Image: National-Debt-Gillray

Description: A new way to pay the national-debt / design'd by Helagabalis ; executed by Sejanus. SUMMARY: Cartoon shows King George III and Queen Charlotte standing before the Treasury, moneybags under their arms, their pockets overflowing and bursting with coins (funds from the Treasury to cover Royal debts), William Pitt, his pockets full of coins, hands the king another moneybag taken from an overflowing wheelbarrow; the Prince of Wales (the future George IV) stands to the right looking destitute, he is being handed a check saying "Accept £200000 from your friend Orleans"; a quad-amputee sits on the ground to the left with an overturned and empty hat between the stubs of his legs, which are fitted with prostheses. Posters on the wall read "Last Dying Speech of Fifty-Four Malefactors executed for robbing of a Hen-Roost" and "Just published for the benefit of Posterity: The Dying Groans of Liberty". MEDIUM: 1 print : etching. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [London] : Pubd. by Willm. Holland, 1786 April 21. Catalogue of prints and drawings in the British Museum. Division I, political and personal satires, v. 6, no. 6945 Forms part of: British Cartoon Prints Collection (Library of Congress). Exhibited: Gillray and the Art of Caricature.
Title: National-Debt-Gillray
Credit: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZC4-10675 (color film copy transparency), archival TIFF version (60 MB), cropped, and converted to JPEG with the GIMP 2.4.5, image quality 88.
Author: James Gillray
Permission: No known restriction on publication.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No