“A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggars Petition.” (From the only known uncoloured impression of the Plate)
“A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggars Petition.” (From the only known uncoloured impression of the Plate)
“A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggars Petition.” (From a coloured impression of the plate, with the figure of the valet obliterated with lamp-black)
“A Financial Survey of Cumberland or the Beggars Petition.” (From a coloured impression of the plate, with the figure of the valet obliterated with lamp-black)
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On July 3 the proposal was made in the Commons to increase the duke’s pension of £18,000 a year, which he held in addition to his salary of £3000 a year as Colonel of the 1st Hussars, by £6000. The House was equally divided on the vote, when a dramatic incident occurred. Lord Cochrane, heir to the Dundonald peerage, and a member of the House of Commons, had, in the previous year, been wrongfully found guilty of participation in a Stock Exchange fraud and had been imprisoned. On this very 3rd day of July he was released from prison, and immediately repaired to Westminster. The House was at that moment going to a division. His lordship entered just in time to record his casting vote against the increase of the duke’s pension, and thus by an extraordinary coincidence the duke was the poorer and the country the richer by £6000 a year.