Burke lies back asleep, but scowling, in profile to the left, his arms folded in an arm-chair whose seat is inscribed 'Otium cum Dignit[ate]'. The top of his head is on fire, and the smoke rising from it forms the base of the upper and larger part of the design.  Immediately above his head:
<p><br><br>'This royal Throne of Kings, this sceptred Isle
<br>This Earth of Majesty, this seat of Mars
<br>This fortress built by Nature for herself
<br>Against Infection and the hand of War
<br>This Nurse, this teeming Womb of royal Kings
<br>This England that was wont to conquer others
<br>Will make a shameful Conquest of itself
<br>Shakespeare'
<br><br>The British lion stands as if supported on these lines; from his angry mouth issue the words: "I protest against Peace with a Regicide Directory Went: Fitzw." Their background is a rectangular altar, wreathed with oak leaves which forms a centre to the upper part of the design. It supports a scroll: 'Naval \ Victories \ East India \ Conquests \ &amp;ca &amp;ca.' Against its base is a scroll headed 'Basle' and signed 'Wyckham', the intermediate (illegible) text being scored through. Above the altar flies a dove, an olive-branch in its mouth, clutching a sealed 'Passport'. Behind and above the lion Britannia stands in back view, her discarded spear and shield beside her; she plays a fiddle, intent on a large music score: 'A new Opera \ Il Trattato \ di Pace \ Overture \ Rule Britan[nia scored through and replaced by] \ Ca Ira \ God save ye King [scored through and replaced by] The
<br>Marsellois Hymn.'
<br>The apex of the design is an Austrian grenadier, his cap decorated with the Habsburg eagle, playing a flute with melancholy fervour: 'To Arms to Arms my valiant Grenadiers.'
<br>On the left of the altar and facing Britannia and the lion stands a sansculotte, standing on a large map, one foot planted on 'Britain', the other on '[I]reland'. In his right hand is a pike bearing the head of Louis XVI (see BMSat 8297, &amp;c), in his left a large key labelled 'Belgium' and attached by a chain to his belt, in which is a dagger; his coat-pocket is inscribed 'Forced Loan'. He says: "I will retain what I have got and treat with you on fair Terms for what you have got". Behind him and on the extreme left stands a creature symbolizing the Dutch Republic, linked to the sansculotte by a chain round its spinal cord. It has the head of a frog wearing a bonnet-rouge, thin, spidery arms akimbo, the ribs, &amp;c. of a skeleton (cf. BMSat 8848), baggy breeches, and shrunken legs. It smokes a pipe with an expression of resigned despair. After the title: 'Frontispiece to a Pamphlet which will never be [four words scored through but conspicuously legible] published - "He shall never accuse me of being the Author of a Peace with Regicide", vide Mr Burkes Letter to a noble Lord.'  14 October 1796
</p>
<br>Etching
<div class="fn value">
<p>Print made by: James Sayers
</p>
<dl><dd>Published by: Hannah Humphrey</dd></dl></div>
1796<div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1796-00-00T00:00:00Z/9</div>
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