Gillray (James)

, Elizabeth d’Archery, 1782.
A political satire on the administration of Lord Shelburne and his close supporters, depicting the prime minister driving a triumphal chariot across an open, mountainous, landscape, his feet resting on Britannia’s shield, his head surrounded by a large, radiating, sun-like halo, as he utters the words ‘In my presence scoundrel Peasants shall not call their Souls their own’. In his right hand he raises a whip, and in his left he holds the reins to two emaciated asses drawing the chariot, these with the faces of John Dunning, Baron Ashburton, and General Conway. Dressed as a footman on the back of the chariot stands William Pitt, his youth indicated by the alphabet ‘horn book’ he holds in one had, while his status as chancellor of the exchequer is shown by the rolled documents tucked under his other arm. The running footman in front of the chariot, with the wings of Mercury on his hat and his shoes, is Colonel Barré, who had served alongside Shelburne in North America some twenty five years earlier, and who had recently been appointed Treasurer of the Navy on pension of over £3000, alluded to by the money bag the running figure carries, and which was the cause of some scandal at a time of supposed cut-backs..
240 by 340mm (9½ by 13½ inches).