Page:All the Year Round - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/196

 used every means in his power to secure a majority. He hardly made a secret of his determination to carry the elections by bribery and personal influence, if he could carry them in no other way; and by a liberal expenditure of money he succeeded. The Tories were very strong on the matter of this bribery. One of the caricatures of the day is entitled "The Prevailing Candidate; or, the Election carried by Bribery and the D—l." Another is called, "Britannia stript by a Villain; to which is added, the True Phiz of a late Member." The former is still in existence, and is engraved in Mr. Wright's volume. It represents the candidate—a fine gentleman in peruke and lace—slipping a bag of money into the pocket of the voter, who seems to hesitate, but is being persuaded by a devil hovering in the air above him. The wife is urged in the same direction by a parson; but two little boys express their contempt for the whole proceeding. The last of some stanzas underneath runs:

The election which proved so advantageous to Walpole was succeeded by a calm in the political world, during which the caricaturists employed themselves for the most part on social topics. The rage for pantomime which at that time took possession of the stage—the humours and vanities of Rich, the harlequin-manager of Covent Garden Theatre; of Heidegger; of Farinelli; and of other persons connected with the amusements of the day—the eccentric performances of "Orator Henley," the scurrilous clergyman who used to preach on a tub to the butchers of Clare Market—the quarrels of Pope, and other matters of a purely personal character—these were the subjects which for a long while kept the pictorial satirists busy, to the exclusion of affairs of state. It is curious to mark the similarity of the then condition of the stage to the present. Burlesque performances, grand scenic effects, realistic contrivances, mountebanks, tumblers, rope-dancers, and wild beasts, were the chief attractions, against which tragedy and comedy had very little chance. All the town rushed to see a movable windmill, as they now flock to witness a sham steam-engine and train. The machinist elbowed the dramatic author out of the way, and in one of his early caricatures Hogarth represents a barrow-woman wheeling off, as "waste paper for shops," the plays of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Congreve, and Otway. The date of the print is 1723.

With the death of George the First, in 1727, the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole recommenced with great vigour. Bolingbroke, who had been allowed to return to England, but not to resume his seat in the House of Lords, sought every opportunity of making the most virulent attacks on the successful Minister. He and Pulteney started the famous political journal called the Craftsman, of which the working editor was Nicholas Amhurst, who wrote under the assumed name of Caleb d'Anvers; and the Tories being thus joined by the discontented Whigs, Walpole found himself face to face with a formidable array of adversaries. He was accused of truckling to France (an imputation brought against every unpopular Minister), and of fiscal tyranny in extending the excise duties to wine and tobacco. The Gin Act—passed with a view to restraining the sale of our English spirit, the consumption of which by the lower classes had led to great disorders—was also extremely unpopular, and it proved as complete a failure as attempts to make people virtuous by statute law generally do prove. All these matters contributed to bring Sir Robert into considerable disrepute, and on the 13th of February, 1741, Sandys, one of the malcontent Whigs, made a violent attack on the Premier, concluding with a motion for an address to the King, praying him to remove Walpole from his councils "for ever." The motion was warmly supported by Pulteney, Pitt (afterwards Lord Chatham), and others; but it was lost by a very large majority. On the same day, Lord Carteret introduced a similar motion in the House of Lords, and was seconded by the Duke of Argyle; but this also was defeated. The double incident gave occasion to a Ministerial caricature, which is engraved in Mr. Wright's book. It is extremely clever, full of invention, and drawn with considerable spirit. The scene is Whitehall as it then was—the only feature of which now remaining is Inigo Jones's Banqueting Hall. A coach-and-six is being driven furiously towards the Treasury. The Earl of Chesterfield rides the off-leader as postilion, and the Duke of Argyle is on the box as coachman. Lord Carteret, who sits inside, calls from the window, "Let me get out" (the application of which, by the way, is not clear, as it does not seem that the proposer of the motion in the Lords endeavoured to escape from the business), and the coach, which has run over several people, is in the act of upsetting. Lord Cobham, as footman, holds on to the straps behind, and Lord Lyttelton—a tall, gaunt figure—rides on horseback after the carriage. In the foreground of the picture, Pulteney, drawing a set of partisans after him by their noses, wheels a barrow, laden with the Craftsman, the Champion, and other journals in the interest of the Opposition; but he sees the catastrophe, and exclaims, "Zounds! they're over!" Further on, Sandys, letting fall his Place Bill, and throwing up his hands and arms in dismay, exclaims, "I thought what would come of putting him on the box!"—alluding to the Duke of Argyle; while, not far from the coach, Smallbrook, Bishop of Lichfield, bows obsequiously to the great folks. Several editions of the print were published (some with variations), and the "patriots" retorted with a parody. The original was accompanied by some verses, rather humorously conceived; and Horace Walpole, writing to Conway, speaks highly of the whole, and especially commends the likenesses.