Magna Britannia: Her Colonies Reduced

This nineteenth-century copy of a 1766 print designed by Benjamin Franklin illustrated "The Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin" (London: 1833), a book edited by the subject's grandson William Temple Franklin. The image responds to the political turmoil　that followed the passage of the Stamp Act in March 1765, and its enforcement from November that same year. The image imagines Britain's future if this new taxation policy continues. Britannia appears as a stone figure seated on the ground with her arms and legs severed. Weak and defenseless, she leans against a globe and weeps. Her scattered limbs bear the names Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England, and her spear, its handle supported by New England, points back at her heart. A ribbon across the figure’s lap, inscribed "Date Obolum Bellisario" [give a penny to Belisarius] refers to a Roman general who fell from power and had to beg to sustain himself. This warns that even the greatest military strength can fail, a message underlined by brooms tied to the masts of ships at right to indicate they are for sale.

Temple Franklin noted that his famous forebear, while serving as Pennsylvania's colonial agent in London, had this image printed on cards to　distribute as he lobbied for the repeal of the Stamp Act in the winter of 1765-66. That law required American colonists to purchase government stamps for legal documents, newspapers, and paper goods like playing cards. Resulting colonial resentment sparked broad resistance and made the measure difficult to enforce. It also encouraged boycotts that harmed British merchants. In response, Parliament repealed the act in March 1766 but then turned to alternative funding sources. Tax collectors began to enforce existing duties on molasses and sugar imported into the colonies from the Caribbean, and the Towsend Acts of 1767 imposed fees on glass, lead, paint, paper, and tea imported into America. Franklin's unsigned design soon inspired copies, an early example appearing in London's "Political Register" in December 1768 (MMA 24.90.1432). Only one 1766 original is known to survive, now in the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia.