“THE RIGHT AND TRUE HISTORY OF PERKIN.

“Ye Whigs, and eke you Tories, give ear to what I sing;
For it is about the Chevalier, that silly would-be King!
He boasts of his nobility, and when his race began,
Though his arms they are two trowels and his Crest a warming-pan.
When first he came to Scotland, in ‘Our Dear Sister’s’ reign,
He look’d, but did not like the Land, and so went home again.
Soon after, ‘Our Dear Sister’ did make a peace with France,
And then the Perkinites did laugh to see the Devil dance.
And then to please the growling Whigs, who Perkin could not brook,
That slim young man was sent to graze as far as Bar-le-Duc.
But yet when D’Aumont hither came, to tie the League full close,
Young Perkin tarry’d in Lorrain, or came to Som’set House.
The Lords then did Address the Queen to do what she deny’d,
Until Sir Patrick and the Prigg were safe on t’other side.
Then came a proclamation out, to give five thousand pound
To any one who Perkin took upon the English ground.
Soon after Semper Eadem[38] this Mortal life departs
Which thing almost broke Chevalier’s, and Bona Fides’s hearts.
Then Royal George of Hanover to happy Britain comes,
With joyful noise upon the Thames, of trumpets, and of drums.
The trait’rous Tory Tools then did cringe to seek for grace,
And swore to be most loyal lads, if they were kept in place.
But when the leaders found the King their Treason did espy,
Away with speed they fled to France, the traitor’s sanctuary.
This made the High-priest cry aloud,—the Danger of the Church,
Because those pillars from her slipt, and left her in the lurch.
Then Bungay[39] and his gang, harangu’d the senseless mob to win ’em;
And rous’d ’em up to serve the Lord; as tho’ the De’il was in ’em.
They ‘listed thieves, and jail birds, and rogues of ev’ry town,
The Ladies chaste of Drury Lane, and the w—— of Babylon.
Depending on this pious crew of ‘Non-Resisting’ Saints,
They thought by plund’ring of the Whigs to make up all their wants.
Then to begin the show,—Lord Mar,—that never was upright,
To summon all his Bag-pipe-men, to Scotland took his flight.
He sent his baillie Jockey round to summon all his clans,
With a concert of Bag-pipes—it should been Warming-pans!
He told ’em they might all for mighty Honours look,
For he that was before a Lord, was now become a Duke.
They all (he said) should great men be, which was the way to win ’em.
So he got an army of captains all, and scarce a soldier in ’em.
And finding of his numbers great, he sent a brigadier,
To join a band of Fox-Hunters, that were near Lancashire.
These march’d into Preston town, the women for to frighten,
And there they show’d their talent lay, in marching, not in fighting.
They challeng’d Gen’ral Carpenter to run with them a race,
And troth they beat him out and out, he could not keep ’em pace.
But Wills with expeditious march these foot-pads did surround,
And then they look’d like harmless sheep coop’d up within a pound.
Then Forster got a posset, and gave his priest the Tythe,
But posset could not make the priest nor general look blithe.
Then Forster and his perjur’d crew surrender prisoners,
And show’d they were no Whigs, for they did not delight in wars.
Then as they march’d to London, Oh! ’twas a gallant show,
The Whigs bid the music play ‘Traitors all a-row.’
About this time the said Lord Mar (depending on his number)
March’d up against the brave Argyle, and thought to bring him under.
But tho’ he had full four to one (which you may say is odds)
Of Highland Loons dress’d dreadfully, with Bonnets, Dirks, and plads.
Yet bold Argyle, with Britons brave, engag’d him near Dunblane,
And soon with loss made him retire much faster than he came.
Then Mar sent to the Chevalier, to hasten o’er to Scoon,
And said, ‘He should not want a crown, tho’ the Ale-wives pawn’d their spoon.’
But Mar’s design was plainly, when next they went to fight,
Only to show a dismal thing which would like Death’s-head fright.
At length the pale-fac’d Hero came, and like an Owler lands,
Indeed he had much reason, for the goods were contrabands.
As soon as he arrived, a Scottish ague took him,
And tho’ he swallow’d Jesuit’s Bark, Good Lady! how it shook him.
The non-resisting Damsels believ’d the omen bad,
When at first speech the Baby cried, which made his Council mad.
But when he heard Argyle approach’d with army in array,
As Perkin came in like a thief, so again he stole away.
So there’s an end of Perkin, and thus I end my Lays,
With God preserve our Glorious George, and all his royal race!”

CHAPTER IV.
ELECTIONEERING AND PARTY TACTICS UNDER GEORGE I. AND II.

A fair representation of a chairing scene is given as the second of a series of eight plates which, under the title of “Robin’s Progress,” satirically delineates the career of Sir Robert Walpole. The newly elected member is seated, tranquilly enough, in a capacious arm-chair, raised aloft by his supporters; there are a few “bludgeon-men” among his followers. Hats are thrown into the air, and a general sense of satisfaction is shown to prevail. One of the party, evidently a person of influence, is made to exclaim, “No bribery, no corruption!” A group of more distrustful persons is pictured in the foreground; an elector observes, “I wish we mayn’t be deceived,” while his confederate is declaring, “I smell a rat!” Whatever “undue influence” might have been hinted on this occasion, Walpole had not at that early date (1701) developed the arts of corruption and electioneering, then synonymous; his proficiency in these branches was of later growth. Although not strictly a contemporaneous picture of the event, the engraving which represents the chairing of Sir Robert Walpole on his election for Castle Rising, Norfolk, in 1701, is the earliest of our election illustrations as regards the date of the incident depicted. Walpole, in succession to his father, sat for Castle Rising, in the last two short parliaments which preceded the death of William III., and at once distinguished himself as an active and able ally of the Whig party, then holding the power of administration. In 1702, he was chosen member for King’s Lynn, and represented that borough in several successive parliaments. After, with the interest of George, Prince of Denmark, filling the posts of secretary at war, 1708, and treasurer of the navy, 1709, the Tory advisers of the latter part of Queen Anne’s reign dismissed Walpole from all his posts. The Commons in 1711 voting him guilty of a high breach of trust and notorious corruption in his office as secretary at war, it was resolved to expel him from the House, and that he should be committed to the Tower. Under this vindictive persecution, he was, by his party, regarded as a martyr to the cause, nor does there appear sufficient proof to justify this severity. Encouraged by Walpole’s energetic tactics, his constituents remained firm, and he was re-elected by the burgesses of Lynn in 1713-14, and, though the House declared the return void, yet the electors persisted in their choice, and Walpole took a decided part against the queen’s Tory ministry, until “the turn of the wheel,” which raised the Elector of Hanover on the English throne as Queen Anne’s successor, threw back the power of administration into the hands of Walpole and the Whigs, and once more reduced the Tories to vent their mortification in unscrupulous attacks and misrepresentations, while they were themselves exerting all their abilities for the subversion of the House of Hanover and the restoration of the exiled Stuarts. The bitterness of party warfare was mostly manifested at election times. A burlesque “Bill of Costs” was printed in the Flying Post (Jan. 27, 1715), “for a late Tory election in the West,” in which part of the country the Tory interest was strongest:—

WALPOLE CHAIRED. 1701. (From “Robin’s Progress.”)
(Dr. Newton’s Collection.)

£s.d.
Imprimis, for bespeaking and collecting a mob2000
Item, for many suits of knots for their heads3000
For scores of huzza-men4000
For roarers of the word “Church”4000
For a set of “No Roundhead” roarers4000
For several gallons of Tory punch on church tombstones3000
For a majority of clubs and brandy-bottles2000
For bell-ringers, fiddlers, and porters1000
For a set of coffee-house praters4000
For extraordinary expense for cloths and lac’d hats on show days, to dazzle the mob5000
For Dissenters’ damners4000
For demolishing two houses20000
For committing two riots20000
For secret encouragement to the rioters4000
For a dozen of perjury men10000
For packing and carriage paid to Gloucester5000
For breaking windows2000
For a gang of alderman-abusers4000
For a set of notorious lyars5000
For pot-ale10000
For law, and charges in the King’s Bench30000
£146000

It will be observed in this “bill” that bribery is not put down as one of the prominent features of an election at this period; violence was, as yet, found to be more effective than corruption.

In March, 1721, when the first of the succession of triennial parliaments dissolved, the country was already in a state of fermentation at the prospect of the coming contest. Violence was now utilized in new methods, such as beating off voters of opposition candidates; while hostile electors were surrounded by mobs hired for the purpose, and cut off from the polling-booths; and in some cases voters were carried off forcibly, and locked up until the election was over.

In country boroughs much agitation was manifested, and in several places, such as Coventry, formidable riots took place.

The metropolis shared the general excitement. It was on this occasion that the Westminster contest began to be regarded as of the first consequence, it being a point of ambition with the rival parties to return their candidates for this constituency, the results of which conflict were expected to exercise an influence upon other places. The election for this city set in uproariously in 1721, and, as the progress of these electioneering memorials will demonstrate, it continued the same throughout its history, even when in other places the elections were tranquil and uneventful.

The Tories did not allow Walpole to triumph without a struggle for the ascendency, although, by his foresight, and a lavish employment of his universal salve—gold, he managed to diminish the influence both of his opponents and of the mobocracy; and in the new House the Government secured a powerful majority, leaving the Tory organs, towards the close of the elections, when the results were no longer doubtful, to vent their spleen in political squibs and caricatures. Thus, on the 31st of March, the Post Boy announces two satirical prints—one, “Britannia stript by a Villain, to which is added, the True Phiz of a Late Member,” which seems to have disappeared completely; and the other, “The Prevailing Candidate; or the Election carried by Bribery and the D——l;” which, according to all accounts, is the earliest existing contemporary caricature upon the subject of electioneering; and is, moreover, one of the best examples of these productions as published in the reign of George I.

THE PREVAILING CANDIDATE; OR THE ELECTION CARRIED BY BRIBERY AND THE D——L.
(Dr. Newton’s Collection.)

The candidate, it is implied, is a Court nominee; the screen is used to conceal the true movers of the wires, who are at the back of the canvasser; their reflection is shown in the mirror behind, above the console-table, on which bags of money are in readiness to be used for bribery. The wooden shoes symbolize a threatened relapse to slavery. The screen is to typify the seven years of the last parliament—the first of the septennial parliaments; the year 1716 is marked “Septennial Act”—“Part of the Succession Act repealed;”—1720 registers the “South Sea Act,”—“Act to indemnify South Sea Villains;” and 1721 the “Quarantine Act, cum multis aliis;” the other years are blanks. The accompanying verses explain the meaning intended to be conveyed by the principal figures. The personage bribed is the mayor of the place. These functionaries for a long time held the elections in their power, and were amenable to corrupt treatment; in fact, they were expected to make the bargain most advantageous for the court of livery or aldermen, in whom the votes were generally vested. Hence the old saying, “Money makes the mayor to go.”

“Here’s a minion sent down to a corporate town,
In hopes to be newly elected;
By his prodigal show, you may easily know
To the Court he is truly affected.

“He ’as a knave by the hand, who has power to command
All the votes in the corporation;
Shoves a sum in his pocket, the D——l cries ‘Take it,
’Tis all for the good of the nation!’

“The wife, standing by, looks a little awry
At the candidate’s way of addressing;
But a priest stepping in avers bribery no sin,
Since money’s a family blessing.

“Say the boys, ‘Ye sad rogues, here are French wooden brogues,
To reward your vile treacherous knavery;
For such traitors as you are the rascally crew
That betray the whole kingdom to slavery.’”

The elections of 1727, in spite of the exertions of Bolingbroke and Pulteney in the Craftsman, and the intrigues of the former with the Duchess of Kendal, mistress of George I., were a disappointment to the Tories and “patriots,” i.e. Jacobites. On the death of George I. their prospects were even less promising. Queen Caroline, the consort of George II., was the steadfast friend of Walpole, and although the Bolingbroke faction paid their court to the mistress of the new king, as they had done in the last reign to that of his predecessor, they gained nothing by their motion, as George II. was governed by his wife in political questions. The hopes placed by the Tories in the elections were altogether frustrated; in the parliament chosen in 1727 the ministerial majority was greater than before, and their opponents were reduced to vent their mortification in strictures against the bribery, corruption, undue influence, and those secret intrigues in which they were themselves such adepts.

Of the few caricatures to which this contest gave rise that best known is entitled “Ready Money the Prevailing Candidate; or the Humours of an Election;” and even in this the satirical allusions appear to have a general rather than a specific application. This picture, like most of the caricatures of the time, is slightly allegorical; the scene is evidently the outskirts of a town; colossal statues of “Folly” and “Justice” are shown at either side. As the title implies, bribery is the motive power of the entire action. In the centre is a figure with his back to the spectator; the rear of this person’s coat is covered with pockets, into which those interested in the work of buying votes are dropping money; the recipient is declaring, “No bribery, but pockets are free.” Another gentleman, with his hat raised in the air, is crying, “Sell not your country.” A whole body of electors behind these plausible individuals are standing ready to be bought; an agent is canvassing this group for their votes, with a money-bag to meet their requirements. To the right, a man is kneeling to secure a heap of pieces, which are lavishly scattered about, while another person is stooping to press a well-filled bag of money upon his acceptance as “a small acknowledgment.” One of the candidates, handsomely attired, and with a feathered hat, is carried on a litter by four bearers, much like “Chairing a member;” he has bags of money in both hands, and his progress is marked by a shower of gold “for his country’s service.” At the door of an inn stands a figure whose head is supplemented with antlers—“He kissed my wife, he shall have my vote!” “Folly” is personated by a male effigy, also emptying out money-bags to his votaries: before his altar a candidate is kneeling amidst his canvassing tickets; he is exclaiming, “Help me, Folly, or my cause is lost.” In the foreground is the figure of an ancient philosopher, who is made to say, “Let not thy right hand know what thy left does;” his left hand is accommodatingly held behind his back, and this an agent is filling with pieces. A person dressed like a Covenanter is crying, “See here, see here!” The emblematical figure of “Justice,” blind, and with her attributes of sword and scales, has her altar deserted. One man is admonishing his neighbour to “Regard Justice;” the other, who has a sack of unlawful treasure on his shoulder, replies, “We fell out: I lost money by her.” A modishly dressed candidate, hat in hand, is pressing a bag of money on another individual, who seems to have been bribed already, but is willing to accept further emoluments—“’Twill scarce pay, make it twenty more.”

O Cives! Cives! quærenda Pecunia primum est Virtus post Nummos.

READY MONEY, THE PREVAILING CANDIDATE; OR, THE HUMOURS OF AN ELECTION. (Dr. Newton’s Collection.)

[Page 84.

A copy of verses sets forth the morality of this plate:—

“The Laws against Bribery provision may make,
Yet means will be found both to give and to take;
While charms are in flattery, and power in gold,
Men will be corrupted and Liberty sold.
When a candidate interest is making for votes,
How cringing he seems to the arrantest sots!
‘Dear Sir, how d’ye do? I am joyful to see ye!
How fares your good spouse? and how goes the world wi’ ye?
Can I serve you in anything? Faith, Sir, I’ll do’t
If you’ll be so kind as to give me your vote.
Pray do me the honour an evening to pass
In smoking a pipe and in taking a glass!’
Away to the tavern they quickly retire,
The ploughman’s ‘Hail-fellow-well-met’ with the Squire;
Of his company proud, he ‘huzzas’ and he drinks,
And himself a great man of importance he thinks:
He struts with the gold newly put in his breeches,
And dreams of vast favours and mountains of riches.
But as soon as the day of Election is over,
His woeful mistake he begins to discover;
The Squire is a Member—the rustic who chose him
Is now quite neglected—he no longer knows him.
Then Britons! betray not a sordid vile spirit
Contemn gilded baits, and elect men of merit.”

THE KENTISH ELECTION, 1734.

A realistic version of the hustings appeared under the title of “The Kentish Election, 1734.” The locality of the gathering here represented is probably Maidstone in Kent. A large open space on the outskirts of the town is the scene of action. The candidates and their numerous supporters are raised above the multitude, and standing on the hustings. Round this erection is a great crowd of electors, many of whom are on horseback.

In the foreground, a mounted clergyman is at the head of a procession of his flock, all wearing favours in their hats, and professing themselves supporters of the “Protestant Interest,” i.e. Whigs; two of them carry staves and books; the “gauges” in their hands seem to indicate that they are gaugers or excisemen, i.e. placemen: it must be noted that the chief grievance against Walpole and his administration at this time was the attempt to tax tobacco and wines. The Opposition party-cry is “No Excise,” with the names of “Vane and Dering,” the successful candidates, in whose honour, with that of the “Country Interest,” i.e. Tories, which they had pledged themselves to promote, the followers of their party wear sprigs of oak in their hats—a memorial of the Restoration of the Stuarts. The party-cry of their antagonists is for “King and Country,” and “Middlesex and Oxenden.” Sir George Oxenden had voted for the Government and in favour of the Excise Bill; he sat for Maidstone before the dissolution, April, 1734. The Earl of Middlesex was not a member of the former Parliament. These gentlemen finally threw up the poll, the victory of their opponents being assured, May 16, 1734. Of the successful candidates, Viscount Vane and Sir Edward Dering, the former had voted against the Excise Bill, and the latter was absent on the division. Something in the way of influencing suffrages seems to have been done on a large scale by Viscount Vane. Two hogsheads of French brandy were sent down to his seat in Kent (according to the Daily Post), together with sixty dozen of knives and forks, in preparation for the entertainment his lordship offered the freeholders. The Grub Street Journal devotes some attention to the treats with which the successful candidates regaled their constituents at an early stage of their canvass, and these hospitalities were returned in kind.

“At a meeting lately at the Swan Tavern in Cornhill, of about 100 substantial worthy citizens of London, freeholders of the County of Kent, the Right Hon. the Lord Vane and Sir Edw. Dering, Bart., candidates in the Country Interest, were entertained in an elegant manner by the freeholders,” etc. It is further stated that “these candidates were met at about two miles from Westerham, in Kent, by 300 freeholders on horseback, and dined at the George Inn, where healths were drunk to the glorious 205”—this being the number of members whose votes placed the Government in a minority upon the Excise Bill. Nor was wanting what later statesmen have termed “the fine old English Institution” of parading the Minister in effigy.

“The populace, to show their zeal on this occasion, dressed up a figure of a certain Excise gentleman (Sir Robert Walpole to wit) with blue paper round his shoulders (intended for the riband of the Garter, always alluded to with spite by the prime minister’s adversaries), a pipe in his mouth (Tobacco Bill), and several Florence flasks about his neck (referring to the proposed duty on wines), then mounted him upon a mule, and led him round the town in procession.” (The Grub Street Journal.)

On the same authority (No. 230), under date Wednesday, May 23, 1734, is announced the sudden demise of the leading candidate: “On Monday, about five in the afternoon, the Right Hon. the Lord Visc. Vane dropt down dead of an apoplexy, just as he was taking leave of a gentleman, at his seat at Fairlawn in Kent” (Daily Post).

An early design upon bribery at elections is attributed to Hogarth. This plate was produced during the canvass in 1734, just twenty years before the commencement of the famous “Election” series by the same artist. The print is a small etching, and represents Sir Robert Fagg, an old baronet, seated on horseback, holding a purse in one hand, and offering a bribe of money to a young woman who is standing by his horse’s head; on her arm is a basket of eggs; she is laughing at the canvasser. Sir Robert Fagg was member for Steyning, Sussex. Concerning the baronet it is written, in “The Art of Politicks”—

“Leave you of mighty Interest to brag,
And poll two voices like Sir Robert Fagg.”

“The Humours of a Country Election,” of which the first version appeared in 1734, beyond the light it offers upon the subject in question, is curious and interesting, as Mr. F. G. Stephens is inclined to suggest[40] that Hogarth may have borrowed the idea of illustrating the chief incidents of an election from the “Humours” therein described. The plate is in three divisions, and forms the frontispiece to the collection of songs published under the title of “the Humours of a Country Election” in 1734, at which time there was a general election; it was republished in 1741,[41] under similar circumstances. The print is sufficiently described by the original advertisement, inserted at the time of its publication in the Grub Street Journal (No. 233), June 13, 1734. “This Day is publish’d (Price One Shilling), Neatly printed, and stitched in blue paper, ‘The Humours of a Country Election.’”

“Being mounted in their best array,
Upon a steed, and who but they?
And follow’d by a world of tall lads
That merry ditties, frolics and ballads,
Did ride with many a Good-morrow,
Crying, Hey for our Town, thro’ the Borough.”

(Hudibras.)

“A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags,
In silks, in crapes, in Garters, and in rags;
From Drawing-rooms, from Colleges, from Garrets,
On horse, on foot, in Hacks, in gilded Chariots.”

(Grub Street Journal, No. 268. Also in the Poems Edition.)

“With a curious frontispiece explanatory of the same in the following particulars:—

“I. The candidate welcomed into the town by music and electors on horseback, attended by a mob of men, women, and children. The candidates saluting the women, and amongst them a poor cobbler’s wife, to whose child they very courteously offer to stand God-father. II. The candidates are very complaisant to a country clown, and offering presents (a bag marked 50l.) to the wife and children. The candidates making an entertainment for the electors and their wives, to whom they show great respect; at the upper end of the table the parson of the parish sitting, his clerk standing by him. III. The place of electing and polling, with mob attending. The members elect carried in procession in chairs, upon men’s shoulders, with music playing before them; attended by a mob of men, women, and children huzzaing them. To which is added the character of a Trimmer in verse, &c.”

“A new Year’s Gift (for the year 1741) to the Electors of Great Britain,” contains the information that “The Oath imposed upon Electors—the only preservative of public Liberty from the secret and fatal attacks of Bribery and Corruption,” was as follows:—

“‘I, —— ——, do swear, I have not received, or had myself, or any person whatsoever, in Trust for me, or for my Use and Benefit, directly or indirectly, any sum or sums of money, Office, Place, or employment, gift, or reward, or any promise, or security for any money, office, employment, or gift, in order to give my vote at this Election, and that I have not been polled before at this Election,

‘So Help me God.’

“Let every man of common sense judge whether an oath so wisely framed and strictly worded can possibly admit of any equivocation, to cover the base villainy of taking a bribe to his country’s ruin; and what shall we think of those men who dare tempt others to the breach of a duty so sacred! Ought they not to be stoned, or hooted out of society, as the destroyers of public Faith, Virtue, Religion, and Liberty? Do not such agents for the Devil compass his ends most effectually, by seducing men from the indispensable duties they owe to God and their country, to themselves and their posterity?

THE HUMOURS OF A COUNTRY ELECTION. 1734.

[Page 90.

“Wisely, therefore, hath that good Law annexed the shameful penalties of the pillory to the breach of that Sacred Oath, with a large Fine of Five Hundred Pounds; and justly excluded all base perjurers from the most valuable Rights and Privileges of Englishmen, in the following paragraphs:—

“‘And be it enacted, That whosoever shall be convicted of false swearing, shall incur and suffer the Pains and Penalties as in a case of wilful and corrupt Perjury.

“And whosoever shall receive or take any money or other reward, by way of Gift, Loan, or other device, or agree or contract for any Money, Gift, Office, or Reward whatsoever, to give his vote, shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of Five Hundred Pounds, and be for ever disabled to vote in any Election of any Member to Parliament, and be for ever disabled to hold any public office.’

“Will any man, pretending to common honesty, thus basely forfeit his Birthright, his most glorious privilege as an Englishman, by a shameful perjury for the Lucre of a Bribe? Can such a Bribe make him and his posterity happy in the midst of his country’s ruin, and the just contempt and abhorrence of all his neighbours? No, surely: but when the small wages of his iniquity are spent, he must, like the Traitor Judas, hang himself, or starve to death; because no man can either pity, or deal with such a perjured abandoned wretch.

“Artful corruptors of the present times may flatter weak minds with hopes of being admitted to vote without taking the Oath; but it is a vain delusion; since the Law allows the Candidates or any two of the Electors to put the Oath to whomsoever they please; and surely there are at least Two Honest Men in every Borough of the Kingdom, who will think it their duty to bring Corruption to the Test of this just and necessary Oath, to the eternal infamy of all Corruptors, and the Corrupted.”

The oath thus explicitly explained was in sober earnest administered by the lawyers retained in the respective interests, as illustrated by Hogarth in his “Polling Booth,” 1754. It is rather alarming to think of the huge amount of perjury which has followed electioneering. The general elections of the spring of 1741 were a trying ordeal for Walpole; all the well-worn clamours were revived, the “Convention” was once more torn to shreds, and fresh attacks upon the “excise projects” were turned to bitter political account. Amidst a shower of squibs, both literary and pictorial, we find the caricature, “Dedicated to the worthy Electors of Great Britain,” of “The Devil upon Two Sticks,” in which Walpole, as the “Asmodeus” of the situation, is represented as being supported upon the shoulders of two of his bought-majority to ford the “Slough of Despond,” already crossed by some of his followers, who, though in safety on the bank, bear evident marks of the dirty ordeal through which they have been compelled to struggle upon “Robin’s” account. Britannia and her patriotic friends(?) remain high and dry on the other shore; below the satire appears a pointed indication of the unpopular Walpolians, as “Members who voted for the Excise and against the Convention.”

To the worthy Electors of Great Britain. Walpole carried through the “Slough of Despond.”

THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS. 1741.

“A Satire on Election Proceedings” was given to the public in pictorial guise on the occasion of the appeal to the constituencies in May, 1741; the specific part of this squib was aimed at Walpole’s unpopular taxes and similar enactments, and the whole was dedicated to “Mayors and Corporations in general.” A dying elector—who, from the evidence of a paper inscribed “£50,” and seen in his pocket, has sold himself to party—is in the hands of a ministerial candidate and the personage of Evil; who are, between them, dragging the moribund and venal voter towards a precipice, “the Brink of Despotism, poverty, and destruction, inevitable if such courses are continued.” The candidate or agent is apparently heedless of the precipice at his feet; he is waving his hat in exultation, and shouting, “A vote, a vote, a dead vote for us!” The devil, who is the deepest of the party, is asserting with plausibility, “I’ll have the Majority, I warrant you!” His pocket contains the measures which had destroyed Walpole’s popularity and at that time foreshadowed his fall—fancifully supposed to have had their suggestion in the brain of the arch-fiend himself: “Standing Army,” “Lotteries,” “Cyder” (tax), “Stamp Act,” “Bribes,” and “Address.” The demon is expelling “False reports against the City of London—all wind”—patriotism having at that era its head-quarters in the corporation; his hoof has trampled upon the shield of Britannia, crushed down by “Press-warrants,” “Council of Satan,” and the ministerial policy—“Neglect the seamen till the moment they are wanted, lest my beloved press-warrants should be forgot—my friends shall boldly call them lawful.” Walpole, whose tenure of office notoriously depended on the results of the elections in progress when this violent squib was launched, is further indicated in “The Foundation we go upon;” “we” being by implication the prime minister and the devil; the foot of the latter rests upon these “Ways and means—Public Money, Promises, Titles, Contracts, Pensions, Preferments, Places—and by threatening to displace,” etc., besides current coin for corruption. A further instance of Walpole’s disfavour is embodied in a paper concerning the army: “My Majority shall vote for a numerous Land Force in time of Peace; to be established with a double proportion of officers!—the best proof of my influence:”—the source of that vaunted influence is shown in a bag of money, marked “Sinking Fund,” from whence pours the stream of corruption—in the shape of broad pieces—upon which the prime minister placed a reliance he did not attempt to disguise, but, on the contrary, of which he cynically boasted.

Beneath is a coat of arms, a favourite figure with the satirists, as if designed for the sign of a tavern; the bearings are, 1. A fox running away with a goose. 2. “Checquy,” i.e., as in the sign of the Chequers; the words, “Time-servers Intire;” behind appear a bottle and two glasses, tobacco-pipes, and bribes. “£100, £50, £40, £2,”—to suit all appetites; on a riband above the shield is the legend:—“Votes are sold for Wine and Gold.” The crest of the card would be a suitable escutcheon for Hogarth’s comprehensive election satires which appeared in the contest of 1754.

Another coat of arms, also aimed at the credit of the prime minister, was reissued as appropriate to this season:—“To the glory of the Rt. Honble. Sir Robert Walpole,” “A great Britt.,” alluding to the motto of “S(ir) R(obert) W(alpole)’s Arms,” supplies an ironical and explanatory text:—

“There is another Device at the Base, the Arch, in the shape of a Coat of Arms, which is bound round with a Garter, and hath these words inscribed upon it:—Honi soit qui Mal y pense; ‘Evil be to him, that evil thinks.’ What is most remarkable in this Coat is, that it bears three axes on one side, and that the crest is a Man’s Head, with a strange sort of Cap, which hath a Ducal Coronet at the bottom by way of Border;”

—thus suggesting that Walpole deserved decapitation, while the ballads of the day were all for finding a gibbet for “false Bob.” As to the print itself, it is said:—

“I am glad to hear that it hath already met with the approbation and encouragement of a very great Family; and I hope shortly to see it displayed in the richest colours upon Fans, and wrought into Screens and Hangings for the use and ornament of the Palace of Norfolk;”

—referring to Houghton Hall, the seat of Sir Robert Walpole, a residence well known to fame.

The popular interest excited by the Westminster contest generally seemed to make that election the most prominent in every appeal to the country. On the dissolution of parliament, April 28, 1741, when the fate of Walpole’s Administration was known to depend upon the aggregate return of his nominees, the ministers expected to bring in their friends who had previously sat for Westminster; the first great opposition to the Government had its rise there, where the Court was supposed to possess an unbounded influence. In the “Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole” the circumstances of the contest are thus summarized:—

“The representatives in the last Parliament were Sir Charles Wager, First Lord of the Admiralty; and Lord Sundon, a Lord of the Treasury; and it was supposed they would have been rechosen, as usual, without opposition. But Lord Sundon was very unpopular; he had been raised from a low condition to an Irish Peerage through the interest of his wife, who had been favourite bed-chamber woman to Queen Catherine, wife of George II. The other candidate, Sir Charles Wager, was unexceptionable, both in his public and private character; but his attachment to the Minister was a sufficient objection. Some electors of Westminster proposed, very unexpectedly, Admiral Vernon, then in the height of his popularity, and Charles Edwin, a private gentleman of considerable fortune. The opposition, at first despised, became formidable; and Sir Charles Wager being summoned to convoy the King to Holland, the management of the election was entrusted to ignorant vestrymen and violent justices. The majority of the electors were decidedly in favour of the Ministerial candidate; but Lord Sundon was imprudently advised to close the poll, to order a party of Guards to attend, and, while the military power surrounded the hustings, the High Bailiff returned him and Sir Charles Wager. This imprudent conduct highly exasperated the populace, the Guards were insulted, Sundon was attacked, and narrowly escaped with life. The example of the opposition at Westminster diffused a general spirit throughout the kingdom, and violent contests were excited in all quarters. Large sums of money for supporting the expenses were subscribed by Pulteney, the Duchess of Marlborough, and the Prince of Wales, who contracted great debts on this memorable occasion, and the managers of the opposition employed this money with great advantage.”

This account, by W. Coxe, epitomizes the situation. George (Bubb) Dodington was active on this occasion, directing the manœuvres of the Leicester House faction, on behalf of the heir to the throne, in opposition to the ministers of his father, the king. Naturally the view taken by Walpole’s biographer is favourable to that minister, who was at this time looked upon as the under-hand enemy of his country. He was accused of favouring Spain and France; and the taking of Porto Bello by Admiral Vernon, which was not, after all, a brilliant affair, but chiefly due to the cowardice of its defenders, was regarded as quite as much of a victory over the prime minister as over England’s foes. These sentiments characterize the spirit abroad on the Westminster contest of 1741, which gave rise to many songs, broadsides, and pictorial satires uniformly unfavourable to the minister and his adherents.

The kind of influence or coercion brought to bear is described in an “Address to the Independent and Worthy Electors,” which was issued by the “patriotic party,” May 5th:—

“Notwithstanding the extraordinary methods used by some of the Burgesses of the Westminster Court, the select vestries of several of the parishes, and the High Constable; who has in his own name, and by his own power, taken upon him to summon the inhabitants to give their Poll against Admiral Vernon and Mr. Edwin; we have been already so successful in our endeavours to retrieve the independency of this City and Liberty, in the Election for the next Parliament, that the old members have but a very inconsiderable majority (if any) of Good Votes against

The Glorious Admiral Vernon, And Charles Edwin, Esq.,

who stand upon the Country Interest.

Therefore, Gentlemen, now is the time for completing what we have so successfully begun; since it is certain that almost the whole of the Interest on the other side is already near poll’d, and not one-fourth of ours. And considering the great and perhaps decisive turn that the Election of this City and Liberty may give to the Elections all over the kingdom, it is hoped that no man who has a regard for the Liberties of his Country, and the Independency of Parliament, will lie by or remain neuter upon this occasion.

Therefore your Votes and Interest in favour of

Admiral Vernon, and Charles Edwin, Esq.,

who have no other views than the good of their country and the prosperity of this ancient City and Liberty.”

The contest thus stood: the king, Duke of Cumberland, and the ministers,—with all their patronage, but overburdened with unpopularity, especially as regarded certain acts touching the navy, the standing army, and excise and other new taxes disliked by most,—supporting candidates looked upon with disfavour, on the one side; opposed by the Prince of Wales and his active friends of the “patriotic party,” with a popular naval commander and “a friend of his country” as candidates, and the voice of the multitude, on the other; the arena being the hustings at Covent Garden, supposed to be regarded expectantly by all the constituencies in the country.

TO THE INDEPENDENT ELECTORS OF WESTMINSTER. VERNON AND EDWIN. 1741.

[Page 97.

A pictorial version of the scene of the Westminster Election, 1741, dedicated “to the brave Admiral Vernon and his worthy colleague, Charles Edwin, Esq.,” appeared with a copy of verses “To the Independent and Worthy Electors of this Ancient City of Westminster.” The candidates are exhibited before the front of Covent Garden Church; in the pediment is shown a dial, with the motto which at that time caught the eye of the moving crowd, “So Passes Ye Glory of Ye World.” Seated at a table in the portico beneath, are the poll clerks, with the returning officer casting up the votes: one clerk is directing a list to be set down in the “Poll Book” for “Vernon and Edwin;” while the representative of the other side says, “Few for my Lord.” Vernon’s ships, and the benefit of increased commerce in the shape of bales of merchandise, are shown in the distance; the favoured admiral himself, with laced cocked hat and a staff in his right hand, is declaring, “For the Glory of Britain, down with the Spaniards.” In front of the platform, and next the popular favourite, stands Charles Edwin, who is declaring his sentiments to be for “My King and my Country.” The candidates of the opposition are received with enthusiasm: “Vernon for ever, no dribbers here;” “Edwin at home, Vernon abroad,” is shouted by the persons to the left of the picture. The results of the election were undetermined when this engraving appeared, so the engraver has anticipated the ultimate results of the petition, and made the ministerial candidates unsuccessful. Sir Charles Wager, in a dejected state, is exclaiming, “I don’t know where to put up next.” Lord Sundon, represented as a mere “fribble,” is in conference with Justice De Veil, who had a large share in the control of the Westminster election, and being in the Government pay and a powerful partisan, was, together with the returning officer, on these accounts the object of popular indignation. Lord Sundon is declaring for “The Excise and another place:” the duties on “cyder” and fermented liquors gave extreme offence to the multitude. The magistrate is made to exclaim, “I, Justice De Veil, say so, and will justify it.” The good folks on the right are hissing, and crying, “No pensioners!” A female is pronouncing for the gallant admiral, “Vernon among the women to a man;” and a voter is denouncing “Spithead Lights,”—in reference to the reviews and home displays of the Admiralty, represented by Sir Charles Wager.

Below the design are the lines—

“O, put it to the public voice
To make a free and worthy choice;
Excluding such as would in shame
The Commonwealth. Let whom we name
Have Wisdom, Foresight, Fortitude,
Be more with Faith than Place endu’d,
Whatever great one it offend;
And from the embraced Truth not bend.
These neither practised force, nor forms,
Nor did they leave the helm in storms;
These men were truly Magistrates;
And such they are make happy states.”

Towards the close, the state of the poll stood thus:—

Sir Charles Wager, 3686.
Lord Sundon, 3533.
Admiral Vernon, 3290.
Charles Edwin, 3161.

At this stage of the proceedings, when the independent candidates claimed to have many votes in reserve, while the ministers had exhausted every subterfuge and all their resources, Lord Sundon very injudiciously appealed to an armed intervention, forcibly closed the poll, and ordered a body of grenadiers to surround the hustings, and prevent any further voting; while the high bailiff countenanced these high-handed illegalities, and made his return accordingly. This proceeding ruined the chances of the Government in this contest of 1741: a petition was presented against the return of Wager and Sundon, and, although Walpole fought with all his influence, the subject was made a party question; in the new session, a warm contest arose in the Commons, which reassembled June 25, 1741, and the return of the sitting members was decided against by a majority of four, the numbers told being 220 to 216. The circumstance of “the election being declared void,” is alluded to in a letter from Horace Walpole to Sir H. Mann, December 10, 1741: “Mr. Pulteney presented an immense piece of parchment, which he said he could but just lift; and was the Westminster Petition, and is to be heard next Tuesday, when we shall all have our brains knocked out by the mob.” A new election ensued; Charles Edwin and Lord Perceval were returned without opposition. Vernon had been chosen for several places, and had already taken his seat for Ipswich. The admiral was regarded by the populace as a hero of the first water, whose victories, though for the honour of his country, were thorns in the side of the Administration, the members of which were accused of taking bribes from the enemy. The bards compared Vernon to Cincinnatus:—

“Let Rome no more with ostentation show
Her so long-fam’d dictator from the plough;
Great Britain, rival of the Roman name,
In arts, in elegance, in martial fame,
Can, from the plough, her Cincinnatus fellow,
And show a Vernon storming Porto Bello.”

The admiral is further alluded to in another engraving produced upon this same election—“The Funeral of Independency,” where the mourning procession is passing a tavern with the loyal sign of the Crown and Anchor. Among other episodes is a man on a donkey, who is galloping “post to Ipswich 10s. 6d.”—in allusion to Vernon’s return for that place; while another man is apostrophizing the rider, “Thou art as tedious as the law.”

The sequel of the memorable Westminster election of 1741 is pictured in “The Triumph of Justice” (Dec. 1741), an engraving of a satirical character, in which the late events, the triumph of opposition headed by the Prince of Wales, and the discomfiture of the Administration, are figured in allegorical guise. Walpole’s earthly career is assumed to be finished by the defeat in the Commons, who voted by a majority of four against the election of that minister’s placemen; and he is hurried to the tomb. A sarcophagus is displayed whereon a Satyr, with hour-glass and scythe, usurps the post of symbolical Time; on the base of the monument is inscribed “Hic Jacet;” in front is a medallion of the statesmen supposed to be departed, with the legend:—“Padera Robertas Ord: Perisci—tidis Eques;” the supporting “weepers” are the disqualified members,—they bear a band inscribed “Our Hopes are gone, the Election’s lost.” Sir Charles Wager, as representing the admiralty, is leaning on a broken anchor. Lord Sundon has beside him a coin, two keys, a loaf, some mice (one of which is caught in a trap), in allusion to the treasury “loaves and fishes,” parasites, etc. On the ground, across the reverse of Walpole’s medallion, which bears the legend “Regit dictus Animos,” are a sceptre and three bludgeons, “Boroughs” and “Bruisers,” both used for electioneering purposes, to which a plate marked “Covent Garden” further alludes.

Above the clouds, and surrounded by an angelic host, is seated the Prince of Wales, the deus ex machina of Walpole’s defeat; his sceptre is a bludgeon, and he is pointing to an orator, who is presumably denouncing “the king’s party,” whose power is broken. Beside the heir apparent is a female divinity, balancing the scales of justice above the figure of Edwin. At the prince’s feet is seen “the glorious 220,” the number of votes recorded by the opposition, disqualifying Wager and Sundon, and in favour of a new election for Westminster. The British crown, decorated with palms and laurels, caps the design; which is inscribed, on a riband beneath, “To the Independent Electors of Westminster.” A further allegorical engraving, appropriately due to Jo. Mynde, exhibits and commemorates the final stage in this contest, where the Court was defeated and the opposition scored a complete triumph; this version, which consists of a design and a petition, engraved on the same plate, is entitled, “The Banner of Liberty, displayed in the Petition of the Inhabitants of Westminster, with the Coat of Arms of the Glorious two hundred and twenty-two who voted in favour of the Petitioners.” The emblematical design displays the tutelary guardian of Westminster, a female figure, seated on the ground in deep dejection; her hand is resting on the armorial shield of Charles Edwin, which is placed before that of Lord Perceval (Earl of Egmont); the arms of Westminster are engraved on a stone, and the shield of Admiral Vernon also appears. The goddess of Liberty has arrived on the scene, she has summarily put “Slavery” to flight, and while she is assisting the guardian of the liberties of Westminster to rise, the muskets of the soldiery are trampled under foot, in allusion to the bold and impolitic step of ordering grenadiers to close the poll, resorted to at the previous election by Lord Sundon, to the damage of his patron Walpole. In the Commons it was suggested to indict the soldiers who had the temerity to interfere with “the rights of election.”

“THE INDEPENDENT WESTMINSTER ELECTORS’ TOAST.[42]
IN MEMORY OF THE GLORIOUS TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY.
To the Tune of ‘Come, let us prepare,’ etc.

1.

“My Westminster Friends,
Now we’ve gained our Ends,
Here’s a Health, and I’m sure ’twon’t repent ye:
With Gratitude think,
To the Health let us drink
Of the Glorious Two hundred and Twenty.

2.

“Come Honestly on,
Give your votes as you’ve done,
When you voted for Edwin and Vernon;
Like Britons be bold,
Laugh at Power and Gold,
Else slavery comes, and will spare none.

3.

“The army so grand,
For the good of the Land,
That is annually chose our protectors,
A new Trade have got,
And without Scott or Lot;
Are now all become our Electors.

4.

“The Justices, too,
Will soon have their due,
As well as that Rogue the High Bailey;
Tho’ ye strut and look big,
With your Sword and Tye-wig,
The Parliament soon will to jail wi’ ye.

5.

“Brave Edwin for you
Did all he could do,
As at the last Poll ye remember,
Now all of ye shou’d
To him be as good,
And choose him once more for your member.

6.

“An honest good Lord
To find out, how hard,
At this time, let any man think, Sir!
Yet all do agree
Lord Perceval’s he,
Then Edwin and Perceval drink, sir.

7.

“Besides his brave spirit,
My Lord has this merit
With us; that Bob hates him to death, Sir,
He has sworn Zounds and Blood
That my Lord never shou’d
Be a member, as long as he’d breath, Sir.

8.

“Then under his nose
These brave men we will choose,
To show we don’t fear, but despise him.
We’ll laugh and we’ll flout
At the rabble at Court,
Who, for what they can get, idolize him.

9.

“The Parliament just
And firm to their trust,
Have giv’n you another Election;
Then your Liberty use,
These honest men choose,
And rely on their steady protection.

10.

“Vernon’s self will rejoice,
When he hears of our choice,
And is told how we’ve routed the Old-ones;
Then join Hand-in-Hand,
To each other firm stand,
For Success always follows the Bold-ones.

11.

“But if any more
Bob shou’d do as before,
Or by Fraud or by Violence cheat you,
In numbers then go
And demolish your foe—
Ye’re Fools if again he defeat you.”

Other verses appear in a version with a woodcut heading of a party of jolly citizens toping and toasting healths:—

“Your High Constable rout,
Your Vestrymen out,
Ye Burgesses, Stumps, and High Bailey;
Tho’ Robert assist,
We ne’er will desist,
No Power nor Help shall avail ye.

“But Vernon no more
You can serve as before,
He is chosen for several places;
Then choose in his room
A brave man who will come
And use the Court tools to their faces.

“Lord Perceval here
Will shortly declare,
Who fears neither Wager nor Sundon,
But hates all the tribe
Who take pension or bribe,
By which we brave boys are all undone.”

A second ballad bears a strong resemblance to the foregoing; one or two verses only are selected:—

“THE INDEPENDENT WESTMINSTER CHOICE, OR, PERCEVAL AND EDWIN.
To the Tune of ‘The Free Masons.’

“Ye Westminster Boys, unite and rejoice,
Be steady, and make no defection;
For if you stand true, you are not too few
To carry your glorious election.

“Thus, while Vernon shall ride on America’s tide,
And by arms bring the Spanish Dons under;
His friend shall stand here, this noble young Peer,
And rattle old Bob with his thunder.

“You may now firmly hope, your ruin to stop,
When Vernon abroad guards the nation:
And this noblemen true, match’d by none or by few,
Shall expose all Court Tricks and Evasion.

“Thus shall Perceval brave, your Liberties save,
And with Edwin in Senate defend you:
These men they were giv’n, a present from Heav’n,
Reject not what Heaven does send you.”

Another spirited ballad, on the same theme, and also to the tune of “Come, let us prepare,” appeared as “A New Song,” with a woodcut heading of a maiden and matron drinking tea at the sign of the Crown and Orange-Tree. A second version of the same ballad was published as:—

“THE TRUE ENGLISH-BOYS’ SONG TO VERNON’S GLORY.
OCCASIONED BY THE BIRTHDAY OF THAT BRAVE ADMIRAL.
To be sung round the Bonfires of London and Westminster.

“Ye Westminster Boys, All sing and rejoice,
Your friends in the House will not fail ye,
We’ll the soldiers indict, And set matters right,
In spite of that Rogue the High Bailey.

“Let us raise our Bonfires As high as the spires,
And ring ev’ry Bell in the Steeple;
All the Art we defy, Of the whole Ministry,
To run Vernon down with the people.

“Stand round, and appear, All ye Hearts of Oak here,
And set the proud Don at defiance,
To Vernon let’s drink, who made Spain and France slink,
And Bob, who’s with both in Alliance.

“A true lad won’t flinch, Now we’re at this sad pinch,
But old England, on Vernon rely on,
For this honest Fellow, who took Porto Bello,
Shall find Bob a Gibbet to die on.

“Stop not Vernon’s career, Thro’ Folly and Fear,
Lest the French, or the Spaniards should beat ye;
Nor let Don Geraldino, Busy Horace, or Keen O
Bamboozle you with a new Treaty.

“This time then be bold, Be not bought and sold,
Nor let Monsieur’s old Tricks still seduce ye,
Like our Forefathers try, Or to conquer or die,
Ere France to a province reduce ye.

“Hessian Troops are all sham, The Neutrality damn,
The Convention, and ev’ry Vagary;
The money they’ve got, All is now gone to pot,
And so is the Queen of Hungary.

“But send Ships and Food, To Vernon, that’s good,
For unless Heaven feed him with Manna,
His designs they’ll defeat, For without men and meat,
How can he e’er take the Havanna.

“Besides, let us send, a true militant Friend,
Nor longer be Bob’s, or Spain’s dupe a;
They there would agree,—Both by Land and by Sea,
And soon be the masters of Cuba.”

The managers of what was called the “Country party” consisted of those who entitled themselves “patriots,” and were active in promoting the “good cause.” The victory which in 1741 unseated Wager and Sundon, and moreover inflicted so heavy a blow upon Walpole’s influence that he lost his corrupt majority, and subsequently retired from the struggle, was annually commemorated by an association of members of the constituency which had been the first to assert its independence. An invitation was issued to the voters to meet together to celebrate this anniversary; a copperplate, neatly engraved, surmounted by an allegorical design, and surrounded by an elegant frame or border, formed the ticket:—

“The Independent Electors of Westminster
Are desired to meet at Vintners’ Hall, Thames Street,
On Friday, the 15 Feb. 1744,

At 3 o’clock, to Dine together, in order to Commemorate their Success on the 22nd of December, 1741, and further to promote the same Public Spirit.

George Dodington, Esq.}Stewards{ Lord George Graham.
Charles Edwin, Esq.}{ George Grenville, Esq.
Thomas Gore, Esq.}{ Sir John Phillips, Bart.
Pray Pay the Bearer 5 shils.”

The design which heads this dinner-ticket represents Hercules and Britannia driving away the Harpies presumed to have been preying upon corruption; the Goddess of Liberty, with the British lion by her side, is trampling on prostrate venality,—two figures, with bags of money and a heap of gold, cast down ignominiously.

“The Body of Independent Electors of Westminster” was evidently constituted into a society, at first exclusively for the furtherance of patriotic views, but, as the Court party alleged in 1745, to spread Jacobite sentiments. The excitement evoked by the rising of the Scottish clans and proclamation of the Young Pretender in 1745 was still at its height; the gaols were filled with Scotch rebels, and the famous trial of Lord Lovat, which only commenced on the 9th of March, was absorbing popular attention to the extinction of everything but Jacobite plots, both real and feigned. As the patriotic party had long been in antagonism with the Court, whose ministers had been defeated through this influence, and the dissolution of Parliament was impending, those in office neglected no opportunity of bringing the so-called “friends of the people” into evil repute. On the assumption that all weapons are lawful in electioneering warfare, much political capital was manufactured out of the Pretender’s fiasco; and the Scottish Rebellion was seized as an opportunity to stigmatize all persons of integrity, and those who were declared enemies of the corrupt Administration then in power, as Jacobites and sympathizers with the rebels.

“The Independent Electors of the City and Liberty of Westminster” held their anniversary festival at Vintners’ Hall, on the 19th of March, 1747. The Stewards were the Earl of Lichfield, Earl of Orrery, Viscount Andover, Sir R. Bamfylde, George Heathcote, and Thomas Carew. On this occasion the stewards for the ensuing year were chosen; they were Lord Ward, Lord Windsor, Sir James Dashwood, Sir Charles Tynte, Sir Thomas Clarges, and George Cooke (who was then canvassing Middlesex). On the conclusion of the business of the afternoon, and after the festivities, toasts, as was customary, began to be proposed. The London Evening Post gives a list of these healths, beginning with “The King;” but, as an implication of Jacobite proclivities, it is added in another paper that the royal health was honoured in the recognized Jacobite fashion—to “Charley over the Water:”—“Each man having a glass of water on the left hand, and waving the glass of wine over the water,”—but this accusation was probably a bold electioneering ruse. The succeeding toasts were as follows:—“The Prince;” “The Duke;” “Prosperity to the independent electors of Westminster;” “Prosperity to the city of London and the trade thereof;” “Thanks to the Worshipful Company of Vintners’ for the use of their Hall;” “The Lord Mayor of London;” “Success to the arms of Great Britain by sea and land;” “To the annexing Cape Breton to the Crown of Great Britain;” “That the spirit of independency may diffuse itself through the nation;” “That the enemies of Great Britain may never eat the bread nor drink the drink thereof;” “That the Naturalization Bill may be kicked out of the House, and the foreigners out of the kingdom;” “That the darkening our windows may enlighten our understanding” (tax upon light); “To all those that dare—be honest;” “The stewards elect;” “The late stewards, with thanks for the trouble they have taken;” “Our old Friend ——.”

According to the Gentleman’s Magazine, “amidst this mirth, one Mr. Williams, Master of the ‘White Horse’ in Piccadilly, being observed to make memorandums with a pencil, gave such offence that he was severely cuffed and kicked out of the company.” It appears that a Jacobite complexion was given to the rather forcible expression of public contempt bestowed upon the Ministerial notetaker, who was branded as “the Spy.” A spirited version of this incident, executed closely in the manner of Hogarth, if not by that master, to whose portrait of Lord Lovat it in style approximates (the artist was himself one of the free electors of Westminster), exhibits the ignominious ejectment of “the Spy,” whose detection is further indicated by the paper he has dropped on the ground, marked “List of the persons, etc.” The pictorial view of an episode to which undue importance was attached, owing to the excited relation of parties at the time, is accompanied by a quotation from “Hudibras” appropriate to the subject:—

“Honour in the Breech is lodg’d
As wise philosophers have judged;
Because a kick in that part more
Hurts Honour than deep wounds before.”

MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT ELECTORS OF WESTMINSTER: THE SPY DETECTED. MARCH, 1747.

[Page 109.

A few days later a second entry shows that it was seriously entertained at that emergency to carry the matter farther; in any case—although they do not seem to have eventually made anything of it—the complaint was taken up by the Commons, and referred to the managers of Lord Lovat’s trial, then just concluded. On the 24th of March—

“Complaint being made to the House that John Williams, keeper of the ‘White Horse Inn’ in Piccadilly, was on Thursday last, in a public assembly, assaulted and severely treated, upon a public assertion made by some persons in that assembly—‘that, Fraser, said by them, to be one of the principal witnesses against the Lord Lovat, was in his custody’ ORDER’D. That a committee be appointed to enquire into the matter of this complaint, and examine persons in the most solemn manner; that this committee be the managers against Lord Lovat.”

The whole matter is obscured by party misrepresentations. One James Fraser, who was pronounced a Jacobite, was active against the Ministerial candidates at the Westminster contest of 1749, where all opponents of the Court were denounced as Jacobites, while the “patriots,” “country party,” and “independent electors of Westminster,”—as they indiscriminately christened themselves—retorted upon Earl Gower, through his son, Lord Trentham, the Ministerial candidate for that city, the accusation of Jacobite leanings:—“Ask Lord Trentham who had his foot in the stirrup in the year 1715.”

The parliamentary dissolution followed in June, 1747, when the favourite manœuvre of those in power was to recklessly accuse their opponents of belonging to the Stuart faction. The odium attaching to the suspicion of Jacobite tendencies was sufficiently strong to place the “Independent party” in a smaller minority than at the previous election, and thus the outbreak in favour of the Pretender served to recruit the strength of the Court party, which had been jeopardized at the 1741 election, and had shown signs of declension before the rising in 1745. The Government candidates for Westminster, Admiral Sir Peter Warren and Lord Trentham, were again chosen from the Admiralty. Lord Trentham was the son of that Earl Gower who was for some time the head of the Opposition, and at this juncture was one of the recent recruits of the Court party.

“See Gower, who the Court had opposed thick and thin;
Was out, then was in, then was out and now in;
He kiss’d hands, then look’d pensive—as much as to say,
“I can’t judge which is best, to go or to stay.
Derry Down.”

(Place Book for the Year 1745.)

WESTMINSTER—THE TWO-SHILLING BUTCHER. 1747.

Lord Trentham’s selection as a lord of the admiralty occurred somewhat later (1749). The second candidate was Admiral Sir Peter Warren, who, as usual, was supported by a mob of Jack Tars, or of ruffians dressed in sailors’ clothes for the occasion, a common party subterfuge at the Westminster elections. The candidates put forward for the suffrages of the “Independent Electors,” and who came out of the contest ingloriously, were, as first announced, Sir Thomas Clarges (one of the stewards of the association) and Sir John Phillips (who was a steward in 1744); after a ten-days’ canvass the latter declined to proceed in his candidature, on the plea of ill health, and Sir Thomas Dyke was put up in his stead. Early in the contest a well-executed caricature, in the manner of Boitard or Gravelot, both artists being contemporary with Hogarth, was offered to the public under the title of “The Two-Shilling Butcher.” It was at this election that the highest personages canvassed. The Duke of Cumberland and the Prince of Wales appeared in support of the rival factions. In the pictorial view of this situation, Lord Trentham, a dandified person dressed in the extreme of French taste, is in conference with his “backer” the “Two-Shilling Butcher,” who has been supposed by Thomas Wright and other authorities to represent the “Culloden Butcher,” i.e. the Duke of Cumberland. Mr. F. G. Stephens, who has described all the early caricatures in the Hawkins Collections with the utmost pains and minutiæ, sets down this personage as Mr. Butcher, the agent to the Duke of Bedford, whose residence is introduced in the rear. However, the figure in the present version corresponds with similar representations of the stout Cumberland Butcher; moreover, an allusion to cattle put into the mouth of this personage strongly indicates, by analogy with other caricatures on “horned cattle,” that none other than the duke is meant. The results of the election were at this time uncertain. The affected lordling, also satirized as Sir Silkington, is drawling, “Curs me! you’d buy me, ye Brutes, at 2s. p. Head Bona fide?” to which the figure travestied as a butcher, with apron, knife, and steel, is responding, “My Lord, there being a Fatality in ye Cattle, that there is 3000 above my Cut, tho’ I offered handsome.” The “3000” presumably refers to the Association of Independent Electors, who, at the previous poll (1741), registered for the “patriot” candidates (Vernon and Edwin), but were found wanting in 1747, as the figures at the close of the poll demonstrated. The Duke of Bedford’s residence is introduced to recall the circumstance that he and the candidate were close matrimonial connections, the duke having married the eldest daughter of John, Earl Gower. In front of this building, with the “bustos” of sphinxes above the posts of the gateway, is another important personage, who is bribing rival canvassers with gold openly filched from the pockets of Britannia, who is highly indignant at the proceeding; she is made to exclaim, with reason, “Ye Gods, what pickpockets!” The people seen in the dark transaction of being bribed were defectors from “Phillips and Clarges,” demoralized by the spell of gold; another voter is hastening away, denouncing the venality of these persons. One of the sphinxes is exclaiming—“We can’t decoy them in!” while labels, carried through the air by pigeons, record “The Independent has it,” and “For Yorkshire.” On the opposite side is shown the front of St. Paul’s, Covent Garden, with its dial and the motto “So passes ye glory of ye world.” Before its portals stand the rival candidates, Sir Thomas Clarges and Sir Thomas Dyke; they are showing their contempt for mere “placemen representatives” by trampling upon government bribes: “Places in Exchequer we tread on,” and “No lucrative Employment.” Near them are the poll clerks, and the returning officer, with the poll-book under his charge. Beside the “independent” candidates are shown their supporters: one of these, bearing in his hand the cap of liberty, is pressing the latter on the acceptance of the electors, and assuring them, “Those candidates will serve you!” while a scroll, borne above the heads of the voters, carries the warning, “No Trentham!”

THE HUMOURS OF THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION; OR, THE SCALD MISERABLE INDEPENDENT ELECTORS IN THE SUDS. 1747.

[Page 113.

Other caricatures appeared on the same subject, which excited, as usual, the largest share of public interest during the elections throughout the country. One of these first appeared, in compliment to the Scottish Rebellion, the latest novelty of the time, as “The Jaco-Independo-Rebello-Plaido.” In this version the business of the election is represented to take place before Westminster Hall, as a further allusion to the Jacobites and Lord Lovat’s trial there. The two parties and their respective head-quarters, established at taverns, are represented, and above all hovers the power of Destruction, always pictured as an important agent of “the other side,” according to the respective allegations of the contending parties. The Devil, in the present instance, is made “to take care of his own,” and has a stock of halters and axes for the rebels. “I have the Fee in my hands,” saith the Evil One. One side is appropriated to Ministerialists at the sign of Jolly Bacchus and the (Rabbit) Warren. Two persons are leaning from the first-floor window, and exhorting those with votes to “Give the Devil his due”—i.e. the Jacobites. The most prominent figure is a butcher; and no doubt, according to Mr. F. G. Stephens’s suggestion, the person thus implied is Mr. Butcher, the Duke of Bedford’s agent, and a less distinguished person than the “Cumberland Duke” pictured in the “Two-Shilling Butcher.” He is waving a scroll endorsed, “Trentham and Warren.” The butcher agent is surrounded by partisans; Admiral Sir Peter Warren’s sailors (a Lascar among them) are asserting “bludgeon law;” the people are pushing to the Governmental head-quarters, crying “No independency” and “No Pretender,” as if the terms were synonymous; a Frenchman may be identified in the crowd; and a person is offering the butcher a paper, “They squeak.” The head-quarters of the opposite party is shown as a Jacobite house. The flag displayed is adorned with the figure of an owl dressed in a full wig and a counsellor’s bands, and indicates “Morgan’s Ghost,” the Morgan thus favoured having been a Jacobite barrister who had the misfortune to be implicated in the abortive rising of 1745 in the interests of the Pretender, which cost Morgan his life. The adherents rallying round this questionable house, intended as a reflection upon the Association of Independent Electors of Westminster, who were stigmatized as friends of the Jacobites, are dressed for the most part in plaids, and wear Scotch bonnets, to imply their Jacobite sympathies. This caricature was republished, with the hustings at Covent Garden substituted for Westminster Hall, and the Devil very civilly giving place to the figure of an angel, with the legend “Faithful to King and country.” The title was changed to “The Humours of the Westminster Election; or, the Scald Miserable Independent Electors in the Suds,” 1747, with the following lines:—

“Britons brave are true and unconfin’d,
To lash the Coxcombs of the Age design’d;
Fixt to no Party, censure all alike,
And the distinguish’d Villain sure to strike;
Pleas’d we behold the great maintain the Cause,
And Court and Country join the loud applause.”

GREAT BRITAIN’S UNION; OR, THE LITCHFIELD RACES. 1747.

[Page 114.

Strong Jacobite imputations are farther conveyed in the pictorial version of “Great Britain’s Union; or, the Litchfield Races, 1747.” Both Whig and Tory parties, not content with the legitimate and recognized contests of the hustings, and their ultimate goal, the senate, carried their partisan proclivities on to the racecourse, and ministerial and opposition stakes were alternately put into competition on the same turf. Thus, at Lichfield were held Tory race weeks, succeeded by similar gatherings on the part of their opponents. Some rather extraordinary doings occurred there, the general description of which is conveyed by the caricature; the two factions by some means came into collision, and his Grace of Bedford received a sound hiding with a horsewhip as an acknowledgment of his services to the House of Hanover and his antagonism to the Patriotic party, denounced as Jacobites by their Hanoverian rivals; Earl Gower, and his modish son, Lord Trentham, were also roughly handled. Various freaks of an extravagant nature were performed, ladies and gentlemen of the Patriotic faction appearing dressed in Scottish plaids. In the design this circumstance is specially embodied: a party of enthusiasts, assembled in a booth on the course, are toasting the Pretender, whose sun is seen in the distance, falsely depicted as in the ascendant. A despondent grenadier outside the Jacobite head-quarters, is grumbling, “We are rode by Germans;” a cradle, a Gallic cock, and a fleur-de-lis allude to the Chevalier and the French assistance lent to his pretensions; overhead several hands are seen clasped, with the suggestive legend, “A-greed.” A Frenchified person, pointing to a gamecock fighting his own shadow, is denouncing the Duke (of Bedford) in no measured terms; under his right arm is the whip with which the duke was castigated, and in the left hand of this valorous bravo is a paper, “We have courage.” As usual, the Devil is present, and this time he is flying off with “Information,” possibly to be laid before his dear friends in office. A sort of zany, seated beneath a flag marked, “And curse upon denial” (alluding to equivocation on the part of several), is giving the starting signal. The Scotch plaid-clad jockey riding for the Chevalier is beating the Hanoverian jockey on the traditional “White Horse.” This highly fanciful conception, the reverse of actual experience, is hailed with extravagant delight by the excited assembly; the occupants of the Grand Stand are described as “Don Juan and his friends at the place of Desert.” Various ballads and satirical productions were evoked upon the transaction related.

Lord Trentham, his father, Earl Gower, and their great relative, the Duke of Bedford, are, with various references to the late election for Westminster, introduced into several caricatures which followed, and notably in “Great Britain’s Union; or, Litchfield Races transposed,” “A Sight of the Banging Bout at Litchfield,” and “An Exact Representation” of the same occurrence. The circumstances to which these pictorial satires refer are traceable to the national ferment succeeding the suppression of the Rebellion, when, as recapitulated, various eccentricities were committed by those who favoured the Pretender’s cause; among others, certain Staffordshire sportsmen made themselves conspicuous. Smollett, in his “History of England,” describes these vagaries: the Stuart partisans—

“appeared in the Highland taste of variegated drapery, and, their zeal descending to a very extraordinary exhibition of practical ridicule, they hunted with hounds clothed in plaid, a fox dressed in red uniform. Even the females at their assembly and the gentlemen at the races affected to wear the chequered stuff by which the prince-pretender and his followers had been distinguished. Divers noblemen on the course were insulted as apostates; and one personage of high rank is said to have undergone a very disagreeable flagellation.”

The sequel of this adventure is related in the Gentleman’s Magazine (1748):—

“Before Mr. Justice Burnett, took place the trial of the information against Toll (a dancing-master) and others, for insulting and striking the Duke of Bedford, and other gentlemen, upon Whittington Heath, at the late Litchfield horse-races; when it was likewise proposed by the counsel for the defendants, that the several rioters, to the number of thirteen, should submit to be found guilty: if the counsel for the crown would consent to withdraw the information against several other persons concerned in that riot.”

The circumstances of the fracas are also alluded to in the “Letters of Junius” (xxii.):—

“Mr. Heston Humphrey, a country attorney, horsewhipped the duke with equal justice, severity, and perseverance on the course at Litchfield. Rigby and Lord Trentham were also cudgelled in a most exemplary manner.”

These incidents gave rise to various ballads as well as caricatures; a parody on “Chevy Chase” offers the liveliest version of the affair:—