No.11, Blessings of Britain – or – Swarm of Tax-Gatherers, Charles Williams, January 1817

See description on another impression of the same print in the british museum: a companion plate to no. 12862. British households are represented by large straw bee-hives; these are assailed by tax-collectors and their satellites who run through the air in a swarm. One hive is in the foreground (right), the two next are in the middle distance, with a line of little hives in the distance, curving to the left margin. John bull, ragged but chubby, stands defiantly on the step of his hive, defending it with a stake shaped like a rough pitchfork and inscribed 'prop of reform'; with this he prods the foremost collector, who drops book and pen in dismay. Behind him in the doorway is his wife, brandishing a poker, while three ragged and terrified small children cluster round the door. Other tax-gatherers assail the upper part of the hive; one has made a hole in the straw and puts in his hand; he has already seized honey. Another man departs with chunks of honeycomb, but his coat-tails are clutched by a man who leans from a hole in the hive. Another collector runs through the air, laden with spoil. More of the swarm are still advancing, holding pen and book or paper. One, holding up a constable's staff, holds out a 'warrant [of] distress. John bull' [scarcely legible]; another has a huge book inscribed 'poor's rate'. Other books are inscribed 'kings tax' and 'assess'd taxes'. One man holds out a paper inscribed 'snatch broker & sworn appraiser'. The men recede in perspective towards the upper left corner of the design, from which the swarm is descending upon the hives. A tax-gatherer enters the door of the second hive, while another stands on the upper part nailing on it a placard: 'kings taxes'. In the foreground (right) beside the hive a broken cord drops from a clothes-prop weighted down with tattered garments. On the left is a smoking manure-heap inscribed 'ministrial dung-hill'; on this lies a paper, 'prope[rty] tax' [now removed, see no. 12750, &c. ], and from it grow toadstools inscribed 'place, pension', and 'sinecure'. After the title: "all with united force combine to drive," "the lazy drones from the laborious hive. " virgil above the design: 'quarter day. ' plate numbered 389. January 1817 hand-coloured etching. Date: January 1817. Dimensions: Height: 243 mm; Width: 350 mm. Medium: paper. Collection: British Museum. No.11, Blessings of Britain – or – Swarm of Tax-Gatherers (BM 1872,1012.5064)