"We come to recover your long lost Liberties" is the second plate in James Gillray's 1798 state-subsidised propaganda series, 'Consequences of a Successful French Invasion'. It was first published on March 1, 1798, by Hannah Humphrey and the etching portrays a grim, dystopian takeover of the British House of Commons by French revolutionary troops.
The satirical title mocks the typical French military slogan of "liberating" conquered nations, violently contrasting it with an image of absolute political subjugation, slavery, and dictatorship.
The print features a chaotic sequence of humiliating acts inflicted upon Britain's leaders.
In the centre, the Speaker of the House (Henry Addington) is bound to his chair. A French soldier ruthlessly clamps handcuffs onto him while his mouth is forcefully gagged with a drumstick.
On the left side of the chamber, the members of Parliament—including Prime Minister William Pitt and Secretary of State Henry Dundas—have had their heads closely shaved. They are dressed uniformly in two-toned convict garments resembling the penal uniform of Botany Bay. Pitt and Dundas are specifically chained together by the leg with a heavy iron padlock whose keyholes have been spiked shut.
Gillray takes aim at Whig leaders Charles James Fox and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Rather than being prisoners, they are depicted assisting the French invaders—shown in the guise of a blacksmith and cobbler helping to shackle their parliamentary colleagues.
The primary table of the House is violently overturned. Foundational historical legal documents and statutes are scattered across the floor to be trampled. In the middle of the floor, a French soldier uses a heavy blacksmith's hammer to smash the sacred legislative Mace into pieces.
Placed directly over the Speaker’s chair is a mocking French proclamation that reads: "This House is adjourned to Botany Bay, sine die" (permanently adjourned to the Australian penal colony).
Unlike most of Gillray's typical multi-coloured satirical caricatures, the original first edition was printed in a deep, blood-red ink), intentionally chosen to heighten the visceral, bloody threat of a Jacobin takeover.
Gillray was one of five children, and the only one to survive to maturity. In 1770 he was apprenticed to Harry Ashby, a London writing in engraver, and five years later W. Humphrey published a few of Gillray's illustrations including satirical works. By the time Gillray commenced his career satire was old, but personal caricature was in its infancy. Other exponents in this form of art were soon overshadowed by Gillray's superior craftsmanship. His figures were full of vitality, titillating and reflective of some political crisis or private scandal. As his popularity increased so did demand by the public to see more of his work. In the rapidly changing politics of the late18th century he would produce a plate in twenty-four hours. Although sometimes overlooked his speech bubbles were elaborate and Gillray would spend considerable time composing and redrafting the text.
Between 1791 to 1807 his career continued successfully in association with William and Hannah Humphrey. There after Gillray's health began to suffer. He eventually slipped into madness and died shortly before the Battle of Waterloo on June 1st 1815. Hannah, who had a close relationship with him nursed Gillray through out his final years and following his death the copper plates then formed part of Hannah's estate when she died in 1818. The executor's of Hannah's estate sold Gillray's painstakingly worked plates for there second hand copper weight. Hearing of this, the then publisher, Bohn who had previously expressed an interest in buying the plates set about purchasing them from a variety of different sources. Eventually acquiring over 500. In 1851 Bohn republished the engravings in a large folio volume, "The Works of James Gillray".
