File:The Politicians (BM 1868,0808.4279).jpg

English: Satire on the fact that Lord Bute, the Peace of Paris and the Cider tax have together provoked strong views among all levels of society. A street scene outside a tavern called the King of Prussia selling "Neat Wines, Brandy, Rum", but no longer Cyder and Perry, those words having been crossed through. Men of different trades complain to one another about events, from left to right: a porter, a paviour (?), a milkman, a carter, a Scottish journalist (unusually for a Scot evincing anxiety about the suggestion he might criticise Bute), an editor, two farmers, a blacksmith, a cobbler, a butcher, a carpenter, a tailor and a barber. In the foreground, a Scot squats defecating beside a post using the "Magna Charta" to wipe himself; a ragged woman ballad seller sings "Tax all, A New Ballad"; her small son urinates on the ground; a chimney boy and a lamplighter's boy discuss their "dirty work" comparing it to service at Court where those involved are paid more; a Scottish exciseman states that Bute has given him and his colleagues "Authority to search all the Lasses". In the background, beside a tavern with the sign of Lord Bute riding the British lion, a group of men discuss the Peace assuming that it will not last. Engraved verses in four columns below remark on the fact that "Britania's Sons of all Conditions,/Amazing! now are Politicians"
Etching