[depiction of the corruption of English Legal system] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [depiction of the corruption of English Legal system]
Subject: law; Legal services; Legal authorities; Corruption; Political corruption in literature; fictional works; Fictitious characters
Period: 1800-1850;
Geographic: England; Europe; United Kingdom
Description: Here we see a depiction of the corruption of the English legal system. The image shows a desk with bribes on top of the verdict. A framed picture of a lawyer is in the back. We see a rabbit and several bottles, likely of expensive goods, and a coin purse with coins spilling out on top of a stack of papers, with the word “verdict” written on it. Gulliver tells the King about diplomacy, religion, the justice system, the arts, the financial system, and the nobility, then debated these issues with the king. This image comes when Gulliver is discussing the corrupt legal system, speaking to how the wealthy could buy their desired outcome. The same image appears in the 1843 Krabbe edition.
Image Creator: Grandville (Illustrator)
Type: StillImage; Book Illustrations
Identifier: mta:20938
Language: ger
Source Name: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder
Parent Collection: 1839 Stuttgart Grandville vol. 1; 1839 Stuttgart Grandville vol. 1
Image: mta_20938_OBJ.png
Collection: Gulliver's Travels
Subject: law; Legal services; Legal authorities; Corruption; Political corruption in literature; fictional works; Fictitious characters