Contrasting the lean and the fat was a traditional yet highly compelling satirical staple. Combined here to great effect with national stereotypes, a ragged, starving sans-culotte sits to one side eating raw onions and a chamberpot full of snails in front of a miserable smoking fire. Despite the mean circumstances that reflect the very real economic crisis France was facing at this time, he revels in his freedom and delightedly proclaims 'We swim in the Milk & Honey!'.

The comparative image is a bloated Englishman, with face blotched from drink and shoes slit to relieve his gout. He carves a large side of beef, accompanied by a foaming tankard of ale yet decries the present government for enslaving him and starving him to death. Gillray was later paid an annual pension for his satiric service to the Tory Anti-Jacobin Review.