Plot to Land a Bishop - British Cartoon

Colonial Americans did not want Britain to send bishops to the colonies. Worried that the presence of Anglican bishops would interfere with their religious beliefs, Americans wanted the clerics to go back to England.

In this cartoon, published in London, an indignant mob pushes a bishop's boat away from America. As the priest prays, "Lord, now lettest thou thy Servant depart in Peace," the mob throws a volume of John Calvin's Works at him while waving copies of books by John Locke and Algernon Sydney (on government).

The crowds' shouts of "Liberty & Freedom of Conscience," "No Lords Spiritual or Temporal in New England" and "shall they be obliged to maintain bishops that cannot maintain themselves" are signs of the troubles to come.

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