God Save the King in a Bumper. . .

As the subtitle to this print suggests—An Evening Scene, [repeated] Three Times a Week at Wimbleton— Prime Minister William Pitt and his right hand man, the Scot Henry Dundas, were frequent drinking buddies, requiring no special occasion to open a bottle or two...or three...or four. And, in fact, Pitt's consumption of port (and the resulting toll on his health) usually increased with the tensions of his office.

1795 had not begun well for the Prime Minister and his Secretary of State. In January, the coldest month on record, the English offensive in Holland had failed miserably, and King's blood relation, William V, Prince of Orange, had been forced to flee his country and watch from afar at Hampton Court as the French took over the Low Countries and established the Batavian Republic. In March there were a series of food riots throughout the country owing to bad harvests. And in April, Prussia, one of Britain's First Coalition partners against France, had already thrown in the towel and signed a separate peace agreement with the revolutionaries, ceding the left bank of the Rhine to the French.

One of the few achievements that Pitt and Dundas could legitimately celebrate was that in spite of all these reverses, they were still in power. And that seems to be part of Gillray's point. In 1795, the actual lyrics to God Save the King would have been:

God save great George our king,
Long live our noble king,
God save the king.
Send him victorious, (my emphasis)
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us,
God save the king!

What Dundas is celebrating (and wishing for continuance) in his song is NOT that the King should be victorious, but that they (Pitt and Dundas) should be victorious and have a long "reign:"

'"Send us Victorious, (my emphasis)
"Happy and Glorious,
"Long to Reign. - go it my Boy!
"Billy my Boy, all my Joy,
- God save the King!'

In suggesting that Pitt's first concern is maintaining power, the print is reminiscent of earlier Gillray attacks on the Prime Minister during the Regency crisis of 1788-89, including The Vulture of the Constitution. And by juxtaposing the phrase "God Save the King" immediately after Dundas' encouragement to "Billy my Boy, all my Joy," Gillray makes it slightly ambiguous whether Dundas is referring to King George or William Pitt a man who, by some accounts, would be King.

Sources and Reading

• Commentary from the British Museum on God Save the King in a Bumper. . ..
• "William Pitt the Younger," Wikipedia
• "Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville," Wikipedia
• "God Save the Queen," Wikipedia
• Thomas Wright and R.H. Evans, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray #125.
• Thomas Wright and Joseph Grego, The Works of James Gillray, the Caricaturist; With the History of His Life and Times, p. 189.