Genre:

Illustration, Caricature; Essay, Satire

Relevant illustrations:

wdct.

Illustrators:

J L, pseud.  [John Leech] *

Subjects:

Natural History, Entomology, Government, Animal Behaviour, Politics

    The illustration and text represent the Prime Minister Robert Peel as a butterfly, who 'peels' into a 'monopolist caterpillar', and then into a grub. Likens Peel's political activities to the movements of a butterfly. For example, citing Georges L Leclerc, comte de Buffon, observes that when Peel 'designs to fly a considerable distance, it ascends and descends alternately, going sometime to the right, sometimes to the left, without any apparent reason'.