1-150-592 - The Cartoon Collector/Heritage-Images

'Silencing The Trumpet (after Aesop.)', 1870. Mr Gladstone, the Liberal Prime Minister, is depicted in the uniform of the chief constable in this cartoon. With the raging Irish dissenters in the background, Gladstone has a firm grip on a Fenian supporter who has been promoting newspaper stories designed to incite violence amongst the masses. This cartoon relates to the recently introduced Coercion Bill. Entitled The Peace Preservation (Ireland) Bill, one of its clauses related particularly to newspapers that were deemed to encourage or propagate violence and sedition. The message is that the word is, in its place, at least as mighty as the sword. From Punch, or the London Charivari, April 9, 1870.