1840 GILLRAY, J. - Visiting The Sick. (319).

Caricature by J. Gillray. Charles James Fox, dangerously ill, visited by an entourage of interesting factions: representing the social and ministerial conflict surrounding him.

Visiting The Sick.

Plate 319, an original James Gillray copper engraving (1847-1851) from "The Works of James Gillray from the Original 18th Century Plates", published by Henry G. Bohn, London.

The plate has a b/w engraving on the verso, as published by Bohn.

Published when Fox was dangerously, but it was believed, not hopelessly ill. As Lord Holland, Fox's nephew, notes, it 'does but little credit to the author's feelings'.
He also notes of Petty: 'whom the newspapers chose to represent (erroneously) as dancing at all the London balls, and then to censure as indulging in an amusement unbecoming a chancellor of the Exchequer'; of Windham, 'who had changed his party several times' (cf. BMSat 10221) of Derby, 'with whom Mrs Armstead once lived as his mistress'.
The Prince of Wales frequently visited Fox during his illness. Trotter, 'Memoirs of the latter Years of. . . Fox', 1811, p. 117.
The Prince had been attacked by Nathaniel Jefferys (a bankrupt jeweller who had suffered from his patronage) in 'A Review of the Conduct of. . . the Prince of Wales in his various transactions with Mr. J;. . . [with] many circumstances relative to . . . the Prince and Prince of Wales, Mrs Fitzherbert, etc.', which went through eight (so-called) editions in 1806, and evoked counter-pamphlets, see BMSat 10592.

It was a 'no-Popery' tract blaming Mrs. Fitzherbert for the troubles of the Princess, cf. BMSat 10363. For Mrs. Fox's 'True Maidstone' see BMSat 10549, &c.

The print suggests the diverse interests in the Ministry, so that only Foxites mourn, while Grenvilles and Sidmouth rejoice. Actually, only Fox could keep these fragments together, and so in office.

Don't be afraid of my Bear, Ladies and Gentleman! I have tamed and muzzled him and reformed his habits.

This print appeared as the Ministry of all the Talents had to decide whether to make peace again with France,and it portrays Gillray's view of the ministry dynamics. The broad-bottomed Prime Minister William Grenvilleis depicted as the leader of a dancing bear troupe, including a bear, a fiddler, and a monkey. He carries in his pocket a box(?) labeled "Rewards for Obedient Bears" and a large staff inscribed "Cudgel For Disobedient Bears."

The dancing bear (on a very short leash) is Gillray's favorite target, the long time Francophile and former leader of the Whig opposition, Charles James Fox, who had recently become Foreign Minister under Grenville's leadership. The fiddler is the erstwhile Prime Minister, Henry Addington, who, during his brief tenure as Britain's leader, had overseen the first peace with France,the Treaty of Amiens. He was now Lord Privy Seal. The monkey is the nephew of Lord Shelbourne, the diminutive Lord Henry Petty, now become Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Reference: M.Dorothy George, 'Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires in the British Museum', VIII, 1947