Gillray (James) John-Bull and the Sinking-Fund _ P(r)etty scheme for Reducing the Taxes - & off the National Debt, etching with original hand-colouring, on wove paper without watermark, sheet 252 x 350 mm (9 7/8 x 13 3/4 in), trimmed to or just within the platemark, expert restoration to loss at lower left corner, minor surface dirt, unframed, [BM Satires 10704], Hannah Humphrey, 1807

⁂ Satire on the hugely complex and controversial scheme proposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Henry Petty, to bridge the shortfall between normal annual revenue and the cost of war, as he shovels coins from an enormous sack that weighs heavily on a crouching John Bull, showering them down onto ministers eagerly catching them in hats, robes, bags and bowls.