| £ | s. | d. | |
| Imprimis, for bespeaking and collecting a mob | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| Item, for many suits of knots for their heads | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| For scores of huzza-men | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| For roarers of the word “Church” | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| For a set of “No Roundhead” roarers | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| For several gallons of Tory punch on church tombstones | 30 | 0 | 0 |
| For a majority of clubs and brandy-bottles | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| For bell-ringers, fiddlers, and porters | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| For a set of coffee-house praters | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| For extraordinary expense for cloths and lac’d hats on show days, to dazzle the mob | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| For Dissenters’ damners | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| For demolishing two houses | 200 | 0 | 0 |
| For committing two riots | 200 | 0 | 0 |
| For secret encouragement to the rioters | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| For a dozen of perjury men | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| For packing and carriage paid to Gloucester | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| For breaking windows | 20 | 0 | 0 |
| For a gang of alderman-abusers | 40 | 0 | 0 |
| For a set of notorious lyars | 50 | 0 | 0 |
| For pot-ale | 100 | 0 | 0 |
| For law, and charges in the King’s Bench | 300 | 0 | 0 |
| £1460 | 0 | 0 |
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.