Cartoon of the Quentin Affair

This contemporary cartoon by W N Jones of Newgate Street was published on 1 Dec 1814, drawn to comment upon the dispute between Lieut-Colonel Quentin and the officers of the 10th Hussars that he commanded. To the left of the picture are two overweight characters, The Prince Regent, Colonel of the Regiment, in a blue coat saying to his red-coated brother, Frederick, Duke of York, “He must be saved, for on my life, He hath a very pretty wife. And, Chief Commander of our Forces, You know he buys me all my horses. Pull away Fred.” They are pulling Colonel George Quentin out of a bog as he wails “Oh my de-a-r la-dy.” An officer, also in the uniform of the 10th Hussars, represents the office of the Adjutant-General, ordered to extract the offending officers. He holds a large metal cone like those used to snuff out candles.
Up in the clouds, a pair of judicial scales is held by an obscured god-like figure who declaims, ‘ORA ET LABORA’ Pray and Work, the motto of Monastic Catholics. The scales have the sentence of the court outweighing a heap of evidence. A thunderbolt hits the ground in a burst of flames that have the word ‘Conspiracy’. The figures on the right are all officers and men of the 10th Hussars apart from the anti-semitic caricature of a Jewish man holding his hat in front of a smoking mortar, perhaps symbolising the firing of the officers, and a paper in his pocket with the name Levy Samuel and mention of the King of Hanover amongst the indecipherable writing. Perhaps it is him that is saying something that looks like “I will purchase your cast off gentlemen”.
The officers are seen sheathing their swords with Lt-Col Charles Palmer out in front identifying himself by saying, “I could not ‘palm’ the conspiracy on the Court Marshal”. Behind him is the Marquis of Worcester, who later became Duke of Beaufort, addressing the FitzClarence brothers with a reference to Dorothea Jordan, mistress of the Duke of Clarence and mother of his 10 illegitimate children. Jordan was also the name of the chamber pots which George and Henry FitzClarence are wearing instead of fur busbies. The officer falling off his horse is saying, “This is a complete Somerset” which is a play on the word somersault but also the commander of the Hussar Brigade in Spain, Lord Edward Somerset, who at the trial showed a reluctance to criticise Quentin. In the background of the cartoon are cheering hussars who supported their CO.
The cartoon is copyright: ©Trustees of the British Museum and is reproduced at a larger size below to aid with the reading of the speech bubbles.

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