Original antique engraving printed in 1851, with later hand colouring.
The image satirizes the heavy tax burdens placed on the British public during the Napoleonic Wars. Key elements of the caricature include John Bull, represented as a stout "yokel" or small farmer, he is seen handing his breeches (filled with gold guineas) to Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger.
William Pitt is shown on the right, holding open a large sack labeled "Requisition Budget" to collect the taxes.
John Bull explains he is giving up everything he has to "save his bacon" from a feared French invasion, which Pitt used as justification for the extreme fiscal demands.
Other figures include Dundas, Grenville, and Burke, shown kneeling and eagerly grabbing coins from the "Budget" sack and Charles James Fox, depicted in the background (left) across the water at Brest, shouting in French and English, portraying him as a sympathizer to the French cause waiting to "snack" on the spoils.
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".
