BRITANNIA FLOGGED BY PITT—THE GOVERNOR IN ALL HIS GLORY. 1804.
The election contests in 1806 and 1807, which ensued on the death of Fox, fully occupied the pencil of Gillray: his elaborate cartoons, of which reduced fac-similes are given, prove that election squibs must in his day have enjoyed a large circulation; the artist seems to have developed them into elaborate conceptions. Westminster was again the constituency, where the struggle was regarded as of most absorbing interest. Sheridan, who had sat for Stafford from 1780, now flattered himself that his popularity and his intimacy with Fox would, on the decease of the Whig chief, point him out as the natural successor of the illustrious statesman. He found an embarrassing opponent in James Paull (the son of a prosperous tailor), who had returned from India, where he filled an appointment, and brought home with him a moderate fortune and liberal ideas as regarded administrative reform. His candidature for Westminster was supported by the influence of all the advanced politicians, the ultra-Liberals, and the Radical Reformers.
In the first of Gillray’s satires on this topic, the “Triumphal Procession of Little Paull, the Tailor, upon his new Goose,” November 8, 1806, Sir Francis Burdett, who was for some time travestied as “The Famous Green Goose,” is lending Little Paull a helping mount; Tooke is leading his pupil; Colonel Bosville is distributing money to make the candidate popular; Cobbett, with “Political Register” in hand, is canvassing for Paull and “Independence and Public Justice”—referring to the new patriot’s articles of impeachment against the Marquis of Wellesley on his return from India. In view of the energetic tactics of the new candidate and his allies, Sir Samuel Hood and Sheridan thought it advisable to combine their interests, and make a coalition for the occasion. The situation is pictorially summed up as “The High-flying Candidate, Little Paull Goose, mounting from a Blanket—Vide Humours of Westminster Election” (November 11, 1806). Paull, according to the ungenerous practice of all concerned, was taunted with being the son of a tailor. Sir Samuel Hood, with one arm lost in his country’s service, and Sheridan in sables for his late friend, and with the farce of “The Devil Among the Tailors” in his pocket, are together raising their high-flying antagonist in the “Coalition Blanket.” The Admiral’s sailors and patriotic volunteers for Sheridan are alike pronouncing emphatically for the combined names of the two senior candidates. At the feet of the Coalition members is the memorial slab to departed greatness, “Sacred to the Memory of Poor Charley, late member for the City of Westminster,” “We ne’er shall look upon his like again;” the monument is thrust aside by the outraged spirit of the deceased patriot, who is in anguish exclaiming, “O tempora! O mores!”
| Lord Granville. | Mellish. |
Marquis of Buckingham. Lord Temple. | Head of Fox. | Byng. | Wm. Cobbett. |
| Sheridan and Sir Samuel Hood. | James Paull. | Napoleon as Postillion. | Sir F. Burdett. | J. Horne Tooke. | Col. Bosville. |
POSTING TO THE ELECTION; OR, A SCENE ON THE ROAD TO BRENTFORD. 1806. BY JAMES GILLRAY.
[Page 315.
| Sir Samuel Hood. | James Paull. | R. B. Sheridan. |