Consequences of a successful French invasion

No. 1. Plate 1st.  “We come to recover your long lost liberties” – Scene. The House of Commons.

London: James Gillray, March 1st 1798.

Etching printed in sanguine, on paper watermarked 1794, 319 x 361 mm, trimmed to just within the plate line, to small chips lower edge (one detached and held in place with mounting tape), old mount marks verso and large ink penwork, a good example.

A satirical depiction of the House of Commons if the planned French invasion was successful, a caption in the image reads ‘This house adjourned to Botany Bay’ with the members of the House garbed as convicts, shackled for their journey. The first of a series of four plates engraved by Gillray after descriptions written by Sir John Dalrymple, which illustrate the impact Napoleon’s invasion would have on English society. The text descriptions by Dalrymple were originally published in a prospectus, with twenty plates intended to complete the series. Dalrymple hoped the etchings would take on the form of popular propoganda, and so they were priced at sixpence each (uncoloured, a shilling coloured), rather than the usual shilling (or two, if coloured). Gillrary was unhappy with this price, and so only four plates were completed of the twenty, and the remainder, while described in Dalrymple’s original prospectus, never created. The plate was restruck in a more commonly found edition by Bohn in the 1850s, but the original 1798 impression is scarce.

KING, Jonathan. The other side of the coin : a cartoon history of Australia. Melbourne : Cassell, 1976, p. 18 (illustrated)