Lettered "London. Pubd by J. Sidebotham 96 Strand, June 1816."
A design divided into a row of four panels, each having as heading the name of one of the four courts.
A design in four panels. In each sits the judge of the court. In the first three the judge sits on the bench, at a small desk in front of him, with the Royal Arms enclosed in a circle behind his head, quartering the fleur-de-lis discarded in 1801. Below each is a motto. [1] Lord Ellenborough stares to the left, holding in his right hand a paper: 'King v. Lord Cochrane Judgment of the Court £1000 fine & Imprisonment'. Below: 'Magistratus indicat Virum'. [2] Sir Vicary Gibbs, C.J. of the Common Pleas, is writing, his hand on a book, his keen profile turned to the right; in his left hand is a paper: 'King--v.-- Horne Tooke &c.' Below: 'Disponendo me, non mutando me.' He assisted Erskine in the defence of Horne Tooke and others in the famous trial of 1794, the acquittal being due to his forcible exposition of the law and to Erskine's eloquence. As Attorney-General (1807-12) he had been a subject of satire. [3] Lord Eldon stares straight at the spectator. Over his desk hangs a bulky document, partly rolled: 'The 150th application to the Chancellor upon the affairs of the opera house & that his Lordship may direct the manager what sum of money shall be given to madame Cata-squallini to sing one night in a week for a season of 3 months she having considered 5.000 Guineas not a sufficient equivalent for her Notes.' Below: 'Æquanimiter'. The opera house was insolvent and the subject of much litigation. [4] Sir Alexander Thomson (or Thompson), Chief Baron of the Exchequer from Feb. 1814 to his death in Apr. 1817, sits full-face at a table covered with a green cloth, a sloping writing-desk before him, holding a paper. Behind him, below three small rectangular windows with leaded frames, hangs a green curtain in straight folds. On the table are documents, &c., one inscribed 'Information and £30.000 penalty for illicit Distillation'. Below: 'Vestigia nulla retrorsum' [abridged from Horace, 'Epistles', 1. i. 74-5 (no footsteps lead back from his Court)]. Cf. British Museum online catalogue.