An editor's office, with a printing-press (left) at one end of the room. Scott, the attorney-general, in legal wig and gown, tries to enter through a door (right); he holds a document: 'prosecution of paper for libeling [parlia]ment'. A well-dressed man (resembling tierney) pushes him back, trying to close the door upon him, saying: "you can't come in here! no editor here i assure you dont know the man! never saw him in my life! met a man yesterday something like him! what do you think i'd turn informer, never read a paper but when there's bloody news from france, never any body here but from manchester or margate [see bmsat 9189] - no conspirators here no no no if you dont believe me read the courier". From his pocket hangs a paper: 'mem. To skreen my friend at the expence of my character'. Under his right foot is a paper: 'parliamentary oath to deliver up all traitor[s] to make known any [c]onspiracy again[st] the state or his ma[jesty's] person. Swear nev[er]. '. Close beside him sits the editor (john parry), interrupted in the act of writing, as he turns to gape with alarm at the opening door. By the door is a placard, its right margin cut off by the edge of the design: 'rules to be obser[ved] in this printing offic[e] all spy's and infor[mers] to be kept at a prope[r] distanc. Viz outside the door------all scandalous paragraphs to be faithfully copied by the compositor wethe agai[nst] government or others'. Two prints also hang on the wall: one of 'buonaparte', a swaggering soldier leaning on an immense sabre, and one of the king torn and suspended upside down from one corner. On the table are papers inscribed 'essay to prove the defence of a traitor no treason', with two bundles of documents labelled 'correspondence with the convention' and 'correspondence with manchester'. On the floor are neatly tied bundles of papers: a sheet of the 'courier' duly stamped; 'paragraphs &c against government'; 'private and family transactions'; and 'french puffs and gasconades'. 15 april 1798
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1798. Dimensions: Height: 252 mm; Width: 349 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Napoléon I, Emperor of the French. Collection: British Museum. A legal mistake or honest men taken for conspirators. (BM 1868,0808.6719)
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