Printmaker identified by Richard T. Godfrey, Dec. 13, 1979.
Publication date from Stephens.
Proof before letters, lacking the engraved text within the image.
Library's copy trimmed within platemark.
Satire on the Newcastle administration, suggesting that the personal greed of ministers was destroying the national economy. The state is shown as classical structure whose supporting columns and caryatids ('Trade' and 'Publick Credit') are collapsing under the weight of a huge bag containing £80.000,000; Britannia who sits below cries, 'Oh thoughtless Sons know you not in destoying me you destroy your selves.' The bag is pushed by 'Vote buying Members' and 'A Parcel of Poor Men of mean fortunes of 8, 10, or 20,00 p. Ann ....'; behind them is a group of heedless pleasure seekers including two men kissing, ladies interested in 'New Opera' and card-playing, modern scholars who destroy biblical teaching, thoughtless Bacchus, Folly holding rods with ribbons celebrating 'Masqueratdes, Ridottas, Drums, Hurricanes, Racketts, Plays, Dress, Sloth, &c., &c.' with a dice box, dice and masks, and men chasing butterflies or blowing bubbles. Attempts are made to shore up the structure with a number of props by two patriots (one of whom may be intended for William Pitt); they labour in vain to introduce economic stabilty and to eliminate corruption. At their feet sit two tradesmen in despair, holding respectively a hammer and a weaving shuttle. On the right, four government ministers pull on ropes to bring down the bag of money and, by implication, the state: Anson with a fish hanging from his sash; Harwicke with an eagle holding a book; Newcastle; and Fox.