See <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1868-0808-13326">description on another impression of the same print</a> in the British Museum:
<p><br>A companion plate to No. 12862. British households are represented by large <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/skep" class="extiw" title="w:skep">straw bee-hives</a>; these are assailed by tax-collectors and their satellites who run through the air in a swarm. One hive is in the foreground (right), the two next are in the middle distance, with a line of little hives in the distance, curving to the left margin. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bull" class="extiw" title="w:John Bull">John Bull</a>, ragged but chubby, stands defiantly on the step of his hive, defending it with a stake shaped like a rough pitchfork and inscribed 'Prop of Reform'; with this he prods the foremost collector, who drops book and pen in dismay. Behind him in the doorway is his wife, brandishing a poker, while three ragged and terrified small children cluster round the door. Other tax-gatherers assail the upper part of the hive; one has made a hole in the straw and puts in his hand; he has already seized honey. Another man departs with chunks of honeycomb, but his coat-tails are clutched by a man who leans from a hole in the hive. Another collector runs through the air, laden with spoil. More of the swarm are still advancing, holding pen and book or paper. One, holding up a constable's staff, holds out a 'Warrant [of] Distress . . John Bull' [scarcely legible]; another has a huge book inscribed '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poor_rate" class="extiw" title="w:Poor rate">Poor's Rate</a>'. Other books are inscribed 'Kings Tax' and 'Assess'd Taxes'. One man holds out a paper inscribed 'Snatch Broker &amp; Sworn Appraiser'. The men recede in perspective towards the upper left corner of the design, from which the swarm is descending upon the hives. A tax-gatherer enters the door of the second hive, while another stands on the upper part nailing on it a placard: 'Kings Taxes'. In the foreground (right) beside the hive a broken cord drops from a clothes-prop weighted down with tattered garments. On the left is a smoking manure-heap inscribed 'Ministrial Dung-hill'; on this lies a paper, 'Prope[rty] Tax' [now removed, see No. 12750, &amp;c.], and from it grow toadstools inscribed 'Place, Pension', and 'Sinecure'. After the title:
</p>
<dl><dd>"All with united force combine to Drive,"</dd>
<dd>"The lazy Drones from the laborious Hive."
<dl><dd>Virgil</dd></dl></dd></dl><p>Above the design: '<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quarter_Day" class="extiw" title="w:Quarter Day">Quarter Day</a>.'<br>
Plate numbered 389.<br>
January 1817<br></p>
Hand-coloured etching
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Charles_Williams_(caricaturist)" class="extiw" title="w:en:Charles Williams (caricaturist)"><span title="British caricaturist, etcher and illustrator">Charles Williams</span></a>
</bdi>
<a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1872-1012-5064">https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1872-1012-5064</a>