All the Talents

Created as a frontispiece to a satirical poem, Rowlandson's etching is based on a drawing by Barrett, the author. The satire responds to the recent fall of a British parliamentary coalition known as the "Broad Bottom Administration," or "All the Talents." Its diverse membership is symbolized by a creature with the head and tail of a monkey, but human body, wearing a judge's wig beneath the mitre of an episcopal bishop and holding a Catholic crosier. Its suit mixes a lawyer's bands with a laced coat, ragged breeches, single shoe, and a French jackboot. The burning papers below refer to the Administration's negotiations with France, and its lost sinecures and patronages. A musket labeled "Army," fired with its right foot, causes volumes labeled "Magna Charta" and "Coronation Oath" to fall from a shelf. With a quill, the animal points to new financial projects, the slip of paper "Country dances" below alluding to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Henry Petty's love of dancing. Finally, smoke, from the pipe obscures a portrait of William Pitt, whose principles the coalition supposedly honored.