A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 59

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 59

“IMPROMPTU ON HER GRACE OF DEVONSHIRE.

 

“Whilst Devon’s Duchess for Fox takes a part,

Whilst she asks for your _vote_, she engages your heart;

Can beauty alone such influence sway?

Can the fairest of fair make all mortals obey?--

Oh no; for her empire is over the mind,

And _beauty_ with _reason_ in her is combin’d.”

 

[Illustration: Fox.

 

Wray.

 

Hood.

 

THE CASE IS ALTERED. BY T. ROWLANDSON.

 

[_Page 281._]

 

Although every concession was made to the empire of Beauty, many of

the verses were slyly sarcastic, while some of the caricatures were

strongly coloured by the uncompromising coarseness of the age:--

 

 

“ODE TO THE DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE.

 

“Hail, Duchess! first of womankind,

Far, far you leave your sex behind,

With you none can compare;

For who but you, from street to street,

Would run about a vote to get,

Thrice, thrice bewitching fair!

Each day you visit every shop,

Into each house your head you pop,

Nor do you act the prude;

For ev’ry man salutes your Grace,

Some kiss your hand, and some your face,

And some are rather rude.”

 

 

“THE PARADOX OF THE TIMES.

 

“See modest Duchesses, no longer nice

In Virtue’s honour, haunt the sinks of Vice;

In Freedom’s cause, the guilty bribe convey,

And perjur’d wretches piously betray:

Seduced by Devon, and the Paphian crew,

What cannot Venus and the Graces do?--

Devon, not Fox, obtains the glorious prize,

Not public merit, but resistless eyes.”

 

As an antidote to the bitterness there was, however, a surfeit of

“sweets:”--

 

 

“A NEW SONG, TO THE TUNE OF ‘LET THE TOAST PASS.’

 

“To Fox and to Freedom we give our support,

Every Englishman feels it his duty,

When their cause is attack’d by the pow’r of the Court,

And defended by Virtue and Beauty.”

 

The turn of affairs which placed Fox in a majority over Sir Cecil

Wray, who for some time was in advance of the Whig chief, is summed up

by Rowlandson, amongst other caricaturists, as “The Case is altered”

(April 29, 1784). The election had nearly another three weeks to

run, but already the satirists were forecasting the result. Fox, be

it remembered, had other resources in reserve, and, at the close

of the poll, when Wray demanded a scrutiny, and the high bailiff

illegally declined to make his return, he was seated for Kirkwall.

In the caricaturist’s version, the election has already settled

Wray’s chances, and Fox is magnanimously driving off his defeated

opponent, and late dependent, to Lincoln: the ministerial candidate

is travelling, “without drums or trumpets,” smuggled away from the

exciting platform of the hustings, in the “Lincolnshire caravan for

paupers;” he is buried in self-contemplation,--“I always was a poor

dog, but now I am worse than ever.” The generous Fox, charioteering

his renegade _protégé_, is volunteering, “I will drive you to Lincoln,

where you may superintend the _small beer_ and _brickdust_.” Lord

Hood’s majority was safe at the head of the poll,--for no reason which

history has made manifest; he is pictured as suddenly surprising the

degrading pauper-conveyance, and, in compassion for his late colleague,

is exclaiming, much moved at these reverses, “Alas, poor Wray!”

 

[Illustration:

 

EVERY MAN HAS HIS HOBBY-HORSE--FOX AND THE DUCHESS OF

DEVONSHIRE. #/ ]

 

The doings of the Duchess of Devonshire, her sister, Lady Duncannon,

and their fair following of female canvassers are pictorially treated

by the caricaturist in his version of “The Procession to the Hustings

after a Successful Canvass,” in which a select group of outlying

voters, secured after much exertion, are seen conducted in triumph,

and with “rough music,” to the polling-place. The circumstance that,

chiefly owing to the opportune assistance of the Duchess, Fox was

placed second on the poll was commemorated in “Every Man has his

Hobby-horse.” Fox may truly be said to have been carried into the House

of Commons by his fair coadjutor.

 

[Illustration: THE PROCESSION TO THE HUSTINGS AFTER A SUCCESSFUL

CANVASS. BY T. ROWLANDSON.

 

“Come, haste to the Hustings, all honest Electors,

No menace, no brib’ry shall keep us away:

Of Freedom and Fox be for ever protectors,

We scorn to desert them, like Sir Cecil Wray.

 

“Then come, ev’ry free, ev’ry generous soul,

That loves a fine girl and a fine flowing bowl,

Come here in a body, and all of you poll

’Gainst Sir Cecil Wray.

 

“For had he to women been ever a friend,

Nor by taxing _them_ tried our old taxes to mend,

Yet so _stingy_ he is, that none can contend

For Sir Cecil Wray.”

 

[_Page 282._]

 

The fact that Wray--who, as a double “Renegado,” shortly rejoined the

Whigs--appears to have gained but scant sympathy, was defeated and done

for, is turned to satirical account in a travestied view of Fox, North,

and the Duchess--the latter wearing a foxtail in her hat--“For the

Benefit of the Champion.--A Catch, to be performed at the New Theatre,

Covent Garden. For admission apply to the Duchess. N.B.--_Gratis_ to

those who wear large tails;” the lady is pointing to a headstone put up

in memory of “Poor Cecil Wray, Dead and turned to Clay.”

 

[Illustration: Duchess of Devonshire.

 

Charles James Fox.

 

Lord North.

 

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE CHAMPION--A CATCH. DEFEAT OF THE MINISTERIAL

CANDIDATE, SIR CECIL WRAY, WESTMINSTER ELECTION. 1784. BY T. ROWLANDSON.

 

“_Oh! help Judas, lest he fall into the Pitt of Ingratitude!!!_

 

“The _prayers_ of all bad Christians, Heathens, Infidels, and

Devil’s Agents, are most earnestly requested for their dear

friend JUDAS ISCARIOT, Knight of the _back-stairs_,

lying at the period of political dissolution, having received

a dreadful wound from the exertions of the lovers of liberty

and the constitution, in the poll of the last ten days at the

Hustings, nigh unto the Place of Cabbages.” #/ ]

 

The fate of Wray, with Fox reinstated in his seat for Westminster, and

the concluding election scenes at Covent Garden are figured in “The

Westminster Deserter Drumm’d out of the Regiment.” Sam House, with

his perfectly bald head, and dressed in the clean and natty nankeen

jacket and trousers, his invariable wear summer and winter, is drumming

Wray off the stage: “May all Deserters feel Public Resentment”--is

the sentiment of both the indignant Chelsea veterans and buxom

maid-servants to whom Wray’s projects had given mortal offence. “The

Man of the People” is planting the standard of Liberty and Britannia,

and acknowledging his gratitude to his supporters with simple

fervour--“Friends and fellow-citizens, I cannot find words to express

my feelings to you on the victory.”

 

Finally, as an apotheosis of the fair champion who had contributed

most of all to the success and glory of the triumph over the Court,

Rowlandson etched the allegorical picture of “Liberty and Fame

introducing Female Patriotism to Britannia.”

 

At the close of the poll, Fox was 235 votes ahead of Wray, but, as

related, the high bailiff, Corbett, acting partially, refused to return

him on the plea that a scrutiny had been demanded; Fox was also a

candidate for Kirkwall, so that, in case of defeat at Westminster he

might still have a seat.

 

At the end of the election there was an immense crowd collected for

the chairing of Fox. A classic car was prepared, an improvement on

the perilous glory of being hoisted on the shoulders of excited

chairmen, or, worse still, lifted on those of volunteers--intoxicated

alike with enthusiasm and drinking toasts. The Whig chief mounted

his triumphal chariot; a multitudinous procession following, closed

by the state-carriages of the Duchesses of Portland and Devonshire,

drawn by six horses each. Fox descended from the car at Devonshire

House, where was erected a temporary scaffolding, on which was raised

a bevy of notabilities, including the Prince of Wales, with the Duke

and Duchess of Devonshire, to whose exertions Fox owed a debt of

gratitude. A commemorative dinner was given at Willis’s Rooms, where

Fox made a glowing speech on the subject of the election. The Prince

of Wales, after attending the king at a review at Ascot, rode up St.

James’s Street in his uniform, and was received with acclamations, in

acknowledgment of his partisanship for the Whig chief, whose favours

he wore,--and ended his day of triumph by dining at Devonshire House,

where he appeared wearing Fox’s colours (the Washington uniform), and

with a laurel branch in token of victory.

 

[Illustration: Sir Cecil Wray.

 

Sam House.

 

Charles James Fox.

 

THE WESTMINSTER DESERTER DRUMMED OUT OF THE REGIMENT. DEFEAT OF SIR

CECIL WRAY. HUSTINGS, COVENT GARDEN, WESTMINSTER ELECTION. 1784. BY T.

ROWLANDSON.

 

“Sir Cecil, be aisy, I won’t be unshivil

Now the Man of the Paple is chose in your stead;

From swate Covent Garden you’re flung to the Divil,

By Jabers, Sir Cecil, you’ve bodder’d your head.

 

“To be sure, much avail to you all your fine spaiches,

’Tis nought but palaver, my honey, my dear,

While all Charley’s voters stick to him like laiches,

A friend to our liberties and our small beer.

 

“_The Irish Chairmen to Sir Cecil Wray._”