stoops under her burden, composed of interlaced ribbons inscribed "Wheel Tax", "Hat Tax", "Shop Tax", etc., and cries, "O Lord deliver us from this Pitt of destruction"; behind the procession are the houses of Leadenhall Street with part of the India House on the extreme left. Behind Pitt (right) is a shop with a large shuttered window on which is a placard: This Shop and House to Let: \ the Trade removing to a \ Smaller: \ according to the very judicious \ learned, and Philanthropist \ Advice, of \ The Rt Honble Wm Pitt.

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