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© Great Caricatures
2023

The POLITICAL-BANDITTI

assaulting the SAVIOUR of INDIA

Wright & Evans Description | British Museum Description

Engraving from the 1851 Bohn edition
Originally Published April 5th 1788
11 3/8"h x 16 3/4"w

Wright and Evans Description (More ...)

31. THE POLITICAL BANDITTI ASSAILING THE SAVIOUR OF INDIA.
May 11th, 1788. [Reissue Date]

BURKE. WARREN HASTINGS. LORD NORTH. POX.

Warren Hastings assaulted by Burke, Lord North, and Fox, who instituted and conducted the attack against him in the House of Commons. Peter Pindar alludes to the subject in his "Ode to Edmund," i. p. 412.

"Much edified am I by Edmund Broke;
  Well pleased I see his mill-like mouth at work;
  Grinding away for poor old England's good.

     *     *     *     *     *

Now may not Edmund's howlings be a sigh,
  Pressing through Edmund's lungs for loaves and fishes,
On which he long hath looked with longing eye,
  To fill poor Edmund's not o'er-burden'd dishes ?"

" Give Mun a sop, forgot will be complaint;
  Britain be safe, and Hastings prove a saint."

British Museum Description by M. Dorothy George (More ...)

6955 THE POLITICAL-BANDITTI ASSAILING THE SAVIOUR OF INDIA.
Pub^d May 11^th 1786. by. Will^m Holland N^o 66 Drury Lane.

Hastings, in oriental dress, rides (r. to l.) a camel. He and the camel look down with dignified contempt at Burke (l.), who fires a blunderbuss pointblank at the Shield of Honour on Hastings's l. arm. On the shield is a crown. Behind Hastings are Fox and North (r.): Fox raises a dagger with burlesqued gestures and an expression of frenzied rage; North, very short and fat, clutches one of the bags behind Hastings inscribed Lacks Rupees added to the Revenue; this is tied to another inscribed Rupees D^o. The three assailants are much caricatured and all wear armour; Burke, grotesquely, thin and like some malignant insect, wears a Jesuit's biretta (cf. No. 6oz6). He somewhat resembles the Don Quixote ... a wallet of Charges is slung across his shoulder, bare feet project from the greaves which cover his legs. North wears his Garter ribbon over his armour, with a feathered helmet and top-boots. The point of a large sabre with a damaged blade projects through the tattered scabbard which is inscribed American Subjugation. Fox wears the cloak of a conspirator over his armour (cf. No. 6389, &c.). Hastings (not caricatured) wears a jewelled turban, floating draperies, trousers, and slippers; his camel is heavily draped. On its back are bags, inscribed Saved to the Company and Eastern Gems for the British Crown, with a rolled map, Territories acquired by W. Hastings. The background is a mountainous landscape.

One of many satires on the pending impeachment of Hastings ...