File:The Impeachment. (BM 1868,0808.5488).jpg

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The Impeachment.   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist

Print made by: James Sayers

Published by: Thomas Cornell
Title
The Impeachment.
Description
English: Burke dressed as a Roman senator, but wearing his own wig, stands, his head turned in profile to the left towards Hastings, whom he is denouncing; his right arm is raised holding up a paper inscribed 'Articles of Impe[achme]nt'. With his left arm he extends his cloak to shelter a seated figure on the right, who covers his face with his hands, and at whose feet lie a noose of rope and an open book, 'Cash Dr' and 'Cash C[r]' with ruled '£ s. d.' columns, the entries on the credit side being erased. Hastings, on the extreme left, is in oriental dress, his face turned aside, his hands held out as if protesting his innocence. In the air, hurled by Burke, are two papers: 'Treaty of Peace with the Mahrattas' and the portrait of an oriental, his hands bound, inscribed 'Cheyt Sing'. Beneath the title is etched:



'Had Hastings been accus'd in Verres' Time,
And Asia's Preservation been his Crime,
Tully, 'tis said, with all his Powers of Speech
Had urg'd the Roman Senate - to impeach,
But had that Tully lived in Powell's Day,
And known the official "Error of his Way"
He wou'd have drop't the Impeachment and ye Halter
And for his Merits screen 'd the good Defaulter.' 17 March 1786


Etching and aquatint
Depicted people Representation of: Edmund Burke
Date 1786
date QS:P571,+1786-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Medium paper
Dimensions
Height: 302 millimetres
Width: 229 millimetres
institution QS:P195,Q6373
Current location
Prints and Drawings
Accession number
1868,0808.5488
Notes

(Description and comment from M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VI, 1938)

Burke's violent attacks on Hastings are contrasted with his screening and reinstatement of Powell, the defaulting cashier in the Paymaster's office, who committed suicide in 1783, see BMSat 6195, 6929. The print anticipates the impeachment, which was not inevitable until the debate of 13 June on the treatment of Cheyt Singh. Rose, 'Pitt and National Revival', 1911, pp. 232-4. Wraxall, 'Memoirs', 1884, pp. 336 ff. 'Parl. Hist.' xxvi. 91 ff. See BMSat 6915, 6922, 6926, 6939, 6948, 6955, 6966, &c, 7139, 7268. For the trial see BMSat 7269, &c. For Burke as Cicero accusing Verres cf. BMSat 7138.
Source/Photographer https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-5488
Permission
(Reusing this file)		 © The Trustees of the British Museum, released as CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

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current01:40, 14 May 2020Thumbnail for version as of 01:40, 14 May 2020863 × 1,147 (563 KB)Copyfraud (talk | contribs)British Museum public domain uploads (Copyfraud/BM) Satirical prints in the British Museum 1786 #7,589/12,043

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