The State Watchman Discovered by the Genius of Britain Studying Plans for the Reduction of America

J. Jones|Thomas Rowlandson

December 10, 1781 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

Rowlandson's name does not appear on this print, but the scholar Dorothy George attributed it to him on the basis of style. The image responds to the British surrender at Yorktown, Virginia, effectively ending the American Revolutionary War. Either George III (or his prime minister Lord North) dozes at center on a sofa near the alarmed figure of Britannia who asks, "Am I thus Protected?" If the sleeper is North, the small man who says "Hello Neighbour! what are you asleep" may represent Sir Grey Parole, designated to sit next to North in Parliament and wake the minister during long debates, if he dozed off.

Artist

J. Jones|Thomas Rowlandson

Date

December 10, 1781

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of William H. Huntington, 1883