A NEW TAP WANTED.
April 26, 1810. The Boroughmongers Strangled in the Tower. Tegg's caricatures (8).—Sir Francis Burdett, while confined within the Tower, is signalising his prowess by the slaughter of a brace of the 'Caterpillars of the State;' like the infant Hercules, he is taking the dealers in corruption by the neck and throttling them. One of the beefeaters is enjoying the spectacle, crying, 'Bless him, I say; he's a rum un.' Over the portcullis of the Tower gate is an escutcheon representing the 'British Lion roused.' On one side of the postern is an apposite quotation from Shakespeare:—
This dear, dear land—
Dear for her reputation through the world—
Is now leas'd out ...
Like to a tenement, or pelting farm;
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds.'—Richard II.
An extract from the Liberal Baronet's own speech is posted on the other side:—
From this foul and traitorous traffic our Boroughmonger Sovereigns derive an immense revenue, cruelly wrung from the hard hand of honest labour. I do, however, now entertain an ardent hope that this degraded and degrading system, to which all our difficulties, grievances, and dangers are owing, will at length give way to the moderate but determined perseverance of a whole united people.—Sir Francis Burdett.
One of the boroughmongering crew is already demolished; by his side, on the ground, are two money-bags, 'Rapine,' and 'Drainings from the hard hand of the industrious poor.' Of the twin wretches who are being strangled without mercy at the hands of Sir Francis Burdett one has in his pocket 'Barrow (borough?), in Cornwall, bought and sold; apply to——;' two money-bags, 'Extortion money,' and 'Bribery and Corruption bag,' are dropping from his hands; while in the pocket of the other nefarious agent may be seen 'Rotten borough to be disposed of.'
May 1, 1810. Views of the Colleges. [Front View of Christ Church, Oxford.]
May, 1810. Emmanuel College Garden, Cambridge.