A trio of quack doctors attending to Britannia: the Earl of Bute with an ass's head blindfolds a woman who is vomiting into a bowl held by Louis XV as a baboon: Tobias Smollett takes her pulse;while Henry Fox approaches her with a clyster-pipe; representing the loss of British assets to France in the Treaty of Paris. Etching attributed to Paul Sandby, 1762.

Previous title, replaced March 2024 : A man with an ass's head blindfolding a woman who is vomiting into a bowl held by an ape-like man: a quack takes her pulse while a fox-like man prepares a clyster-pipe; representing Lord Bute with Britannia and France, together with Smollett and Fox. Etching, 1762.

On the Treaty of Paris (November 1762), marking the end of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), chiefly between Great Britain and France. Under the Treaty, Great Britain ceded to France the sugar islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique that had been captured from France by the British under William Pitt in 1759 and 1762. "The Evacuations, dated December 1762 (fig. 237). This is clearly directed at the peace treaty, for which preliminary terms had been signed on 3 November. As the North Briton complained, 'The French king, by a stroke of his pen, has regained what all the power of that nation, and her allies, could never have recovered; and England, once more the dupe of a subtle negotiation, has consented to give up very nearly all her conquests.' Bute, Smollett and Fox stand on a mountebank's stage, trampling the symbols of Liberty underfoot. Bute, shown with the head of an ass, grasps Britannia who vomits up territories, while he simultaneously blows bubbles of peace and pensions. On the left, the beneficiaries of the peace — a Spaniard, a Dutchman and a Frenchman (the Duke of Nivernois) — watch from a balcony in front of a sign advertising 'Fine teas sugar tobacco and Havannah snuff by Velasque Never Nose & Co from over y[e] way'. North Briton nos. 27 and 28 went into great detail about the perceived iniquities of the proposed peace treaty: 'All the places we have conquered are actually ours, and I cannot sufficiently admire the complaisance of the French, who are willing to cede, as they are pleased to call it, what is already in our possession, and what they have no prospect of recovering.' This was followed by a table showing on one side gains to be returned (Guadaloupe, Mariegalante, Desirade, Martinique, Right of fishing and curing on Newfoundland, St. Peter, Miquelon, Pondicherry, and all their settlements in the East Indies, Goree, Belleisle, St. Lucia) against territories Britain would retain on the other side (Minorca and three neutral islands). In the print, Sandby shows Dr Smollett checking Britannia's pulse. She has been administered with an emetic and is spewing up all the territories that had been won. Sandby has taken the place names directly from the pages of the North Briton down to the exact words about Pondicherry etc. A scroll hanging from the balcony records what England will keep: 'England to have only Minorca and three neutral islands. Peace.' On the right hand side, Louis Baboon [Louis XV, Bourbon] is holding a bowl to catch the 'evacuations'. Behind him is a shop selling Newfoundland cod, another cause of contention …"—Gunn, loc. cit.

Smollett supported Bute through his editorship of The Briton (May 1762 to 12 Feb 1763), a copy of which protrudes from his pocket. The trio of quack doctors trample on the arms of the City of London and on the Phrygian Cap of Liberty. Louis Mancini-Mazarini (from 1768 Duke of Nivernais), was the French ambassador in London: he stands on a balcony on the left with a Spaniard and a Dutchman, representing beneficiaries of the treaty

[London] (Little Riders Court Leicester Feilds) : Publishd according to Act of Parliament by Mary Darley, [1762]

1 print : etching ; platemark 30.3 x 20.3 cm

The evacuation. Or an emetic for old Englands glorys - Tune Derry Down. ... From the Rial oak December 1762 The Rial is a piece of Spanish money grafted at present. Lettering continues with eight etched verses of song mourning England's demise

British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, vol. IV, London 1883, no. 3917

Ann V. Gunn, 'The fire of faction: sources for Paul Sandby's satires of 1762-63', Print quarterly, 2017: 400-418 (this print pp. 415-416)

Wellcome Collection 12163i