Meeting of Unfortunate Citoyens

This wonderfully expressive print purports to show a meeting between two of the most prominent Whigs of the 1790s—Charles James Fox and the Duke of Norfolk as they stand in front of Brookes's, the gentleman's club that had long been the first choice of Whigs. Fox is, of course, unmistakable, appearing (as usual) unshaven and unkempt. Norfolk carries the baton of the hereditary Earl Marshal, a title and position which had belonged to the Dukes of Norfolk since the 17th century. Both are portrayed as (indeed they were) ardent supporters of the French Revolution. The title of the print itself describes them using the French term "Citoyens." Both wear a revolutionary bonnet rouge, both sport tri-color laces on their shoes, and Norfolk's speech is peppered with French phrases "ah! morbleu! - chacun a son tour!" Both express their surprise and chagrin ("Scratch'd off!- dishd! - kick'dout! - dam'me!!!") at being literally and figuratively marginalized by the King and his Tory ministers while Pitt and Dundas stand guard at the gate.

Meeting of Unfortunate Citoyens

Meeting of Unfortunate Citoyens [May 12, 1798]
© Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

Two events provided the impetus for this print. First, on January 24th, 1798 while celebrating Fox's birthday at a huge event at the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Norfolk had proposed a somewhat ambigously worded toast, "Our Sovereign's Health—the Majesty of the People," which nonetheless gave great offense at Court. And its assumed revolutionary suggestion that the real source of power is or ought to be the people, not the Crown, resulted in Norfolk's dismissal from the two positions listed on the paper hanging from his pocket. Gillray, indeed, had already devoted a print to the subject, The Loyal Toast on February 3rd.

But then on May 1st, a couple of weeks before this print was published, Fox went even further at a meeting of the Whig Club: first by proposing a toast that was far less equivocal than Norfolk's, a toast "which in his opinion was peculiarly appropriated to a Meeting of the Friends of Freedom—the Sovereignty of the People of Great Britain," and second by a full frontal attack on the Tory Administration, comparing it to the French Directory:

The present Government of this country, he had no hesitation in asserting, was a Government of Terror. They had adopted the principles of Robespierre, and their object was to establish tyranny in England. —Look at the situation of the sister kingdom [i.e. Ireland]; our own will soon be the same.
Evening Mail, May 2nd 1798

Not surprisingly, the King was furious and had Fox's name immediately struck from the list of his privy counsellors.Gillray alludes to the offending "Whig Toasts & Sentiment[s]" in the paper protruding from Fox's left pocket, and to the King's swift retribution on the paper held in his right hand.

Fox's expressions would have been considered provocative at almost any time, but as Gillray reminds us using the placards next to Pitt and Dundas, this was a time of high tension and suspicion after the passage of Treasonable Practices and Seditious Meetings Acts in 1795 and the attempted French invasion of Ireland in December 1796. Indeed the same Evening Mail, that reported Fox's remarks, wondered whether

In imitating so closely the Duke of Norfolk one might presume that Mr. Fox wished to be also disgraced, and to have his name struck off the list of Privy Counsellors.

If that was Fox's design, he succeeded admirably.

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