Pitt in the guise of a robber who is about to be hanged. He aims a pistol at the head of a cobbler, saying, "You Rascall, You keep a Shop, and shall pay for it". The cobbler, kneeling hat in hand, in profile to the left, says, "Lord Sir, mines only a Stall, Have mercy on my Wife &amp; Family". Part of his bulk or stall appears behind him (right). Behind Pitt (left) Richmond kneels on the ground, holding out his cocked hat for the coins which the former drops into it; he points to houses of playing-cards which are round him on the ground and represent his scheme of fortifications, see BMSat 6921, &amp;c. In the background is a gibbet from which hang two nooses inscribed:
<p><br><br>'With all Honest Men, tis a thorough Belief, 
<br>The Receiver is almost as bad as the Thief.'
<br><br>Beneath the design is engraved (in the manner of the accounts published by the Ordinary of Newgate):
<br><br>'Some account of the Life and Behaviour of William Pett [Pitt was called 'Mr Pett' at this time. 'Auckland Corr.' iv. 279. Cf. BMSat 7393.] alias Billy the Bamboozler.
<br>Willm Pett was born of honest parents who gave him a good education &amp; got him young into place, but being early prone to lying and other vicious habits (altho' [un]like most other rogues he was not addicted to bad women) he inveigled a number of idle boys away from their Books &amp; encouraged them to live like himself from the Public After supporting himself &amp; one Duke who made playthings for him, by robbing the Shopkeepers &amp; chiefly the poorer sort, for some time, he was at last convicted of stealing Half a Crown from George Prince for which he sufferd This Notorious Culprit was one of the daring Gang concerned in the Affair of the Great Seal'  9 January 1789
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<br>Etching
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