Plate 45[40]
. . . .
And these the names of the Eighteen combining with those Ten [40]
Line 40 is an engraved addition to the plate, after etching, made in
what was originally the bottom border. It is present in all copies except the
proof page, unnumbered and on paper watermarked "Edmead & Pine
1802", tipped into the Morgan copy. This might suggest an early date for
the original plate, but Keynes and Wolf (Census, p. 112)
think
it likely that this and the two similar proofs were made on paper that just
happened to be old, and Wicksteed (p. 178) finds reason in the pictorial and
verbal symbolism to regard this plate as "one of the latest and maturest" in
the book. The symbolism is certainly not especially early, and the script is
approximately that of the majority of the plates. The added line, however,
does show that it was made before the present arrangement of plates, that
it was first made for one position and later modified to fit another, in short
that this plate cannot be very strictly described as "one of the latest".
The historical allusions in the text do not call for a date later than
1808 — if my conjectures are valid that the voice of "Bath" is that
of the
pacificist Richard Warner and (more certainly) that the cutting of the chains
of "Africa" signifies the abolition act of 1807.[25]
