The Radical leader wears a cloak and a mask, this is to hide his true identity, the message that this image is trying to give us is that the Radicals may look good on the outside, but in the inside they are very evil! Britannia is holding a sword that has written on it “The Law,” but the sword seems to be melting, this is showing us that the Laws of Britain are being weakened. On the right hand side, we can see a lion that represents Britain’s loyalty. Next to Britannia there is a rock, this represents Britain’s religion, this symbolises that the radicals would also destroy Britain’s religion. The Radical leader has an hourglass hanging from his waist, this could mean that Britain is running out of time until the Radicals reform, or it might mean that Britain should hurry up and do something about the Radicals before its too late.
Why do you think this source was produced?
I think this source was produced against the Radicals. It shows them as vicious looking skeletons with evil faces, this was probably done to convince people that the Radicals were really bad. It was produced to show how the Radical’s reformation would destroy Britain and bring death to all its citizens. Basically it was to scare the people so that they didn’t turn against Parliament to join the Radicals. It could also be a message to Parliament or the people, to take action before the Radicals take control and destroy Britain like shown on the cartoon; or it could have been drawn by a Radical to show that no matter what they are going to win, but this is unlikely because otherwise they would have portrayed themselves in a much kinder way.
Is this source reliable and useful to Historians?
Explain your answer.
Yes this source is useful, all sources are useful, but its usefulness is limited. It is only useful if you want to find out a specific thing like – What did people think of the Radicals? How did they act against the Radicals? What types of pictures were drawn around the early 1800’s about Parliament? Etc. Yes the source is also reliable, but its reliability is awkward because the source is very biased. It is reliable if you wanted to know specific things, like mentioned above. It is reliable if you wanted to know people’s opinions, but it is not entirely reliable because it is biased and it does not show what really happen, because as we know, the Radicals weren’t skeletons and what is shown on the picture did not really happen. So yes the source is useful and reliable but it depends on the information you want to find out; its usefulness and reliability is restricted.
Diana. C. Echeverry
