A large and plebeian crowd is being addressed from three roughly made platforms, one being in the middle distance, another in the background. In the foreground (right) a man, supposed to be thelwall, leans from his rostrum in profile to the left, shouting, with clenched fists, and raised right arm. Behind him stands a ragged barber, a comb in his lank hair, holding out a paper: 'resolutions of the london corresponding society'. Next him, a man with the high-crowned hat and bands of a dissenting minister holds a tattered umbrella over the orator. A man on the steps leading to the platform, wearing a bonnet-rouge (the only one in the crowd) has a vague resemblance to fox. From the next platform (left) a butcher, supposed to be gale jones, bawls at the crowd with raised right arm. Beside him stand a man holding a scroll inscribed 'rights of citizens'. The third orator is a tiny figure (hodgson) with both arms raised. All the platforms are surrounded by crowds, and hats and arms are being waved by those addressed by the butcher. In the foreground (left) a man sits holding out for signature a document which is supported on a barrel of 'real democratic gin by thelwal & co. ' three little chimney-sweepers stand round it, one of whom, holding a pen, has just made his mark on the 'remonstrance', below the signatures of 'jack cade', 'wat tyler', 'jack straw'. All wear caps with the name of their master on a brass plate (according to the chimney-sweepers' act of 1788); this is 'thelwall'. A fat woman sells a dram to one of the crowd. Another presides over a portable roulette or e. O. Table, a 'teetotum', inscribed 'equality & no sedition bill'; three barefooted urchins are staking their pence. The heads in general do not appear to be portraits, but in the centre of the design, with his back to the woman selling drams, is priestley, caricatured, standing with folded arms facing thelwall. There is a landscape background with trees up which spectators have climbed. Beneath the design: '"i tell you, citizens, we mean to new-dress the constitution and turn it, and set a new nap upon it. "
shakspeare' 16 november 1795
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1795. Dimensions: Height: 247 mm; Width: 348 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: John Binns. Collection: British Museum. Copenhagen house. (BM J,3.86)
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