Artist: James Gillray. Published: Hannah Humphrey. The 'Gods', Hawkesbury, Addington, St. Vincent, lean down from the clouds to defend the 'Treasury' against the assault of the 'Giants', different groups of the Opposition forming a pyramid in the lower, and larger, part of the design. [These identifications are those of Miss Banks (on a B.M. print) confirmed by Lord Holland, who omits Lord Spencer but adds Tierney, called by Miss Banks 'no particular person'. The identifications of Wright and Evans are in several cases incorrect. Grego substitutes Lord Mulgrave for Dr. Lawrence (or Spencer) and omits Spencer and others. Lord Holland notes that only the portraits of Pitt, Addington, Fox, Norfolk, Buckingham, Grenville, and Derby are like their subjects.] These are grouped on rocks, and are naked or nearly so (with one exception). At the apex of the pyramid are Pitt and Dundas, smaller and less dangerous than Fox in the foreground (left). Pitt, much emaciated, stands with legs astride, looking up, and about to hurl a large bundle of papers: 'Knock-down Arguments'; two similar bundles lie at his feet: 'Death and Eternal Sleep', and 'Coup de Grace'. He wears a military cocked hat, jack-boots, and a sword-belt from which hangs a sabre, indicating his volunteer activities; round his loins is a girdle of grapes and vine-leaves. Melville (Dundas), behind and below Pitt, raises a sword inscribed 'True Andrew-Ferrara' and a shield; he wears a Scots bonnet; a tartan plaid and kilt adorn his burly nudity. At Pitt's feet stands Wilberforce, a dwarf, holding a large volume, Duty of Man, and directing upwards a fountain which can never approach the clouds. On the lower part of this rock stands Canning, in an attitude like that of Pitt, prepared to hurl a bulky sheaf of papers: 'Killing Detections'; he registers sly amusement, and wears a girdle of feathers suggestive of a Native American. From behind the rock appear two shadowy figures, each with the pen in his mouth that indicates a Treasury secretary; one prepares to hurl a bundle of 'Charges', the other, below him, has a bundle of 'Long Charges'. They are Rose and Long, ex-Treasury secretaries. In the foreground (left) is a lower rocky platform on which the obese Buckingham and his burly brother Lord Grenville hold up Fox by the legs. Fox, bulky and hairy, fires a blast of flame, smoke, and bullets from a blunderbuss', doing more execution than all the others together. He is completely nude; drapery hangs from the shoulders of his two supporters, and the pompous Buckingham wears spectacles and Garter ribbon. All register satisfaction, rather than ardour like the Pittites. Beside their rock, and on the extreme left are supporters of Fox: Norfolk with a kettle-drum slung from his neck on which he is performing with two wine-bottles. Behind him is Carlisle, banging a marrow-bone on a cleaver inscribed 'Coalition Roast Beef' [reminiscent of the Foxite butchers at Westminster elections]. The profile of Burdett is on the extreme left; he wears a hat on which is a ribbon: 'no Bastile', and holds a fringed banner on which are equally balanced scales and the motto 'In hoc Signo Vinces'; on its spear-point is poised a cap of liberty terminating in the bell that indicates Folly. Behind him an arm holds up a trumpet to which is attached a banner inscribed 'Honor Property Ability' [symbolic of the Whig oligarchy and stressing the gulf between Foxites and the supposedly levelling Burdett]. On a lower rock in the right foreground Windham, emaciated and fiercely pugnacious, holds out a shield on which is Medusa's head; he prepares to hurl a mighty lance, whose head darts thunderbolts not only against the gods, but towards Canning (left) and Sheridan (right). At his feet is a fierce dog, its collar inscribed 'Cobbett'; it barks savagely at the 'Gods', while befouling a torn paper, the Doctor, which lies across the 'Weekly' ['Political Register']. Below and behind the rock is a man in a similar attitude to that of Windham, holding out a Medusa shield; he is the only 'Giant' who is fully dressed; he wears a doctor's gown and is identified as 'Dr. Lawrence'. On the extreme right, next Windham and Laurence, are the head and shoulders of Lord Spencer who wields a spear. Smaller figures on rocks which rise in the cleft between the platforms of Pitt, Fox, and Windham aim at the Gods with cross-bows. They are (left to right): Lord Stanhope, M. A. Taylor, Lord Grey, and Lord Derby. Below them and in front of Pitt's rock are little shadowy simian creatures using blowpipes. On the extreme right a rope-ladder ascends to the clouds from among spears that indicate massed forces of the assailants; up it climb three apes with human heads. Tierney as Mercury, smaller than the other 'Gods', and apart from them, leans down to help up the foremost climber, Sheridan; he holds up in his right hand a caduceus and a money-bag inscribed '£'. Sheridan registers furtive eagerness; behind him climbs Erskine, and on the lower rungs is Tyrwhitt Jones, holding up a bag inscribed 'Camphor'. Addington, wearing the Windsor uniform, his head irradiated, leans out from a stone arch inscribed 'Treasury'. He directs liquid from a large clyster-pipe at Fox's blunderbuss, where it is deflected by a blast of flame and bullets. On his back is a sheaf of arrows, tilted downwards, so that the arrows must fall out. One of Fox's bullets strikes him in the eye. Behind him is a lyre identifying him with Apollo, and perhaps intended for a pun. On his right, and on the left of the design, Hawkesbury as Minerva, in Roman armour, leans down, about to hurl a spear whose shaft is broken. He has a shield decorated with an owl, which has been damaged by a glancing bullet from Fox. On the right and on Addington's left is St. Vincent as Neptune, threatening Pitt with his trident. He is naked, except for one swollen gouty leg, which is swathed an rests on a cushion. Despite this his action is most vigorous; drapery swirls behind him; from a pot serving as a culvert gushes water in which are tiny crabs. Above Addington, in the centre of the upper edge of the design, are the lower part of the wings of an eagle and its claws, clutching (but not hurling) thunderbolts; this symbol of Jove must indicate the King, Addington's protector. Below the title: "They never complain'd of Fatigue, but like Giants refreshed, were ready to enter immediately upon the attack! Vide Lord Ch . . c . ll. r's Speech 24th [i.e. 20th] April 1804. - "Not to destroy! but root them out of Heaven." Milton.'. Description from the British Museum.