The tenth-report, or, The ghost of an act of Parliament appearing to the forlorn Johnnny M'Cree

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Charles Williams
1796-1866
The tenth-report, or, The ghost of an act of Parliament appearing to the forlorn Johnnny M'Cree
hand colored etching
image: 313 x 235 mm; plate mark: 355 x 249 mm; sheet: 356 x 254 mm
Purchased by J. Pierpont Morgan, 1900.
Peel 1887
Published: 
[London] : S.W. Fores, 1805.
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Attributed to Charles Williams by the British Museum online catalog.
Lettered: "Pubd April 11th 1805 by SW Fores 50 Piccadilly / Folios of Caracatures lent out for the Evening."

Summary: 

Above the design as an alternative title: 'A Messenger from the House'. Melville sits (l.) in an armchair, terrified at a monstrous vision; he exclaims: "Mercy on me!! Wha wants me?"He wears Highland dress; at his feet is an open book: 'Henry VIII Act 5' (like Fox in 1782, and Thurlow in 1792, he is compared to Wolsey). A monster rises through the floor surrounded by smoke and flames. In his right. hand he holds up a headsman's axe dripping blood, in the left. a rope; he glares fiercely at Melville, saying, "He that maketh a Law and breaketh it-----." From his neck hangs a large scroll, covering his body, inscribed: 'An Act Entitled - Thou shalt Not make use of the Public Money for thine Own Private Emolument.' On the creature's head is a triple tiara: at the summit a royal crown, below this 'Lords', and at the base 'Commons'.

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