Balaam, or the majesty of the people

Gillray, James, 1756-1815 · April 10, 1783

Design in an oval. A satire on tithes and the clergy. A tall, thin military officer, wearing a hat, gorget, and sword, carries on his shoulders an enormously fat parson dressed in gown and bands. The officer walks from left to right, his head in profile to the right. The parson, with a complacent expression, holds over his right shoulder a scourge with three lashes, one ending in a snake's head, the second is "English Statutes," the third, ending in beads and a cross. Under his left arm he holds a basket. In it are visible chickens and a sucking-pig. Behind the parson walks a dejected-looking farmer in a smock-frock, holding his hat in one hand, a branch in the other. Behind the farmer (left) are sheaves of corn, in one of which is a branch similar to that which he holds. The landscape background is mountainous (BM).