The apostate Jack R- : the political rat catcher. NB. Rats taken alive!

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Thomas Rowlandson
1756-1827
The apostate Jack R- : the political rat catcher. NB. Rats taken alive!
[London] : Pub'd by W. Humphrey No. 227 Strand, [1 March 1784]
etching with stipple
sheet: 215 x 327 mm
Peel 3425
Provenance: 
Formerly owned by Sir Robert Peel.
Notes: 

Title from item.
Lettered with title (the "s" in "apostate" reversed, "Jack" spelt wih an "I").
Printmaker and date from George.
Library's copy trimmed within plate mark.

Summary: 

John Robinson, the former Secretary to the Treasury, shown on his hands and knees in a room full of rats with human faces, is baiting one of them with a strip of paper inscribed, "pension." On his back is a cage baited with a coronet and "places" and two rats inside. Other rats group mostly around the coins spread on the floor and look at Robinson expectantly. On the wall hangs a list of "rats of note," i.e., the members of Parliament Robinson already bribed against Charles Fox.

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