The Outbreak of the Autumn Stemming

This Dutch political print depicts a well-dressed minister operating a voting apparatus labeled "STEM BUS" (ballot box) while a woman and her shaggy dog approach to cast their votes. The cartoon satirizes mid-nineteenth-century electoral reform debates, likely referencing the exclusionary franchise restrictions of the era. Rendered in pen and ink with careful cross-hatching, the print belongs to the Northern European tradition of political satire descending from Hogarth and Gillray—one of numerous popular prints, known as *Bilderbogen*, that circulated throughout the Low Countries and German states. Such single-sheet satires preceded the modern comic strip, using exaggeration and visual puns to mock current affairs and public figures to audiences across social classes.