French Habits: President d'Administration Municipale

This is the fifth in a series of twelve plates in which Gillray portrays members of the Whig opposition wearing the new ceremonial robes designed by Jacques-Louis David for the prominent public officials of the French Directorate. Here John Horne Tooke is shown as President d'Administration Municipale.

Originally, Gillray had created this print with Richard Brinsley Sheridan in mind. And there are copies of the print with Sheridan in place of Tooke still extant in both the British Museum and the Lewis Walpole Library. But a couple of days after it was published, George Canning who reviewed the French Habits series on behalf of the government asked Gillray to remove the plate containing Sheridan. Instead of destroying the plate or removing it from circulation, Gillray simply burnished away Sheridan's image and replaced it with that of Horne Tooke. The sign of the burnishing can be detected in the edges of the pilaster behind Tooke's head. In the version with Sheridan, the two edges of the pilaster come down further than in the later Tooke copy.

Although Tooke had a problematic relationship with Fox (sometimes supporting and sometimes opposing him), he had been steadfast in seeking Parliamentary reform and strongly opposed to the increasingly harsh measures the Pitt administration had been imposing to limit dissent. In 1794 he had been one of three radicals charged with high treason for trying to organize disparate opposition groups to form a united front in their quest for significant reform. In a highly publicized trial along with Thomas Hardy and John Thelwall, Tooke was acquitted.

According to Dressses of the Representatives of the People, the municipal officers "are entrusted with the police of their districts, with making the laws known to their fellow citizens, and seeing them executed." Gillray's print follows the French illustration which seems to show the municipal President presiding over a local meeting, calling the meeting to order or recognizing a citizen on the floor. As the overseer of the local laws, it is fitting that a tablet with the Droit de l'Homme appears behind him.

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on French Habits: President d'Administration Municipale.
• "John Horne Tooke," Wikipedia
• "title," Wikipedia
• Collection des nouveaux costumes des autorités constituées, civils et militaires
• Dresses of the Representatives of the People. . .
• Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #188
• Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times pp. 239-240.

NEXT: French Habits 6

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