"The friend of the people" & his petty-new tax-gatherer paying John Bull a visit

Fox and Lord Henry Petty stand at the door of a ramshackle tenement house. A distressed family look down at them from an open casement window over the door. Petty's hand is on the knocker. He holds a large open book. Behind his ear a pen. Fox puts both hands on a book. Between door and window is a board. The angry John, much disheveled, holds open the window to shout down. Fox answers and in his coat pocket is a large money-bag. Behind John stands woman holding an infant in each arm, another child gnaws a bone. Two others, one with a skull-like head, look from the window. On the ground floor (l.) is a shuttered window. The window above it has been bricked up to escape the tax; a lean cat looks from the casement under the eaves. From the window above John Bull (a corner only visible) hang a ragged shirt and stockings. A lamp projecting from the house (a corner one) is broken. Against the wall beside the door (r.) is a pump at which are three ragged children: a little boy pumps, another kneels to put his mouth to the gushing water, while a little girl with a raw turnip eagerly waits her turn. By the children lie a hoop-stick and a hoop from a barrel. On the left, are barrels. Across the road (l.) is a pawnshop with the sign of the three balls. In the upper windows of the prosperous shop are piles of moneybags (BM).
Courtesy of Boston Public Library