As it was felt by the Conservative party that the king, by whose instrumentality the important measure of reform was alone carried, was bound on an enterprise of which the results were doubtful, and, according to their apprehensions, desperate, they tenaciously fought for the inviolability of corruption.
“With nigh two hundred Tories bold,
All men of the old light,
Who knew full well, but would not own,
They were not in the right.
“And long before this time they had
Been lab’ring in vain,
And fencing round their borough towns
That must be sieged and ta’en.”
(New Chevy Chase.)
According to Doyle’s new version of “Mazeppa” (August 7, 1832), the king is bound and tied to “Reform,” represented as “the wild horse of the steppes,” surrounded by wolves, some of whom bear Tory visages, among which the face of the Duke of Wellington is easily identified. Horse and rider are overleaping the barrier of “Vested Interests,” while beneath the courser rushes the “Revolutionary Torrent,” whose volume is increasing. The success of this spirited version induced the designer to publish a second plate (September 25th), presenting the sequel. It is evident in this—which exhibits the wild horse, and Mazeppa, his rider, extended on the plains, but apparently uninjured—that the threatening vortex of the “Revolutionary Torrent” has been passed, and neither has been swamped; but the king is landed in the midst of the herd of wild steeds, weirdly careering round the prostrate pair are the rest of the tribe, on whose heads appear the faces of the leading advocates of reform—Lord Brougham, Lord Grey, Duke of Richmond, Lord John Russell, Lord Althorp, Sir James Graham, etc.
MAZEPPA—“AGAIN HE URGES ON HIS WILD CAREER.” AUG. 7, 1832. BY J. DOYLE (HB).
[Page 372.
“Freemen’s votes and grants by Charter,
First-born rights in every quarter,
Law and Justice, Church and King,
These the glorious spoils I bring.”