CAPTAIN CLA-NCE taking Command of the Ship British Constitution.

An illustration of the demand for Reform (cf. No. 16170) and of the popular expectations from a sailor-king of democratic manners, who was so striking a contrast to George IV. Scene on the deck of a man-of-war, with the Queen standing full-face in the centre foreground. On her right is the King in civilian dress, holding a baton, and facing rows of sailors. He says: ‘Brother Sailors, rest assured it shall be my constant care to maintain and advance the British Navey, That I will purge the Army of all those superfluous, Idle, demoralizing and feather-bed Soldiers, with which it teems and also restore the Church to its pure, original and Scriptural, state, so beautifully exemplified in holy-writ’. Three battered naval officers face him, flanked by two who are foppish, dwarfish, and young. They say respectively: ‘Keep in the rear ye Puppy, and not before a Veteran Long live our Commander now we shall have reform in the British Navy Huzza, no more Sprigs of aristocracy’ the last speaker holds by the nose the little dandified officer beside him. Three sailors shout (the first holding up a Union flag centred by the Garter Star, Crown, and ‘W R IV’): ‘The British Constitution for ever! the Navy for ever! No more bloody backs’. Behind (left), a throng of sailors is indicated. On the right side of the deck are soldiers at attention, holding bayoneted muskets. The Duke of Wellington (right), sword in hand, stands beside them saluting. Peel, on his left, holds a rat-trap (see BM Satires No. 15734, &c.) he is in civilian dress, with a deprecatory stoop, and says to the Duke: ‘Hampshire forest [Strathfieldsaye] to a Spinning-jenny [cf. BM Satires No. 15853] you do’nt have the Command of the Red-Coats long you’d better strike at once before you are kick’d out you know he owe’s you a grudge’. Wellington: ‘Poo, I shall come the Spaniel over him as I did the other, on purpose to keep in, there’s not much fear of you’r going out, as he’ll want a good Rat-Catcher’. A man in black says to a fat parson (? the Archbishop of Canterbury) standing beside the soldiers: ‘I say Chaplain you must begin to look after your share of the Cook’s fat [i.e. perquisites, cf. BM Satires No. 11890], for there will be a reform in the Ship spedily’. Chaplain: ‘I know he means to make great havoc among the Cloth—and to teach Bishop’s humility’. Words float up from the gaily dressed Queen: ‘I sincerely promise, to use my best endeavours to support these principles, and those of Virtue and Morality’. On the deck lie papers: ‘Free Trade’ [under the King’s foot, cf. BM Satires No. 16030, &c] ‘Absentee Tax’ [cf. BM Satires No. 16206] ‘Petition’ [two] ‘No New Police’ [see No. BM Satires 15768, &c] ‘Full Wages and Cheap Provision’ ‘Estimate of Repairs of the Hulk Constitution’, ‘British—  900.000000’ ‘No Feather-bed Soldiers’ ‘Reform in Parliment’ ‘No Rotten Boroughs’. Source British Museum BM Satires 16182.