Promised Horrors of the French Invasion

This highly sophisticated political cartoon by the noted engraver James Gillray from October 1796 responds to Edmund Burke’s pamphlet, "Reflections on a Regicide Peace." This image argues against further war with France to avoid bankrupting the British treasury and exposing England itself to invasion. This cartoon mocks that idea, attributing it to the supposedly "radical" tendencies of opposition leader Charles James Fox, who here is depicted as a sans–culotte with no pants at all, having tied his rival, Prime Minster William Pitt, to a "Liberty Tree."