John Bull Peppering the Italian Rascals- or a Kick from Hardwich to Holland

Caricature referring to current reports in the newspapers of the arrival, whereabouts, and departure of Italian witnesses against the Queen, sometimes styled ‘criminals of the lowest rank’. They were mobbed at Dover on 7 July 1820, and were therefore shipped back from Harwich to Holland pending the opening of proceedings.

John Bull (left), wearing a star centred by a heart: ‘Queens Order of Knighthood’, furiously kicks an Italian witnesses from a quay into the sea, where a boat waits to take them to a packet-boat. His bull-dog is about to bite, and he raises a massive bludgeon, kicking a lean grenadier with an empty sleeve, to whose back is tied a large green bag inscribed ‘Infernal Lies from Como’. On this a demon, holding a noose above the Italian’s head, and in the left hand a little gibbet from which hangs a tiny effigy of the Grenadier with his bundle. The Italian holds a stiletto and wears a high cap with dangling bell on which are skull and cross-bones. J. B. shouts:
“This is Freedom’s own Land, ’tis the land of the Queen,
Where no hired traducers shall ever be seen,
Be off each vile Eunuch—be off high and low
or I’ll knock you to H—ll with an Englishmans blow!!”
The Italian looks back to say:
“If thus you pay Italian Spies
I’ll bring no more Infernal Lies”
Another Italian wearing braided livery is knee-deep in the sea, he looks back angrily at John, holding dagger and pistol. A terrified foreigner, ragged but fashionable, leaps towards the water, exclaiming: “Diable!! Jean Anglaise [sic].” A woman with a bunch of keys, in full flight, pours the contents of a ‘Pot de Chambre’ over a grotesque lawyer (Leach), who is racing down steps to the water with a green bag of ‘Lies from Milan’. She says: “Dis Pot contains mine Evidence—do taste it Signor Horse Leach, you vill find very strong proof of Guilt.” Leach, looking over his shoulder, says:
“This Business smells strong
We have kept it too long”
A sturdy sailor standing in a boat at the foot of the steps fends him off with a boat-hook, saying: “Shew me a clean bill of health signed Caroline or by G d you sha’nt come on board here.”

A rare Irish issued satirical cartoon by the Dublin based publisher William McCleary based on Isaac Robert Cruikshank’s (1789-1859) cartoon but reversed.