A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 27

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 27

Other verses appear in a version with a woodcut heading of a party of

jolly citizens toping and toasting healths:--

 

“Your High Constable rout,

Your Vestrymen out,

Ye Burgesses, Stumps, and High Bailey;

Tho’ _Robert_ assist,

We ne’er will desist,

No Power nor Help shall avail ye.

 

“But Vernon no more

You can serve as before,

He is chosen for several places;

Then choose in his room

A brave man who will come

And use the Court tools to their faces.

 

“Lord Perceval here

Will shortly declare,

Who fears neither Wager nor Sundon,

But hates all the tribe

Who take pension or bribe,

By which we brave boys are all undone.”

 

A second ballad bears a strong resemblance to the foregoing; one or two

verses only are selected:--

 

 

“THE INDEPENDENT WESTMINSTER CHOICE, OR, PERCEVAL AND EDWIN.

 

_To the Tune of ‘The Free Masons.’_

 

“Ye Westminster Boys, unite and rejoice,

Be steady, and make no defection;

For if you stand true, you are not too few

To carry your glorious election.

 

* * * * *

 

“Thus, while Vernon shall ride on America’s tide,

And by arms bring the Spanish Dons under;

His friend shall stand here, this noble young Peer,

And rattle old Bob with his thunder.

 

“You may now firmly hope, your ruin to stop,

When Vernon abroad guards the nation:

And this noblemen true, match’d by none or by few,

Shall expose all Court Tricks and Evasion.

 

“Thus shall PERCEVAL brave, your Liberties save,

And with EDWIN in Senate defend you:

These men they were giv’n, a present from Heav’n,

Reject not what Heaven does send you.”

 

Another spirited ballad, on the same theme, and also to the tune of

“_Come, let us prepare_,” appeared as “A New Song,” with a woodcut

heading of a maiden and matron drinking tea at the sign of the Crown

and Orange-Tree. A second version of the same ballad was published as:--

 

 

“THE TRUE ENGLISH-BOYS’ SONG TO VERNON’S GLORY.

 

OCCASIONED BY THE BIRTHDAY OF THAT BRAVE ADMIRAL.

 

_To be sung round the Bonfires of London and Westminster._

 

“Ye Westminster Boys, All sing and rejoice,

Your friends in the House will not fail ye,

We’ll the soldiers indict, And set matters right,

In spite of that Rogue the High Bailey.

 

“Let us raise our Bonfires As high as the spires,

And ring ev’ry Bell in the Steeple;

All the Art we defy, Of the whole Ministry,

To run VERNON down with the people.

 

“Stand round, and appear, All ye Hearts of Oak here,

And set the proud _Don_ at defiance,

To VERNON let’s drink, who made Spain and France slink,

And BOB, who’s with both in Alliance.

 

“A true lad won’t flinch, Now we’re at this sad pinch,

But old England, on VERNON rely on,

For this honest Fellow, who took _Porto Bello_,

Shall find BOB a Gibbet to die on.

 

“Stop not VERNON’S career, Thro’ Folly and Fear,

Lest the _French_, or the _Spaniards_ should beat ye;

Nor let _Don Geraldino_, Busy _Horace_, or _Keen_ O

Bamboozle you with a new Treaty.

 

“This time then be bold, Be not bought and sold,

Nor let _Monsieur’s_ old Tricks still seduce ye,

Like our Forefathers try, Or to conquer or die,

Ere _France_ to a province reduce ye.

 

“_Hessian_ Troops are all sham, The Neutrality damn,

The _Convention_, and ev’ry Vagary;

The money they’ve got, All is now gone to pot,

And so is the Queen of Hungary.

 

“But send Ships and Food, TO VERNON, that’s good,

For unless Heaven feed him with _Manna_,

His designs they’ll defeat, For without men and meat,

How can he e’er take the _Havanna_.

 

“Besides, let us send, a true militant Friend,

Nor longer be Bob’s, or Spain’s dupe a;

They there would agree,--Both by Land and by Sea,

And soon be the masters of Cuba.”

 

The managers of what was called the “Country party” consisted of those

who entitled themselves “patriots,” and were active in promoting the

“good cause.” The victory which in 1741 unseated Wager and Sundon,

and moreover inflicted so heavy a blow upon Walpole’s influence that

he lost his corrupt majority, and subsequently retired from the

struggle, was annually commemorated by an association of members of

the constituency which had been the first to assert its independence.

An invitation was issued to the voters to meet together to celebrate

this anniversary; a copperplate, neatly engraved, surmounted by an

allegorical design, and surrounded by an elegant frame or border,

formed the ticket:--

 

“The Independent Electors of Westminster

Are desired to meet at Vintners’ Hall, Thames Street,

On Friday, the 15 Feb. 1744,

 

At 3 o’clock, to Dine together, in order to Commemorate their

Success on the 22nd of December, 1741, and further to promote

the same Public Spirit.

 

GEORGE DODINGTON, Esq. } { LORD GEORGE GRAHAM.

CHARLES EDWIN, Esq. } Stewards { GEORGE GRENVILLE, Esq.

THOMAS GORE, Esq. } { SIR JOHN PHILLIPS, Bart.

 

Pray Pay the Bearer 5 shil^s.”

 

The design which heads this dinner-ticket represents Hercules and

Britannia driving away the Harpies presumed to have been preying upon

corruption; the Goddess of Liberty, with the British lion by her side,

is trampling on prostrate venality,--two figures, with bags of money

and a heap of gold, cast down ignominiously.

 

“The Body of Independent Electors of Westminster” was evidently

constituted into a society, at first exclusively for the furtherance

of patriotic views, but, as the Court party alleged in 1745, to spread

Jacobite sentiments. The excitement evoked by the rising of the

Scottish clans and proclamation of the Young Pretender in 1745 was

still at its height; the gaols were filled with Scotch rebels, and

the famous trial of Lord Lovat, which only commenced on the 9th of

March, was absorbing popular attention to the extinction of everything

but Jacobite plots, both real and feigned. As the patriotic party

had long been in antagonism with the Court, whose ministers had been

defeated through this influence, and the dissolution of Parliament was

impending, those in office neglected no opportunity of bringing the

so-called “friends of the people” into evil repute. On the assumption

that all weapons are lawful in electioneering warfare, much political

capital was manufactured out of the Pretender’s _fiasco_; and the

Scottish Rebellion was seized as an opportunity to stigmatize all

persons of integrity, and those who were declared enemies of the

corrupt Administration then in power, as Jacobites and sympathizers

with the rebels.

 

“The Independent Electors of the City and Liberty of Westminster” held

their anniversary festival at Vintners’ Hall, on the 19th of March,

1747. The Stewards were the Earl of Lichfield, Earl of Orrery, Viscount

Andover, Sir R. Bamfylde, George Heathcote, and Thomas Carew. On this

occasion the stewards for the ensuing year were chosen; they were Lord

Ward, Lord Windsor, Sir James Dashwood, Sir Charles Tynte, Sir Thomas

Clarges, and George Cooke (who was then canvassing Middlesex). On the

conclusion of the business of the afternoon, and after the festivities,

toasts, as was customary, began to be proposed. _The London Evening

Post_ gives a list of these healths, beginning with “The King;” but,

as an implication of Jacobite proclivities, it is added in another

paper that the royal health was honoured in the recognized Jacobite

fashion--to “Charley over the Water:”--“Each man having a glass

of water on the left hand, and waving the glass of wine over the

water,”--but this accusation was probably a bold electioneering _ruse_.

The succeeding toasts were as follows:--“The Prince;” “The Duke;”

“Prosperity to the independent electors of Westminster;” “Prosperity to