A New Administration...
Satiric caricature thrives on analogy. Charles James Fox is like Satan. General George Rodney is like St. George. Prime Minister William Pitt is like a fungus. Much of the time the analogy is expressed as a visual metaphor. Fox is shown with Satan's horns, Rodney is slaying a dragon, Pitt's very profile is mushroom-like. Especially early in his career, Gillray's analogies come mainly from the Bible or from popular mythology. The point is to to make the comparison immediately intelligible.
But sometimes as in A New Administration, or the State Quacks Administring, the comparison is to a profession and to a practice well known to Gillray's audience. Here then he portrays Charles James Fox and Lord North as quack doctors about to use a clyster pipe to administer what we would now call an enema to poor Britannia. Along with blood letting, the use of cleansing clysters was a frequent practice among 18th century's physicians for stomach aches, constipation, or whatever else ailed you. The visual metaphor is reinforced by the verbal pun: both the doctors and the politicians are busy "administring."
© National Portrait Gallery, London
The immediate occasion for the print was the fall of the Shelburne ministry over the war for American independence. Fox had been relentless in criticizing Shelburne's conduct of the war (hence Britannia's damaged shield) and a coalition of Fox and North was able to bring down the Shelburne administration to form a new one under the nominal leadership of the Duke of Portland. Since Fox and North had been inveterate foes, their unlikely combination in this new coalition was widely regarded as motivated by nothing more than political greed for power. It's not surprising, then, that Gillray portays them as quacks. Britannia is the victim of their ministrations.
The mountain range behind Britannia forms a kind of visual parallel to the contours of her back, head, and extended arm and consequently helps unify the print. But if, as I suspect, the mountain is Ben Nevis, the tallest range in Britain, it may also suggest the steep climb facing the new administration in dealing with Britain's problems.
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on A New Administration...
- Draper Hill, The Satirical Etchings of James Gillray, 1976
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