Title etched in lower center of image.
Print shows a number of men with asses' heads sitting around a table signing a petition. They are upon a platform in a ramshackle room; a ladder rests against its left corner; on the ladder appear the head and shoulders of Fox in back view; he holds strings attached to the noses of the asses. The ass seated at the head of the table (left) hands down to him a "Petition to the House of Commons for Delay [signed] Ign[or]amus". An ass holds a long document, the "Commercial Treaty with France", which falls across the table on to the ground; on his right shoulder an ass rests his head; another on the left sleeps with his head resting on a pile of books on the table. A spectacled ass writes busily; next him, at the end of the table (right), an ass leans back asleep. The nose of a braying ass appears through a door on the extreme right. Behind the table an ass places a notice on the wall: Chamber of Commerce at a Meeting held the 10th of February Resolved. This partly covers another bill: Chamber [of] Commerce at a Meeting 9th Decr 1786 Resolv[ed]. On a shelf (left) a figure of Mercury with a wooden leg dances, flourishing a caduceus; the right hand is broken off; behind it part of a vase is visible inscribed "Wedgwood". Figure and vase are on a pedestal inscribed "Ex Quovis Ligno non fit Mercurius". Cf. George.