Yet there is something of the complacency of the nineteenth century in Phillip’s treatment of this eighteenth-century event because he has deliberately rendered it humorous. When he began painting the picture the Chartist Riots of 1848 were running their violent course in London, which put the events of the French Revolution into the minds of many of those who witnessed them. Even Queen Victoria was advised to leave the capital. To turn to England in 1789 and see the funny side demonstrates a certain 'sang-froid'. The joke is that all the tenants that are being so thoroughly drawn into the militia to protect his lordship’s estates are all unsuitable. They are all too short, or too ill, or too young, not that this will make any difference of course, because it is, after all, a state of national emergency. The humour is of the 'Dad’s Army' variety.