Print, The STATE HACKNEY COACH.
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The upper margin reads: "They go fast whom the Devil drives."
This print was published in the London Magazine. The maker has resorted to the familiar theme of a coach propelled without horses. Now firmly entrenched as England's political leader, Lord North, controlled by the Devil, has harnessed a group of easily swayed colleagues to the vehicle. However, the satirist has chosen to identify only two of the many possible by a recognizable representation. First in line is Lord Holland (Henry Fox), one of those who rose rapidly in power under North's tutlage. Just under the driver in the last row is a black, satiric guise for Jeremiah Dyson, lord of the treasury and another of North's coterie. Oblivious to the events about him, George III sleeps peacefully in the coach, a pose often used by satirists to suggest his lack of concern for England's grave problems. The coach is being driven towards the Tower of London.
