Thoughts on a regicide peace / [Sayers].

Print shows Burke asleep, in profile to the left, his arms folded in an arm-chair whose seat is inscribed "Otium cum Dignit[ate]". The top of his head is on fire, and the smoke rising from it forms the base of the upper and larger part of the design. Immediately above his head are lines from Shakespeare: "This royal Throne of Kings, this sceptred Isle ... Will make a shameful Conquest of itself. Shakespeare". The British lion stands as if supported on these lines; from his mouth issue the words: "I protest against Peace with a Regicide Directory Went: Fitzw." Their background is an altar, with oak leaves which forms a center to the upper part of the design. It supports a scroll: "Naval \ Victories \ East India \ Conquests \ &ca &ca." Above the altar flies a dove, an olive-branch in its mouth, clutching a sealed 'Passport'. Behind and above the lion Britannia stands in back view, playing a fiddle and intent on a large music score: "A new Opera \ Il Trattato \ di Pace \ Overture \ Rule Britan[nia scored through and replaced by] \ Ca Ira \ God save ye King [scored through and replaced by] The Marsellois Hymn." The apex of the design is an Austrian grenadier playing a flute with melancholy fervour: "To Arms to Arms my valiant Grenadiers." On the left stands a sansculotte, standing on a large map, one foot planted on "Britain", the other on "[I]reland". In his right hand is a pike bearing the head of Louis XVI, in his left a large key labelled "Belgium" and attached by a chain to his belt, in which is a dagger; his coat-pocket is inscribed "Forced Loan". He says: "I will retain what I have got and treat with you on fair Terms for what you have got". On the extreme left stands a creature smoking a pipe and symbolizing the Dutch Republic, linked to the sansculotte by a chain round its spinal cord. It has the head of a frog wearing a bonnet-rouge, thin, spidery arms akimbo, the ribs, &c. of a skeleton, baggy breeches, and shrunken legs. Cf. George.