A rebus, in which pictures represent words, was a favorite amusement in the eighteenth century. [Britannia toe] Amer[eye]ca (Britannia to America) is the first of a pair of political satires concerning Britain’s last attempt to end the Revolution through diplomatic means by sending to Philadelphia an unsuccessful delegation known as the “Carlisle Peace Commissioners.”

The rebus portrays Britannia as a mother urging her daughter who is planning to marry a Frenchman to jilt him and stop rebelling, a reference to the American alliance with France.