Upon the Reading of the Minister of Colonies' Plans

This Dutch wood engraving depicts a government official seated at his desk, confronted by three men representing colonial interests or opposition figures. The composition—with petitioners approaching a bureaucrat—draws from the satirical print tradition established by Hogarth and developed through Gillray and Rowlandson. The artist uses line work typical of mid-nineteenth-century wood engraving to render costume detail and facial expression. The print participates in the popular European tradition of political caricature that would eventually feed into illustrated journalism and the sequential narrative forms of early comics.