Patience on a Monument smiling at Grief (caricature)

In this hand-coloured print, Napoleon is pictured hunched over, on the right, in a comically large bicorn hat. Two French officers stand behind him. They stand on a coastline looking over the channel where ships in their fleet are sinking. Opposite them, John Bull smokes a pipe atop a tall plinth inscribed ‘The British Constitution’, with a Lion, another symbol of Britain, sat at the base.

The caricature mocks Napoleon’s failed attempts at invading Britain. Planning first to take control of the Channel, he was unable to neutralize the British Royal Navy and continue the invasion ashore. He cries, ‘O! my poor Crazy Gun Boats, why did I venture so far from home’. John Bull, whose position is strong and sturdy, replies, ‘I told you they would be all swamp’d but you would be so d__d Obstinate – “The Mighty chief with fifty thousand Men / “March’d to the coast, and then March’d back again. Ha! – Ha – Ha! –’.