The three figures shown are the Duke of Wellington (then Prime Minister) presenting a huge list of expenses, King George IV (seated) and Prince William, Duke of Clarence, on the right, dressed in the traditional garb of a Thames waterman and carrying a cermonial silver oar intended as the oar-mace of Admiralty. The subject is the dismissal of the Prince as Lord High Admiral, a post to which his elder brother the king had appointed him for entirely honorific purposes. The prince, however, who had been a professional naval officer in earlier life up the the substantive rank and working experience of captain, took it on himself to show a close practical interest in the Navy and not only went off in 1828 on a tour of inspection of the dockyards at Portsmouth and Plymouth, but on his own authority went to sea on manoeuvres with a squadron from Plymouth for about a week. On his return - and as shown here partly owing to the expense of such unauthorized activity - the Duke of Wellington was obliged to have the king call him to account and dismiss him. Albeit in a simple populist way, the arguments are represented here in the speech 'bubbles'. Two years later the prince again became ex-officio Lord High Admiral by succeeding his brother on the throne as the 'sailor king', William IV. [PvdM 8/13]