[items representing the corruption of the English legal system] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [items representing the corruption of the English legal system]
Subject: Corruption; law; Bribery; Brobdingnag (Imaginary Place); fictional works; Fictitious characters; imaginary places; imaginary creatures
Period: 1850-1900;
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 both the 1839 and 1843 Krabbe editions.
Image Creator: Grandville (Illustrator)
Type: StillImage; Vignettes
Identifier: mta:21422
Language: ger
Source Name: Gulliver's Reisen in unbekannte Länder
Parent Collection: 1870 Stuttgart Grandville; 1870 Stuttgart Grandville
Image: mta_21422_OBJ.png
Collection: Gulliver's Travels
Subject: Corruption; law; Bribery; Brobdingnag (Imaginary Place); fictional works; Fictitious characters; imaginary places; imaginary creatures