By James Gillray.
Trimmed to within plate mark.
Satire upon Lord Lonsdale's retaliatory response to an action brought against him following the collapse of houses in Whitehaven as a result of his coalmines. Lonsdale immediately closed (or threatened to close) the mines, to the potential ruin of the town, forcing 135 desperate 'Merchants and Inhabitants' of Whitehaven to sign a 'humble Representation' offering to pay the damages of the action, the costs of an appeal, and all damages and costs by any future action, if he would continue working the mines.
Print shows Lord Lonsdale with the head of a wolf sitting in his carriage drawn by men past a row of two-storied cottages which are falling to pieces. He wears an earl's coronet, and a military coat with a shirt frill; from his mouth issue the words 'Dear Gentlemen this is too much, now you really distress me'. A hind wheel rolls over an open book, 'Peter Pindar'. A man wearing a legal wig sits on the box, raising a whip whose lashes are three scrolls inscribed, 'Littledale versus Lonsdale', 'Indemnifications', and 'Sham trials'. From his pockets issue a volume inscribed 'Blackstone', and a paper: 'Bills unpaid'; he is Lonsdale's 'clerk and attorney'. Two of the men pulling the carriage say: "No ropes equal to mine, at a dead pull and A glorious night for my Brewery". Another man is in rags. In front of the procession and on the extreme right walk two couples holding hands. These carry three banners, inscribed: 'The good Samaritan', 'The Lion The Lamb', and: 'The Blues are bound in Adamantine Chains But Freedom round each Yellow Mansion reigns' One of the men is saying to the woman he walks with: 'And makes the Farmers Wives & Daughters Game'. Behind the carriage is a cheering crowd shouting, "Liberty, Huzza, Huzza." The man in the foreground is a sailor with a bludgeon. Over the door of one of the ruined cottages is a placard: 'To lett convenient lodgings.'