“Like tidings to King William came,
Within a shorter space—
Says he, ‘The bishops are great fools,
And really a disgrace.
“‘But God is with us,’ said the King,
‘The people must be free,
I will create an hundred Peers,
If need should ever be.
“‘Yet shall not Wellington long boast
What mischief he does make:
I saw him lately with the Queen,
I doubt he is a rake.
“‘This vow the King he will perform,
In honour of the crown;
A hundred peers he can create,
Or knock a hundred down.
“‘Then Peers will be of small account,
And Peel that stood so high,
Because he wants consistency,
I think we’ll pass him by.’
“God save the King, and bless the land,
May all dissensions cease,
And grant henceforth that foul debates,
Like this, may end in peace.”
This view of the situation is followed up by a cartoon aimed at the opposition tactics, “Votaries at the Altar of Discord” (April 20, 1831). Hunt is the high priest fanning the incendiary flame at the Altar of Discord, before which Sir Robert Peel, who seems to have relinquished power reluctantly, as the mouthpiece of his kneeling followers, is offering this invocation: “Powerful Goddess, deign to hear our prayers; deserted in this, our great extremity, by justice and wisdom, we fly to thee as a last refuge.” The other devotees are Horace Twiss, Goulburn, Dawson, Sadler, Sir E. Sugden, Sir C. Wetherell, Earl Carnarvon, and the Dukes of Wellington and Newcastle. The opposition in the Upper Chamber was in a highly excited state, an example of this is given in “Peerless Eloquence” (April 25, 1831). Lord Londonderry is boiling with indignation: “Is it to be endured, I ask, that we should be called things—things with Human pretensions? What was the fish-woman’s virtuous indignation at being called ‘an individual’ to this? Nothing!” Brougham, on the woolsack, remains calm under the torrent; Lords Aberdeen and Wharncliffe, with the Duke of Wellington, are placidly surveying the outraged senator.
The slaughter of the innocents is figuratively told (May, 1831) in a novel edition of the “Niobe Family.” Lord Grey is the destroyer, his arrows are marked “Reform.” The Niobe of this version is the Duke of Newcastle; the smitten are Sir Charles Wetherell, Attwood, Sadler, and others, whose constituencies were threatened with extinction under the Reform Bill.
The motion for reform, then in full swing, is summed up from a Tory standpoint (May 13, 1831); the legend of “John Gilpin” is pressed into the service of the caricaturist.
“Away went Gilpin, neck or naught,
Away went hat and wig,
He little dream’d when he set out,
Of running such a rig.”