Title: A GREAT LAWYER IN DANGER OF BEING SMOTHERED UNDER THE WEIGHT OF HIS OWN HONORS
Materials: paper
Techniques: lithograph
Production person: Print made by John Doyle (HB)
Published by: Thomas McLean
Production place: London, England
Date: JULY 3, 1843
Schools/Styles: British satire

[British Museum Satires no number]

Description
No. 774. A lawyer in the character of Draco, kneeling on the ground at centre left (Edward Burtenshaw Sugden), under the weight of papers lettered with 'Queen's Commission', thrown at him by a group of men standing around him at left, right, and in background at centre.

Curator's comments
Text from 'An Illustrative Key to the Political Sketches of H.B.', London 1844:

No sooner had Sir Edward Sugden, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland, dismissed certain magistrates for having attended Repeal Meetings, that several other magistrates spontaneously resigned their commissions, alleging that these dismissals had rendered the tenure of the Queen's commission under the Tory government uncertain and derogatory. The Lord Chancellor is here represented as overwhelmed with the multitude of resigned commissions, as Draco, the inexorable lawgiver of Athens, was smothered under the garments which were heaped on him by his injudicious admirers. None of the figures are portraits except that of the Chancellor.

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