Integrity retiring from office

Gillray, James, 1756-1815 · February 1801

The resigning Ministers issue from the arched gateway of the Treasury, led by Pitt (right) who, with an oratorical gesture, holds out a document. Behind him is Dundas (Secretary of State for War), holding Pitt's right arm, and not in the usual Scottish dress (though he wears a tartan waistcoat). He holds another document. From his coat pocket issues a paper. Next walks Grenville (Foreign Secretary) in peer's robes holding another paper [Ceylon captured 1796]. Behind him walk Spencer (First Lord) and Loughboroug in his Chancellor's wig. Three heads are dimly visible in the shadow of the archway. From the left the Opposition, in the guise of a plebeian rabble, advance towards the Treasury gate but are held back by a sturdy grenadier sentry at the point of the bayonet. He is back view, with 'GR' on his busby, and is probably George III, possibly Addington. Facing him, against the Treasury wall, is his sentry-box. The rabble are led by Sheridan and Tierney; the former a butcher with cleaver raised to strike, the latter a ragged cobbler wearing a bonnet rouge. He is about to fling a cat which he holds by the tail. Behind them are Jekyll, as a chimney-sweep with brush and shovel, but wearing a barrister's wig and (tattered) gown, Bedford dressed as a jockey and holding out whip and cap, Nicholls and Tyrhwitt Jones, both holding up hats with tricolour cockades. At the back are Norfolk, about to hurl a bottle of wine, and Burdett. There is also raised above the crowd an arm which has just hurled a full tankard. Other missiles include a lighted squib, a bludgeon, vegetables, and a book. In the foreground, on the extreme left, are two dwarfish and ragged little newsboys blowing their horns (BM). / On the resignation of Pitt's Ministry, in the February of 1801. The Whigs whose tattered appearance would certainly entitle them to be classed under the head of "improper persons," are rushing to obtain the places thus vacated, but are held back by the sentinel at the Treasury gate, who perhaps is intended to represent Addington, the Premier who succeeded Pitt (Wright/Evans).