2016년 5월 31일 화요일

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 69

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 69



Coriolanus (George IV.).
 
Plebs: Dr. Watson.
 
Preston.
 
Carlile.
 
W. Cobbett.
 
Orator Hunt.
 
Thelwall.
 
Sir F. Burdett.
 
W. Hone.
 
Wooler, the Black Dwarf.
 
Cartwright.
 
Hobhouse.
 
Alderman Waithman.
 
Cruikshank.
 
CORIOLANUS ADDRESSING THE PLEBS. 1820. BY GEORGE CRUIKSHANK.
 
[_Page 338._]
 
Beneath the quotation is a passage from Buffon, eulogizing the
nobility of the figure above, “L’image de l’âme est peinte par la
physionomie”--“animé d’un feu divin,” and other extravagances, such as
“his majestic presence, and the firm and bold deportment which marks
his nobility and rank.” In the other “Great George’s” parody, the
various sections, from Reformers to Revolutionists and Socialists, are
carefully kept apart, although the plebeians at the first glance appear
but a miscellaneous mob.
 
First comes “Liberty of the Press,” a tricolour standard, topped by
the “cap of liberty.” At the front stands William Hone, a stalwart
champion, armed with two formidable clubs, one is styled “Parody,” and
the other inscribed with the names of the famous satirical tracts, “The
Man in the Moon,” and “The House that Jack Built,” both objectionable
weapons in the eyes of the “Coriolanus” of the picture. Behind his
ally and publisher, Hone, is the portrait of the artist himself,
with a tricoloured portfolio marked “Caricature.” George Cruikshank,
in his later days, when turned to Tory proclivities like one or two
other notabilities in the group, endeavoured to soften the impression
conveyed by this print, and described “your humble servant” as “one
of the moderate reformers,” evidently not relishing the company of
those among whom, in his early truculent days, he had voluntarily
enrolled himself. Next comes the figure of the champion of the Princess
of Wales, “Sheriff Double Hue,” otherwise Waithman, who is hugging
a project for “Hell-wide Measures;” beneath the standard of the
“Examiners” and “Chronicles” stands a figure clad in complete Highland
garb; this is Douglas Kinnaird, on the alert, and armed with his trusty
claymore. Sir Francis Burdett and John Cam Hobhouse, jointly grasping a
formidable weapon, are enlisted under the standard of “Parliamentary
Reform.” Hobhouse is trampling on the “Trifling Mistake,” a parodied
version of the speech which procured him more notoriety than was
desirable: over his head is seen Thelwall as a champion lecturer;
Major Cartwright, the so-called “Drum-Major of Sedition,” after all
his struggles in the cause, is but a broken-down leader, supported on
a crutch stick with one hand, while raising the redoubtable sword of
“Universal Suffrage” in the other. Prominent in front of the group
enlisted under the ensign of “Revolution and Plunder,” capped with the
Death’s head, stands Wooler, travestied as the “Black Dwarf,” after the
paper he had then made notorious. Orator Hunt, with pike reversed, is
resting one hand on Cobbett’s shoulder; the latter, a brawny figure,
flourishing two gigantic bones (of contention?); another communist
is skulking away, having let fall Tom Paine’s “Age of Reason.” The
publisher of the “new lights,” Carlile, is resting on a staff capped
with a thistle; Preston, the bootmaker, a violent Democrat, together
with Thistlewood and others holding extreme views, are enrolled under
a bond of “Blood and Plunder.” The figure to the extreme left, next to
the screen of Carlton House, is described by Cruikshank as intended for
Dr. Watson. Truly the “Plebs” form a muster-roll of all the prominent
Radicals and Revolutionists of a period when secret societies of those
whose designs were inimical to constitutional order were presumed to
flourish.
 
The evils which disfigured constituencies in the boroughmongering
days are pictorially set forth by George Cruikshank, under date April
23, 1820, in a caricature entitled “Freedom and Purity of Election!!!
Showing the Necessity of Reform in the Close Boroughs.” The scene
refers to the elections in Cornwall; the locality being indicated by
a signpost as Tregony and St. Austel. The unhappy villagers, by the
independent exercise of their suffrages, have displeased their feudal
proprietor, and are being summarily evicted from their houses, with
their household belongings, by a truculent steward, with a list of
the “proscribed” held in his hand. Old and young, women and children,
are alike doomed, because they or their protectors have dared to act
with independence, and have not voted according to the fiat of the lord
of the manor. Daniel O’Connell appears as the unsuccessful candidate;
he is viewing this mischief with compassion, and is encouraging those
evicted “not to be cast down, as there are other houses besides his
lordship’s,” and that he--the Liberator--“will not desert them,
although they have lost the election.”
 
Parliament reassembled at the end of April, 1820, and in May, George
Cruikshank again favoured the public with another anti-reform cartoon,
“Radical Quacks giving a New Constitution to John Bull!” In this
version the persons most prominent among the “Plebeians” are alluded
to incidentally. John Bull, the national prototype, is reduced, under
the new “regimen,” out of all recognition; in fact, he is but the
mangled remnant of his former portly self, for the new charlatans are
having “their own sweet will.” John Bull is placed between Burdett
and Hobhouse; many desperate operations have already taken place.
He wears the bonnet-rouge of “Liberty” as a night-cap. His left arm
is in a tricoloured sling, while his right arm is being bled. His
two sufficient supports of Church and State have been amputated, and
in their places are strapped two wooden-legs--“Universal Suffrage,”
propped on the “Rights of Man,” and “Religious Freedom,” which is
raised on the “Age of Reason;” the legs of his invalid-chair are
equally unreliable--“Mistaken Confidence,” and “Mistaken Security;”
the sufferer is resting on a pillow stuffed with “False Promises” and
“Reformers’ Opinions.” Sir Francis Burdett, as a professional adviser,
is holding the arm from which he is draining the patient’s blood:--
 
“Mr. Bull, you have lived too well, but when we have renovated
your constitution according to our plan, the reform will be
so complete--that you will never again be troubled with any
fulness whatsoever!”
 
John Cam Hobhouse is administering a tricoloured bolus of formidable
dimensions, to be followed by a corresponding draught:--
 
“Never mind, Mr. Bull; if we have thought it necessary to
take off both your legs, you will find the others very
good substitutes; this Revolutionary Bolus and decoction
of disloyalty are very harmless, but they will restore the
_general equality_ of the intestines and remove any obstruction
which may prevent us from effecting a Radical Reform in the
system.”
 
The victim of these experiments is by no means assured as to his
future--
 
“Maybe, gentlemen,” he replies to these plausible assurances;
“but you have taken all the honest good blood out of my veins;
deprived me of my real supporters, and stuck two bad props in
their place, and if you go on thus, I shall die before ever my
constitution can be improved.”
 
The real supporters, “Mr. Bull’s two legs--Church and State,” are
consigned to a coffin, “to be entombed in the vaults of St. Stephen’s
Chapel.” A formidable array of nostrums are displayed in the vicinity:
Burdett has soporifics and opiates handy--a huge bottle, labelled
“Burdett’s Mixture,” contains a red, white, and blue republican
decoction, “Hobhouse’s Newgate-proof Purity,” and “Whitbread’s Entire;”
a large packet of “Cartwright’s Universal Grease,” with a phial of
“Wooler’s Black-drops;” “Old Bailey Drops” (the bottle broken); ditto,
“Dr. Watson’s White + Comfort;” a packet of “Hunt’s Powder,” and a full
supply of “Cobbett’s Hellebore Ratsbane”--enough, in all conscience, to
kill or cure.
 
 
 
 
CHAPTER XIII.
 
ELECTIONEERING, POLITICAL WARFARE, AND PARLIAMENTARY REFORM UNDER
WILLIAM IV., 1830-32.
 
 
The last parliament of George IV.’s reign met November 14, 1826.
Towards the close of the session, as is shadowed in Doyle’s early
cartoons, the nation was tiring of the Tories, and the unpopular and
somewhat antiquated Wellington Ministry found the country in distress
and clamorous for retrenchment, to each of which complaints the rigid
disciplinarian in chief command turned a deaf and unsympathetic
ear. Towards the middle of the year 1830 the king’s condition was
threatening, and with his impending decease the close of the session
was anticipated. The situation is pictorially summed up in one of HB’s
sketches as the “Present State of Public Feeling Partially Illustrated”
(May 28, 1830). The views entertained by various individuals upon the
king’s illness are illustrated in their persons: a dandy regrets the
postponement of routs and balls, a speculator complains of the dulness
of the funds, a merchant finds business at a standstill, while a lady
of fashion is resigned to the will of Providence by the opportune
reflection that should the king die there would be the gayer prospect
of a queen and Court--an advantageous exchange for a sovereign shrouded
from his subjects. John Bull good-naturedly declares he hopes George
may recover, “he was such a fine princely fellow!” But the part of this
picture which applies most pertinently to the subject in hand is found
in a member of the Tory Government, who is reflecting “That should
there be a change in the ministry--then I must walk out. That would

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