Scene in the Island of Jersey | Morning – Scene in the Duchy of Lancaster | Night
Publisher
Thomas McLean
(British, 1788 - 1875)
CultureBritish
Date1829
MediumEngraving
Credit LineMuseum collection
Object number62.102.45
Not on view
DescriptionPublished by Thomas McLean of 26 Haymarket, London, the caricature portrays the then Prime Minister and 1st Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley, pursuing two of his female friends in a single day. Advancing on Lady Jersey, she remains uninterested, replying “my heart bleeds only for my persecuted friends of the true church in Ireland.”The print is both an allusion to his womanising tendencies and the unpopularity of his Roman Catholic Relief act of 1829. It almost seems to suggest that one was a consequence of the other, that his weakness for beautiful women, lead to his political reform in Ireland.
