CHAPTER XII.ELECTIONEERING CARTOONS AND SQUIBS, 1807-20.

PATRIOTS DECIDING A POINT OF HONOUR; THE DUEL AT WIMBLEDON, BETWEEN SIR FRANCIS BURDETT AND JAMES PAULL. WESTMINSTER ELECTION. 1807. BY JAMES GILLRAY.

“I must say, to have my name advertised for such meetings is like ‘Such a day is to be seen the great Katterfelto,’ and this without any previous consent or application. From any one else I should regard it as an insult!”

At the dinner, it was explained by Sir Francis’s brother that Burdett had given no promise to preside; after the meeting broke up, Paull waited on his proposer, and a warm altercation ensued, when a hostile meeting was arranged to take place the next morning near Wimbledon. This duel is made the subject of a fresh satire by Gillray—“Patriots Deciding a Point of Honour! or, the Exact Representation of the Celebrated Rencontre which took place at Combe Wood on May 2nd, 1807, between Little Paull the Tailor and Sir Francis Goose.” On the field of honour, Burdett continued to be travestied as the famous “great green goose:” his letter to the electors at the Crown and Anchor is, with other political andpersonal publications, scattered around as the cause of the encounter; one pair of pistols is already discharged. At the second exchange of shots, which Paull demanded, as Burdett declined to apologize, both combatants were wounded, as shown in the picture. Sir Francis was highly indignant, according to the satirist’s version: “What, must I be out! and a Tailor get into Parliament?—You’re a liar! I never said that I would sit as Chairman on your Shopboard!” Paull, who is girt with a huge pair of shears sword-wise, responds, “A liar!—Sir, I’m a Tailor and a Gentleman, and I must have satisfaction.” Bellenden Kerr and Cooper, the seconds of the respective combatants, are provided with two armfuls of pistols for the emergency, which Sam Rogers described as “ending in a lame affair.”

THE POLL OF THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION, 1807. ELECTION CANDIDATES, OR THE REPUBLICAN GOOSE AT THE TOP OF THE POLL. ON THE POLL: BURDETT, COCHRANE, ELLIOTT, SHERIDAN, PAULL; BELOW ARE TEMPLE, GREY, GRANVILLE, PETTY, ETC. BY JAMES GILLRAY.

The further results of the contest are shown as the “Poll of the Westminster Election.” According to Gillray’s figurative version, Burdett, still as the goose with woundedlimb, is pitchforked to the top, whence he is hissing at the Crown as the “Sun of the Constitution;” his political tutor, travestied as the Evil One, is helping his rise; Lord Cochrane, flourishing a club, marked, “Reform,” is second; Elliot, the brewer, as “Quassia,” is overset; Sheridan, in his old Harlequin suit, is slipping down, never to rise again; and Paull, with his leg damaged, has come down with a run, he having cut an insignificant figure in the polling; the members of the dismissed ministry are commemorating Burdett’s triumph with “rough music.” This version, which contains a number of portraits, is entitled—

“Election Candidates; or, the Republican Goose at the Top of the Pol(l)e—the Devil Helping Behind!videMr. Paull’s Letter,articleHorne Tooke. Also an exact representation of Sawney M’Cockran (Lord Cochrane) flourishing the Cudgel of Naval Reform, lent him by Cobbett, and mounting triumphantly over a small Beer Barrel, together with an old Drury Lane Harlequin trying in vain to make a spring to the top of the pole, and slipping down again; and lastly, poor Little Paull, the Tailor done over! wounded by a Goose, and not a leg to stand on.” (May 20, 1807.)

THE HEAD OF THE POLL; OR, THE WIMBLEDON SHOWMAN AND HIS PUPPET. 1807. TOOKE AND BURDETT.

The support and assistance afforded by the author of the “Diversions of Purley” to his pupil are further indicated in a caricature which represented the “Brentford Parson” carrying the candidate at the end of hispole, and, as in the former example, exhibiting Burdett to the crowd assembled in Covent Garden, under the title of “The Head of the Poll; or, the Wimbledon Showman and his Puppet.” Horne Tooke is advertising “The finest puppet in the world, gentlemen; entirely of my own formation. I have only to say the word, and he’ll do anything.”

Another view of a hustings is afforded by the caricaturist. From the platform a select few of superannuated statesmen are addressing the constituents, in this instance pictured as calves. This version, which is by Gillray, represents a phase of the “Patriotic Petitions on the Convention” (of Cintra); “The Chelmsford Petition,” with Patriots addressing the Essex Calves—who, it is notified, are “To be sold to the highest bidder.” Lord Temple is unfolding theEssex Petition—“Horrid Convention! Ministers firing the Park guns; Armistice in French lingoes!” Earl St. Vincent is appealing to the electors, and declaring that all the misfortunes are due to the want of him; the gouty veteran is supported by the Marquis of Buckingham, who is asserting “It’s all for want of us, Gentlemen Calves!” sentiments which the other occupants of the platform, Windham and Lord Henry Petty, are applauding.

Marquis of Buckingham.Lord Temple.Lord H. Petty.Earl St. Vincent.THE CHELMSFORD PETITION: PATRIOTS ADDRESSING THE ESSEX CALVES.

THE CHELMSFORD PETITION: PATRIOTS ADDRESSING THE ESSEX CALVES.

It was the “royal” Duke of Norfolk, who, on the appeal to the country which followed the downfall of Lord Granville’s Ministry of “all the Talents,” declared in the true spirit of the old political grandees, “After all, what greater enjoyment can there be in life than to stand a contested election for Yorkshire, and to win it by one?” The harder and more costly the fight, the better the fun, and the more relishable the victory which stirred the blood of the Howards.

It is curious to view the precise Wilberforce, as pictured by himself, entertaining at midnight suppers his constituents, the Hull freemen located in London, to the number of three hundred, at waterside public-houses round Wapping, and by his addresses to them “gaining confidence in public speaking.” As a young man, only just of age, Wilberforce successfully contested a seat for Hull. His entry to the senate cost him between £8000 and £9000, on his own showing.

“By long-established custom the single vote of a resident elector was rewarded with a donation of two guineas; four were paid for a plumper, and the expenses of a freeman’s journey from London averaged £10 apiece. The letter of the law was not broken, because the money was not paid until the last day on which election petitions could be presented.”

This early success of Wilberforce was won in opposition to the paramount influence of Lord Rockingham, and thatof the Government, “always strong at a seaport;” but this contest sinks into insignificance beside Wilberforce’s later experiences. It was after the philanthropist had already represented the county of Yorkshire for twenty-three years that, on the unexpected dissolution in 1807, he found himself plunged in the most expensive contest on record, one in which it was alleged half a million of money was squandered, and which has been aptly designated the “Austerlitz of Electioneering.”

Wilberforce’s opponents were Lord Milton, backed by the powerful influence of his father, Earl Fitzwilliam, and with the active co-operation of the Duke of Norfolk; and the Hon. H. Lascelles, in promoting whose return his father, Lord Harewood, was “ready to spend his whole Barbados property.” When the great abolitionist arrived in York, he found his rivals had already marshalled their forces, retained all the law-agents, and engaged canvassers, houses of entertainment, and every species of conveyance in any considerable town. As Wilberforce assured his friends on the nomination day, when nearly every hand was uplifted in his favour, “he would never expose himself to the imputation of endeavouring to make a seat in the House of Commons subservient to the repair of a dilapidated fortune,” a vast subscription was set on foot to defray the expenses he incurred in standing, and, within a week, this fund reached £64,455. At the hustings, the high sheriff declared the majority in favour of Lord Milton and the Hon. H. Lascelles, whereupon a poll was demanded by Mr. Wilberforce, which commenced at once, and continued for fifteen days. The high sheriff presided in court, and the poll was taken at thirteen booths in York Castle yard. For the first few days Wilberforce stood so low that his professional adviser stated that “the sooner he resigned the better.” While the heavy purses had secured every mode of conveyance, even to “mourning coaches,” Wilberforce’s adherents were, at their own charges, slowly making their way to the poll.

“No carriages are to be procured,” says a letter from Hull, “but boats are proceeding up the river heavily laden with voters; farmers lend their waggons; even donkeys have the honour of carrying voters for Wilberforce, and hundreds are proceeding on foot. This is just as it should be. No money can convey all the voters, but if their feelings are roused his election is secure.”

“How did you come up?” they asked a countryman who had “plumped” for Wilberforce, and who denied having spent anything on his journey. “Sure enow I cam all’d way ahint Lord Milton’s carriage.” Vast hosts of mounted freeholders rode in bodies to York, and, when interrogated, “For what parties do you come?” the response was, “Wilberforce” to a man, and these continued to arrive both by day and night. TheYork Heraldsummarizes the excitement of the election:—

“Nothing since the days of the revolution has ever presented to the world such a scene as this great county for fifteen days and nights. Repose or rest have been unknown in it, except it was seen in a messenger asleep upon his post-horse, or in his carriage. Every day the roads in every direction to and from every remote part of the county have been covered with vehicles loaded with voters; and barouches, curricles, gigs, flying waggons, and military cars with eight horses, crowded sometimes with forty voters, have been scouring the country, leaving not the slightest chance for the quiet traveller to urge his humble journey, or find a chair at an inn to sit down upon.”

As Wilberforce’s majority increased, the “Miltonians” and “Lascellites” freely resorted to tricky manœuvres included among “election tactics.” Falsehoods about “coalitions” were circulated; it was asserted there was “an unholy alliance” between “Saint and Sinner”—Wilberforce and Harewood House; that the great slave abolitionist was in league with the “Nigger Driver,” otherwise Lord Harewood, the holder of the Barbados slave property. “Then,” says Wilberforce, “the mob-directing system—twenty bruisers sent for, Firby, Gully, and others.” It was the object of Milton’s “bravos” to drown Wilberforce’s refutations of the “Coalition” charge, and when he addressed the people, the mob interrupted his explanation.“Print what you have to say in a handbill, and let them read it, since they will not hear you,” cried a friend. “They read indeed!” said Wilberforce. “What, do you suppose that men who make such a noise as these fellows can read?” This sally won the heart of the crowd. To the other false rumours against him was added that of his own death; four days before the election closed he was attacked by an epidemic which disabled him from taking a further personal share in the struggle. Wilberforce stood at the head of the poll with 11,806 votes, Lord Milton was returned with 11,177, and Lascelles was defeated, with 10,989.

“Had I not been defrauded of promised votes, I should have had 20,000,” Wilberforce wrote to Hannah Moore. “However, it is unspeakable cause for thankfulness to come out of the battle ruined neither in health, character, or fortune.”

A large proportion of the subscriptions was returned. The motives which influenced Wilberforce to this arduous adventure are such as command the sympathies of those who prize constitutional freedom.

“It is but too manifest,” he wrote, “that expensive contests have a natural tendency to throw great counties and populous places into the hands of men of immense wealth; just as it has been sometimes found that mankind have sought a refuge from the evils of anarchy, by running into the opposite extreme, and surrendering their liberties.”

In a footnote to a series of satirical epistles, published in 1807, as “The Groans of the Talents,” in six epistles, purporting to be written by ex-ministers to their colleagues, we get a curious, if apocryphal, electioneering anecdote. The putative author of the epistle in question, the Right Hon. W. Windham, and his correspondent, T. W. Coke, were both sufferers from the damaging indiscretion recorded. It is explained how these candidates were supposed (incorrectly according to facts) to have lost their seats for Norfolk. In the general election, 1806, two ladies of the first respectability drove about the county to canvass for Col. Hon. J. Wodehouse (Conservative), and as they were universally respected, their success was proportionably great. Messrs. Coke and Windham were much chagrined at this circumstance;at length, however, the latter gentleman’s inventive genius devised a plan by which he hoped to turn it to their own advantage. Having procured two comely nymphs of light reputation, somewhat resembling in age and appearance the “fair petitioners” they were destined to personate, he arrayed them in similar apparel, and, having procured a carriage which formerly belonged to one of these ladies, they canvassed another part of the county in favour of Messrs. Coke and Windham; the trick, however, was discovered, and so indignant were Col. Wodehouse’s fair friends, that they instigated their husbands and friends to petition parliament against the sheriff’s return. Thus did the means by which Mr. Windham hoped to defeat the Hon. John Wodehouse contribute to the discredit of himself and friend. It must be added, it is hardly credible the Right Hon. W. Windham would be likely to resort to so disreputable an electioneering ruse.

In the days when candidates paid their electors’ travelling expenses (and these ranged high, averaging, for example, from London to Hull, ten pounds apiece for freemen, the recognized tariff), curious manœuvres were resorted to by the “other side;” one of these was to buy off the persons who had the responsibility of delivering these expensive cargoes safe and in good voting order at the end of their expedition. Among these anecdotes, it is related that, when those Berwick freemen who happened to reside in the metropolis—

“were going down by sea, the skippers, to whose tender mercy they were committed, used to be bribed, and have been known in consequence to carry them over to Norway!”

This is the forerunner of the Ipswich story, that the Ipswich freemen, under precisely similar conditions, have occasionally found themselves in Holland; while, on the authority of R. Southey, it had also occurred to electors to find themselves delivered at a port in the Netherlands. The notorious Andrew Robinson Bowes, who was famous for being undeterred by scruples, once stood for Newcastle.A cargo of Newcastle freemen were shipped from London for his opponent, and the master was bribed by Bowes to carry them to Ostend, where they remained till the election was over.

The majesty of the people is adequately represented from a humoristic standpoint by Pugin and Rowlandson, as it might have appeared on its septennial returns in the boisterous eighteenth century. In the view of the most celebrated polling-place of the kingdom, one of the candidates has secured the ears of the adjacent crowd:—

“A man, when once he’s safely chose,May laugh at all his furious foes,Nor think of former evil:Yet good has its attendant ill;Aseatis no bad thing—but stillAcontestis the devil.”

Possibly the voices will follow; a show of hands is offered with hearty goodwill; but, put to the test of the poll-book, it would seem that, for the most part, the audience is voteless. However, the polling-places may be recognized, like cattle pens, in front of the hustings, with the attendant officials under the supervision of the high bailiff of Westminster as returning officer. The flags indicate the respective parishes of the district, such as St. Margaret’s, St. James’s, St. Martin in the Fields, etc. Pugin is responsible for the literal exactitude with which the locality is represented; his drawing may be accepted as a faithful view of the customary arrangement of the Covent Garden hustings at the time of the Westminster elections: while Rowlandson has added the life and zest of the subject from actual observation. With the history of the famous contests held on this spot before us, it is noteworthy that the artist has given prominence to one well-known feature, characteristic of Westminster elections for nearly a century, the nomination of an influential naval officer in the Court interest, whose supporters, backed up by a contingent of loyal jack-tars, produced a due effect onthe opposition. Rowlandson was quite at home in the scene: he has reproduced the bludgeon-boys, ballad-singers, professional pugilists, marrow-bone-and-cleaver “rough music,” and those vendors of cakes, nuts, fruit, and such small wares as were in request at such times; these itinerant traders found at elections a large mart for their commodities, but the business was at such times conducted at some personal risk, the baskets being overset, the contents scattered, and the owners roughly handled in the course of the attacks, counter-charges, and other party-manœuvres which diversified the proceedings in the vicinity of the hustings.

G. Cruikshank supplied a frontispiece to Fairburn’s “Electors of Westminster,” 1810—a copy of the “Speaker’s Warrant for the Commitment of Sir Francis Burdett to the Tower,” with a burlesque portrait of that privileged functionary, the Speaker, in an enormous wig, surmounted by a miniature hat; the Right Hon. Charles Abbott was further caricatured by the artist as “The Little Man in the Big Wig”—vide“Fuller’s Earth reanimated.”

A burlesque, by George Cruikshank, upon one of the candidates for the City appeared in 1812, under the title of “The Election Hunter;” it consists of a broadside, commencing:—

“I’ve just learned, by the porter who stands at my door,That your old friend, Sir Charles, means to offer no more.”

G. Cruikshank has supplied the pictorial embellishments. Sir Claudius Hunter, the canvassing candidate, is standing in the stirrups of his famous charger, “White Surrey,” mounted on the platform, attended by masked horsemen, and squired by a dilapidated knight in armour, who has evidently seen overmuch service. The candidate is thus addressing the civic constituency: “Gentleman, I earnestly solicit your vote and interest for me and my horse.” This appeal the electors receive with derision, “No, no; you may saddle White Surrey for Cheapside if you like, but not for the House,” “Off, off,” etc.

This electioneering squib was probably preceded by another, also designed by G. Cruikshank (published April 10, 1812). In this version, entitled, “Saddle White Surrey for Cheapside to-morrow—W. Lon. Mil. Regt. [West London Militia Regiment], General Orders,” Sir Claudius, mounted on his steed, is making, like a true knight-errant, a quixotic charge upon his constituents, preceded by the woeful man-in-armour, like Sancho Panza, on an ass; he is charging the throng with his lance. A groom behind Sir Claudius is exclaiming, “This is our High-bred Hunter!”

In 1812, G. Cruikshank found fresh exercise for his etching-needle on another electioneering cartoon—“The Borough Candidates,” published October 1812. Suggestions of Gillray will be identified in this plate, for the artist is dealing with Charles Calvert, the brewer, who was elected for Southwark with H. Thornton, in opposition to W. J. Burdett; the new member is seated astride a barrel of his own brewing, the “stingo” is pouring forth from spigot and vent-peg. The discomfited candidates are figured on either side; while the heads of the brewer’s constituents appear in front.

Elections happily brought both food and occupation to the caricaturists and satirists, as it has been shown. Incidents connected with this subject evidently caught the popular taste, for we find Cruikshank making the most of the mere title, in association with the etching of a somewhat commonplace presentment of a country assembly-room, conveying no flattering impression of the provincial grace and deportment of the period; this was published in 1813—as “An Election Ball:” the floor is occupied by knock-kneed dancers doddering through figures, while the master of the ceremonies is shouting his instructions to the leader of the band, elevated in an orchestra overhead.

The artist evidently found this topic remunerative, for in 1819 he produced a smaller version of “An Election Ball”—a similar subject, with the arrangement of the room reversed; a country dance is proceeding with “handsacross;” the clumsy master of the ceremonies, who is pigeon-toed, stands viewing the scene with evident gratification. This plate reappeared, with a new publisher’s name, in 1835 (republished by Thomas McLean, Haymarket).

Hunt.Burdett.Cartwright.Sir S. Romilly.Sir M. Maxwell.THE FREEDOM OF ELECTION; OR, HUNT-ING FOR POPULARITY, AND PLUMPERS FOR MAXWELL. 1818. BY G. AND R. CRUIKSHANK.

THE FREEDOM OF ELECTION; OR, HUNT-ING FOR POPULARITY, AND PLUMPERS FOR MAXWELL. 1818. BY G. AND R. CRUIKSHANK.

Both Robert and George Cruikshank were working away on the popular side of the Westminster election contest, June 18, 1818. “The Freedom of Election; or,Huntingfor Popularity, and Plumpers forMaxwell,” published June 22, 1818, owes its origin to this combination of talent. In the caricature, the candidates and their most prominent supporters are mounted on the Covent Garden hustings, of which a front view is given. Hunt stands hat in hand (he and Sir Francis Burdett sport “favours”); the Radical reformer is backed by his colours, his flag proclaims “Universal Suffrage and Liberty;” the standard is surmounted by a cap of liberty. Hunt is making a characteristically downright appeal to his audience:—

“I am a plain Englishman. I approve of the conduct of Sir Murray Maxwell in coming forward as he has done. Why should you send Sir Samuel Romilly to Parliament? He can find his way into theDen of Corruption. You know the hero of the Tower, as well as I do—who ran out at the back door when his friends were waiting for him at the front.Ihave hoisted the Cap of Liberty!”

The followers of the speaker are shouting, “Hunt for ever! no Sovereigns, no Regents, no Churches, no Lawyers! Universal Plunder for ever! No Sham Patriots. Hunt and Liberty. Hunt and Revolution.” Sir Francis Burdett comes next, beside the Hon. Douglas Kinnaird and Major Cartwright; these candidates are variously received. “Burdett for ever!—No Weathercocks. No Coalition. The Spenceans for ever! Napoleon for ever! Burdett for ever! No Spafields Rioters.” “Kinnaird for ever!” “Cartwright for ever! No old woman in Parliament.” Sir Samuel Romilly is standing beside the poll on which the results of the first day’s votings are recorded. The cries for “Romilly and Justice,” “Romilly and Reform,” indicate a popular candidate. Sir Murray Maxwell is a prominent figure, and is represented in the full swing of his eloquence; like Hunt, he is disposed to be a courteous opponent:—

“Gentlemen,—Mr. Hunt is anxious you should hear me now. I am certain you will hear him presently with pleasure. I am certain my cause is as popular as his; for I see many pretty girls pressing forward to hear me. Of all the days in the year, none appear more favourable for a British officer to receive your support than the anniversary of Waterloo.”

“Maxwell and the British Navy! Let every man do his duty!” is shouted; while hostile voices cry, “No Maxwell—no Captain Flog-’em.” A notice-board, capped by the crown, sets forth the merits of this candidate:—

“Who is Sir M. Maxwell? He is a brave, learned, loyal, and Constitutional man. He hoists only the colours of his King and country—not the red flag. He has engaged to pay his share of the Hustings to prevent new levies on the people.”

Sir S. Romilly (W) headed the poll with 5339 votes; Sir Francis Burdett was a good second with 5238; Sir Murray Maxwell, the unsuccessful candidate, polled 4808: theothers were “nowhere”—Hunt, 84; Kinnaird, 65; Cartwright, 23.

HUNT, A RADICAL REFORMER.

In the same spirit the satirists regarded as fair game for their shafts of ridicule the new political section which had seceded from the Whig party as being behind the age; these were the “root-and-branch reformers,” who, from their electing to call themselves Radical reformers, obtained the party designation of “Radicals.” The orator Hunt is travestied in this guise.

The general turbulence of the times at this precise period is graphically pictured in “The Law’s Delay.”

“Now greeting, hooting, and abuse,To each man’s party prove of use,And mud, and stones, and waving hats,And broken heads, and putrid catsAre offerings made to aid the causeOf order, government, and laws.”(The Election Day.)

(The Election Day.)

There appeared in 1819 “A Political Squib on the Westminster Election, Covent Garden” (March 3), by G. Cruikshank. This etching forms the frontispiece to a tract published April 20, 1819, for Bengo, print-dealer, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. The somewhat mystifying title of the election squib is “Patriot Allegory, Anarchical Fable, and Licentious Parody,” and it purports to be written by Peregrine Castigator. G. Cruikshank has availed himself of that long-suffering animal, the British Lion; in this instance the monarch of the beasts personates the successful candidate, the Hon. George Lamb being figured as the lion. He is exhibited standing under the city gate, beneath aportcullis, wreathed with laurels; his tail is lashed in anger, while the unsuccessful candidates, as an additional ignominy to their defeat, are travestied as the heads of a hydra trampled beneath their political victor. John Cam Hobhouse (W) polled 3,861, and was beaten by G. Lamb (C) with 4,465 votes. T. T. Wooler, the revolutionary publisher, for whom Cruikshank was working in 1815, is personified as the “Black Dwarf,” as his whilom ally ever after represented him; his duck’s-head cap is made to exclaim, “Cartwright and ’38!!!” the next individual says, “Quack! quack! quack!”—an allusion to the small minority of votes polled by the Radical candidate at the Westminster election for 1819, vice Romilly deceased, when 8,364 votes were registered, and only 38 of these for Cartwright.

THE LAW’S DELAY. READING THE RIOT ACT. 1820. BY G. CRUIKSHANK.Showing the advantage and comfort of waiting the specified time after reading the Riot Act to a Radical mob; or a British magistrate in the discharge of his duty, and the people of England in the discharge of theirs! See speeches of the Opposition—Passim.[Page 334.

THE LAW’S DELAY. READING THE RIOT ACT. 1820. BY G. CRUIKSHANK.

Showing the advantage and comfort of waiting the specified time after reading the Riot Act to a Radical mob; or a British magistrate in the discharge of his duty, and the people of England in the discharge of theirs! See speeches of the Opposition—Passim.

[Page 334.

Major Cartwright, the “Drum-major of Sedition” of the ministerial satirists, was one of the Radical reformers who laboured actively for the reform of parliamentary abuses. He put up for Westminster in the Radical interest in 1818 and 1819, but seems to have had no support. In 1820, Major Cartwright addressed a petition to the House of Commons for the purpose of disclosing “that ninety-seven Lords usurped two hundred seats in the Commons-House in violation of our Laws and Liberties.”

“Resolved.That it is a high infringement upon our Liberties and Privileges for Lords of Parliament to concern themselves in the Elections of members to serve for the Commons.” (Journals at the commencement of every Session.)

How far the measure of reform was needed in the corrupt system of boroughmongering is clearly demonstrated by Major Cartwright’s—

“Lists and Tables of Peers of the Realm who have unlawfully concerned themselves in the Election of members to serve for the Commons in the Parliament which was then sitting (1820), with the Counties and Towns where the unlawful interference of Peers has operated, either by nomination or influence, with the number of members unlawfully returned.”

For instance, the Dukes of Bedford and Rutland respectively returned four representatives; the same number was in thenomination of the Earls of Ailesbury, St. Germans, Mount Edgecumbe, etc., while such powerful autocrats as the Earl of Lonsdale contrived to return eight nominees, as did the Earl of Darlington; six members were returned by the Duke of Norfolk and Earl Fitzwilliam respectively; while the Dukes of Devonshire, Newcastle, and Northumberland, the Marquises of Buckingham and Hertford, the Earl of Powis, and Baron Carrington each managed to return five seats. To the calculations given in his table, the petitioner added the Treasury patronage, then in the Earl of Liverpool’s control, giving eleven members; the Admiralty, under Viscount Melville’s patronage, imposing three members, the Ordnance (Duke of Wellington) one—adding again, according to the calculations given in Oldfield’s “Representative History” (vi. 289),—

“There are ninety wealthy Commoners who, for 102 vile sinks of corruption over which they tyrannize, further dishonour the House by forcing on it 137 members,” thus giving a total of no less than 353 members, who, as Cartwright represented to the House of Commons in his very remarkable Petition, [the Major writes] “to use the words of the royal proclamation of the 30th July, 1819,” were created such “in gross violation of the law, and to the palpable subversion of the constitution, being corruptly or tyrannically imposed on the Commons.”

“The pure and undefiled principles of the Constitution” were inculcated by Major Cartwright in his “Lectures on the British Constitution,” “Letters to Lord Mayor Wood,” “Letters to Clarkson on African and English Freedom,” “Resolutions and Proceedings of the Hampden Club,” “A Bill of Rights and Liberties; or, an Act for restoring the Civil Branch of the Constitution,” and the companion work, “A Bill of Free and Sure Defence, for restoring the Military Branch.” The major was brimming over with zeal, and had almost too good a case; unfortunately for the enforcement of his reforms, he was too early in the field.

The coming elections of 1820 were preceded by several caricatures. Those by George Cruikshank are the most meritorious, the artist’s work for this date being at its best. He was at that time employed by Humphrey, the print-publisher,of St. James’s Street, as a successor to James Gillray, an honour the artist regarded with pride to the close of his long career. On the 1st of January, John Cam Hobhouse, who was then canvassing Westminster, and was this year to be sent to parliament as the colleague of his friend, Sir Francis Burdett, was exhibited as “Little Hob in the Well,” under the title of “A Trifling Mistake—Corrected.” The diminutive statesman is exhibited in the place of his confinement, a prison-cell; he is gloomily contemplating two pictures on the wall, “St. Stephen’s ChapelversusNewgate.” A pile of manuscripts, blackened by the upsetting of an inkstand, and a mouse-trap assist the allusions. “The Trifling Mistake” is placarded on the wall in the indiscreet but pertinent utterances of the captive, which, if truly set forth, may account for his incarceration.

“What prevents the people from walking down to the House and pulling out the members by the ears, locking up their doors, and flinging the key into the Thames? Is it any majesty which lodges in the members of that assembly? Do we love them? Not at all; we have an instinctive horror and disgust at the abstract idea of a boroughmonger. Do we respect them? Not in the least. Do we regard them as endowed with any superior qualities? On the contrary, individually, there is scarcely a poorer creature than your mere member of Parliament, though in his corporate capacity the earth furnishes not so absolute a bully. Their true practical protectors, then—the real efficient anti-Reformers—are to be found at the Horse Guards and the Knightsbridge Barracks. As long as the House of Commons majorities are backed by the regimental muster-roll, so long may those who have got the tax-power keep it,—and hang those who resist.”

In the same month appeared another strong “anti-reform” caricature from the same source—though, as we see by a later work, the artist’s sympathies were at this time on the side of the reformers, while Radical publishers of an advanced type were his chief employers,—“The Root of King’s Evil—Lay the Axe to it,” January 14, 1820. A learned prelate, seated in his library, is considerably scared by the apparition of the red spectre, literally a root—possibly implying the tree of liberty—planted in “le bonnet rouge,” and wearing the cap of liberty. On a pike in onehand is the mitred head of a bishop, in the other is another pike surmounted by a battered crown, with the tricolour flag edged with crape, and inscribed “Blood, Reform, and Plunder,” with a list of the “reds” and reformers in juxtaposition—Watson, Thistlewood, Preston, Hooper, Waddington, Harrison, Hunt, Pearson, Wood, Waithman, Parkins, etc. In the second category are Cobbett, Carlile, Tom Paine, Burdett, Little Hob, Death, and the Devil,—no King, etc. The prelate is interrogating the spectral visitor: “In the name of Satan, what the Devil are you, and where were you hatched?” “In Hell, your worship. I’m a Radical. Give me leave to present you a list of my best friends.” “Burn’s Justice” stands open at “Treason,” and a huge volume of “Etymology” stands exposed at the definition of “Radical”—“Ex Radixis a root, andCaloris heat, anger, strife;q.d.—The root of all strife.”

A comprehensive view of the respective sections of Radicals and Reformers on the dissolution of Parliament, February 29, 1820, is afforded by one of G. Cruikshank’s most successful caricatures, which may be considered, in point of execution, as among the works most worthy of his reputation; it is entitled, “Coriolanus Addressing the Plebs,” February 29, 1820. The scene is the screen in front of Carlton House Palace, and His Majesty, the magnifico George IV., is flatteringly travestied as Coriolanus. The “cauliflower” wig and false whiskers affected by “the finest gentleman in Europe” detract from the consistency of the figure, otherwise attired in classic guise, and presenting a dignified appearance; for, wonderful to relate, Cruikshank has gone out of his way to compliment the king in more than one respect. The address, a felicitous quotation from Shakespeare, is antagonistic to the actual sentiments held by the artist at this stage of his career:—

“What would ye have, ye curs, that like not peace nor war? The one affrights you, the other makes you proud. He that trusts to you, where he should find you lions, finds you hares; where foxes, geese.Hang ye! trust ye!! With every minute you change a mind, and call him noble that was now your hate; him vile, that was your garland. What’s the matter, that in the several places of the city, you cry against the noble Senate, who (under the gods) keep you in awe, which else would feed upon one another?”

Hon. Douglas Kinnaird.Coriolanus (George IV.).Plebs:Dr. Watson.Preston.Carlile.W. Cobbett.Orator Hunt.Thelwall.Sir F. Burdett.W. Hone.Wooler, the Black Dwarf.Cartwright.Hobhouse.Alderman Waithman.Cruikshank.CORIOLANUS ADDRESSING THE PLEBS. 1820. BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.[Page 338.

Hon. Douglas Kinnaird.

Coriolanus (George IV.).Plebs:Dr. Watson.Preston.Carlile.W. Cobbett.Orator Hunt.Thelwall.Sir F. Burdett.W. Hone.Wooler, the Black Dwarf.Cartwright.Hobhouse.Alderman Waithman.Cruikshank.

CORIOLANUS ADDRESSING THE PLEBS. 1820. BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.

[Page 338.

Beneath the quotation is a passage from Buffon, eulogizing the nobility of the figure above, “L’image de l’âme est peinte par la physionomie”—“animé d’un feu divin,” and other extravagances, such as “his majestic presence, and the firm and bold deportment which marks his nobility and rank.” In the other “Great George’s” parody, the various sections, from Reformers to Revolutionists and Socialists, are carefully kept apart, although the plebeians at the first glance appear but a miscellaneous mob.

First comes “Liberty of the Press,” a tricolour standard, topped by the “cap of liberty.” At the front stands William Hone, a stalwart champion, armed with two formidable clubs, one is styled “Parody,” and the other inscribed with the names of the famous satirical tracts, “The Man in the Moon,” and “The House that Jack Built,” both objectionable weapons in the eyes of the “Coriolanus” of the picture. Behind his ally and publisher, Hone, is the portrait of the artist himself, with a tricoloured portfolio marked “Caricature.” George Cruikshank, in his later days, when turned to Tory proclivities like one or two other notabilities in the group, endeavoured to soften the impression conveyed by this print, and described “your humble servant” as “one of the moderate reformers,” evidently not relishing the company of those among whom, in his early truculent days, he had voluntarily enrolled himself. Next comes the figure of the champion of the Princess of Wales, “Sheriff Double Hue,” otherwise Waithman, who is hugging a project for “Hell-wide Measures;” beneath the standard of the “Examiners” and “Chronicles” stands a figure clad in complete Highland garb; this is Douglas Kinnaird, on the alert, and armed with his trusty claymore. Sir Francis Burdett and John Cam Hobhouse, jointly grasping a formidableweapon, are enlisted under the standard of “Parliamentary Reform.” Hobhouse is trampling on the “Trifling Mistake,” a parodied version of the speech which procured him more notoriety than was desirable: over his head is seen Thelwall as a champion lecturer; Major Cartwright, the so-called “Drum-Major of Sedition,” after all his struggles in the cause, is but a broken-down leader, supported on a crutch stick with one hand, while raising the redoubtable sword of “Universal Suffrage” in the other. Prominent in front of the group enlisted under the ensign of “Revolution and Plunder,” capped with the Death’s head, stands Wooler, travestied as the “Black Dwarf,” after the paper he had then made notorious. Orator Hunt, with pike reversed, is resting one hand on Cobbett’s shoulder; the latter, a brawny figure, flourishing two gigantic bones (of contention?); another communist is skulking away, having let fall Tom Paine’s “Age of Reason.” The publisher of the “new lights,” Carlile, is resting on a staff capped with a thistle; Preston, the bootmaker, a violent Democrat, together with Thistlewood and others holding extreme views, are enrolled under a bond of “Blood and Plunder.” The figure to the extreme left, next to the screen of Carlton House, is described by Cruikshank as intended for Dr. Watson. Truly the “Plebs” form a muster-roll of all the prominent Radicals and Revolutionists of a period when secret societies of those whose designs were inimical to constitutional order were presumed to flourish.

The evils which disfigured constituencies in the boroughmongering days are pictorially set forth by George Cruikshank, under date April 23, 1820, in a caricature entitled “Freedom and Purity of Election!!! Showing the Necessity of Reform in the Close Boroughs.” The scene refers to the elections in Cornwall; the locality being indicated by a signpost as Tregony and St. Austel. The unhappy villagers, by the independent exercise of their suffrages, have displeased their feudal proprietor, and are being summarily evicted from their houses, with their household belongings, by atruculent steward, with a list of the “proscribed” held in his hand. Old and young, women and children, are alike doomed, because they or their protectors have dared to act with independence, and have not voted according to the fiat of the lord of the manor. Daniel O’Connell appears as the unsuccessful candidate; he is viewing this mischief with compassion, and is encouraging those evicted “not to be cast down, as there are other houses besides his lordship’s,” and that he—the Liberator—“will not desert them, although they have lost the election.”

Parliament reassembled at the end of April, 1820, and in May, George Cruikshank again favoured the public with another anti-reform cartoon, “Radical Quacks giving a New Constitution to John Bull!” In this version the persons most prominent among the “Plebeians” are alluded to incidentally. John Bull, the national prototype, is reduced, under the new “regimen,” out of all recognition; in fact, he is but the mangled remnant of his former portly self, for the new charlatans are having “their own sweet will.” John Bull is placed between Burdett and Hobhouse; many desperate operations have already taken place. He wears the bonnet-rouge of “Liberty” as a night-cap. His left arm is in a tricoloured sling, while his right arm is being bled. His two sufficient supports of Church and State have been amputated, and in their places are strapped two wooden-legs—“Universal Suffrage,” propped on the “Rights of Man,” and “Religious Freedom,” which is raised on the “Age of Reason;” the legs of his invalid-chair are equally unreliable—“Mistaken Confidence,” and “Mistaken Security;” the sufferer is resting on a pillow stuffed with “False Promises” and “Reformers’ Opinions.” Sir Francis Burdett, as a professional adviser, is holding the arm from which he is draining the patient’s blood:—

“Mr. Bull, you have lived too well, but when we have renovated your constitution according to our plan, the reform will be so complete—that you will never again be troubled with any fulness whatsoever!”

John Cam Hobhouse is administering a tricoloured bolus of formidable dimensions, to be followed by a corresponding draught:—

“Never mind, Mr. Bull; if we have thought it necessary to take off both your legs, you will find the others very good substitutes; this Revolutionary Bolus and decoction of disloyalty are very harmless, but they will restore thegeneral equalityof the intestines and remove any obstruction which may prevent us from effecting a Radical Reform in the system.”

The victim of these experiments is by no means assured as to his future—

“Maybe, gentlemen,” he replies to these plausible assurances; “but you have taken all the honest good blood out of my veins; deprived me of my real supporters, and stuck two bad props in their place, and if you go on thus, I shall die before ever my constitution can be improved.”

The real supporters, “Mr. Bull’s two legs—Church and State,” are consigned to a coffin, “to be entombed in the vaults of St. Stephen’s Chapel.” A formidable array of nostrums are displayed in the vicinity: Burdett has soporifics and opiates handy—a huge bottle, labelled “Burdett’s Mixture,” contains a red, white, and blue republican decoction, “Hobhouse’s Newgate-proof Purity,” and “Whitbread’s Entire;” a large packet of “Cartwright’s Universal Grease,” with a phial of “Wooler’s Black-drops;” “Old Bailey Drops” (the bottle broken); ditto, “Dr. Watson’s White + Comfort;” a packet of “Hunt’s Powder,” and a full supply of “Cobbett’s Hellebore Ratsbane”—enough, in all conscience, to kill or cure.

The last parliament of George IV.’s reign met November 14, 1826. Towards the close of the session, as is shadowed in Doyle’s early cartoons, the nation was tiring of the Tories, and the unpopular and somewhat antiquated Wellington Ministry found the country in distress and clamorous for retrenchment, to each of which complaints the rigid disciplinarian in chief command turned a deaf and unsympathetic ear. Towards the middle of the year 1830 the king’s condition was threatening, and with his impending decease the close of the session was anticipated. The situation is pictorially summed up in one of HB’s sketches as the “Present State of Public Feeling Partially Illustrated” (May 28, 1830). The views entertained by various individuals upon the king’s illness are illustrated in their persons: a dandy regrets the postponement of routs and balls, a speculator complains of the dulness of the funds, a merchant finds business at a standstill, while a lady of fashion is resigned to the will of Providence by the opportune reflection that should the king die there would be the gayer prospect of a queen and Court—an advantageous exchange for a sovereign shrouded from his subjects. John Bull good-naturedly declares he hopes George may recover, “he was such a fine princely fellow!” But the part of this picture which applies most pertinently to the subject in hand is found in a member of the Tory Government, who is reflecting “That should there be a change in the ministry—then I must walk out. Thatwould be very inconvenient at the present. I wish most sincerely His Majesty won’t die yet!” while another M.P. is filled with apprehension: “There will he a dissolution of parliament, and I shall lose my seat, and with it all chance of preferment. Oh, I pray God to preserve His Majesty’s life these many years.” Swiftly indeed, and somewhat unexpectedly too, came the end of the king’s reign and the inauguration of a more liberalrégime.

The next day appeared HB’s version of the “Mourning Journal—Alas! Poor Yorick” (May 29, 1830), showing the Duke of Cumberland and Lord Eldon as mutes in attendance on the (to them) melancholy occasion of their chief’s decease. “The Magic Mirror, or a Peep into Futurity” (June 8, 1830), shows a magician favouring John Bull with the prospect he might anticipate: the youthful Princess Victoria becoming the point of contention on the one hand between her mother, the Duchess of Kent, and her uncle, Prince Leopold, of Liberal proclivities, and the Tory pressure of her uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, assisted by the Duke of Wellington, on the other.

While the dissolution was impending, Doyle indicated the revival of Whig prospects, “The Gheber worshiping the Rising Sun” (July 6, 1830) shows Mr. (afterwards Lord) Brougham paying his devotions to “William IV. Rex,” the head of the king on the gold coin, known as “a coronation medal,” rising over the waters, and taking the place of the orb of day. Parliament dissolved on July 24th. Owing to some intrigues of the old campaigner at this emergency, the Duke of Wellington was made to appear as “A Detected Trespasser,” ordered off the slopes of Windsor by “John Bull, Ranger:” “Halloa, you sir; keep off the grass (see anecdote,Times, July 19th).”

Another pictorial version of strategies in high life is entitled “Anticipation; or, Queen Sarah’s visit to Bushy” (July 27, 1830). At the door of the Lodge at Bushy, where resided the Duke and Duchess of Clarence, is the carriage of Lady Jersey, with attendants in her handsome liveries.One of her footmen is imparting the unwelcome intelligence, “Duchess not at home, my lady.” The Duke of Wellington, who is on horseback at the other side of the carriage, is consoling Lady Jersey’s disappointment: “Never mind, never mind, I’ll get you a key to what is going on here thro’ my dear little St. James’s Marchioness.” The duchess’s footman, in the royal livery, cannot fathom the intrigue: “I wonder what brings her down here now? I have been in this place these twelve years, and never saw her here before!”

Back to Index Next