Illustration to half-title page to George Huddesford's "The scum uppermost when the porridge-pot boils over!," 1802.
Lettered beneath image: "The scum uppermost when the Middlesex porridge-pot boils over! / Entered at Stationer's-hall."
Printed by Wilks and Taylor. Cf. British Museum catalog online.
The Devil enters the hustings by steps leading to the centre where he is received by Burdett, whom he has come to help. He is nude and muscular, with a satyr's head, long horns, webbed wings, and a barbed scaly tail; he wears one tasselled hessian boot (like those of Burdett), the other foot shows a cloven hoof. Behind is a row of Burdett's supporters (left to right): a barrister writing (? Clifford); two men, one in back view, one of whom may be the Duke of Bedford (mentioned in the verses); Sheridan; a severe-looking man; Fox. On the right are the heads and shoulders of three butchers; two bang together marrow-bones and cleavers, the other holds up a bludgeon; from which hang a butcher's steel and a tattered cloth inscribed "No Bastile". The title is from Dryden's: "-------------------Away, ye Scum / That still rise upmost when the Nation boils!"