Round a bare and decayed oak-tree is twined a serpent with the head of fox; he has scaly arms with human hands and holds out a damaged apple inscribed 'reform', saying, "nice apple, johnny! - nice apple". John bull (left) is a fat and squat yokel, wearing the windsor uniform of blue coat with red collar and cuffs. The pockets of his coat and waistcoat bulge with round golden apples. His back is to fox, towards whom he looks out of the corners of his eyes, saying: "very nice n'apple indeed! - but my pokes are all full of pippins from off t'other tree: & besides, i hates medlars, they're so domn'd rotten! that i'se afraid they'll gie me the guts-ach for all their vine looks!" fox's scaly tail is coiled round the upper branches; its tip issues from a large cap of 'liberté', decorated with tricolour cockade and ribbons, which is poised on a branch. The trunk of the tree is 'opposition'; its roots are: 'envy', 'ambition', 'disappointment'. The main branches are 'rights of man' (see bmsat 7867, &c. ) and 'profligacy'. Each rotten apple or medlar has an inscription: 'democracy. ', 'treason. ', 'slavery. ', 'atheism. ', 'blasphemy. ', 'plunder. ', 'murder. ', 'whig club', 'impiety', 'revolution', 'conspiracy', 'corresponding society', 'deism', 'age of reason' (paine's deistic book). In the background (right) is an oak in full leaf: its trunk is 'justice', the roots 'commons', 'king', 'lords', the branches 'laws' and 'religion'. From it hangs a crown surrounded by 'pippins', some inscribed 'freedom', 'happiness', 'security'. (cf. Bmsat 8287, &c. ) 23 may 1798
hand-coloured etching. Date: 1798. Dimensions: Height: 365 mm; Width: 261 mm. Medium: paper. Depicted People: Charles James Fox. Collection: British Museum. The tree of Liberty,-with, the Devil tempting John Bull (BM 1868,0808.6739 2)
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