The Colossus of regicide
Title from item.
Cartoon presumably inspired by Edmund Burke's image of the conflict with revolutionary France and its doctrines as "a Colossus which bestrides our channel" with "one foot on a foreign shore, the other upon the British soil." (Letters on a regicide peace, 1796, page 19).
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.
A colossus dressed only in a loin cloth and head kerchief bestrides the English Channel, with France to the Left and England to the right; the figure holds a dagger and chain in the hand on the French side, and a French flag and tree (of liberty?) in the hand extended towards the English side; a placard reading "Mandats" hangs from his loin cloth, and hordes of little demons fly over the French shore, labeled "Committe of Research", "Robespierrists", "Frerons", etc.; a procession of demons attempt to cross into England on the legs of the colossus, but are intercepted by a fierce dog on the English shore who savages them as they arrive, as Burke stands beside it with a lantern and a ratchet (noisemaker), and an angel armed with a saw endeavors to cut through the ankle of the figure.