PEIESTLEY 55 



print, representing the leading Jacobins of the day drink- 

 ing * a Birmingham toast ' proposed by Dr Priestley. 

 ' The Head here \ ' i.e. in a Communion salver, which he 

 holds aloft, himself drinking the toast from a chalice. 

 The Jacobins are represented as early welcoming this 

 toast. Sheridan pouring out a fresh glass of sherry, of 

 which he has already emptied several bottles, is made 

 to say, ' 111 pledge you that toast.' . . . Sir Cecil Wray, 

 frugally drinking small beer, exclaims, ' heavens ! why, 

 I would empty a Chelsea pensioners small-beer barrel 

 in such a cause.' Fox, as chairman, with punch-bowl 

 before him, cries, 'My soul and body, both upon the toast.' 

 Home Tooke, who sits next him, drinking gin, says, ' I 

 have not drunk so glorious a toast since I was parson of 

 Brentford ' ; while in the corner opposite Dr Priestley, his 

 co-religionist and bosom friend Dr Theophilus Lindsey 

 cries ' Amen ! Amen ! ' as he drinks the toast in brandy. 

 In the background are several cadaverous-looking pietists, 

 supposed to represent Dr Priestley's congregation. The 

 print is exceedingly vigorous in design and execution, 

 but as full of venom as an etching from Gillray's needle 

 could possibly be." 



Seeing this etching, reminds one of many of the 

 venomous, satirical, and revolting paintings of Antoine 

 Wiertz in the Muse*e Wiertz in the Eue Vautier, Brussels 

 (e.g. "Napoleon dans TEnfer," "L'Enfant Brule," " L'ln- 

 humation Precipitee," etc.). 



