A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 24

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 24

On the same authority (No. 230), under date Wednesday, May 23, 1734, is

announced the sudden demise of the leading candidate: “On Monday, about

five in the afternoon, the Right Hon. the Lord Visc. Vane dropt down

dead of an apoplexy, just as he was taking leave of a gentleman, at his

seat at Fairlawn in Kent” (_Daily Post_).

 

An early design upon bribery at elections is attributed to Hogarth.

This plate was produced during the canvass in 1734, just twenty years

before the commencement of the famous “Election” series by the same

artist. The print is a small etching, and represents Sir Robert Fagg,

an old baronet, seated on horseback, holding a purse in one hand, and

offering a bribe of money to a young woman who is standing by his

horse’s head; on her arm is a basket of eggs; she is laughing at the

canvasser. Sir Robert Fagg was member for Steyning, Sussex. Concerning

the baronet it is written, in “The Art of Politicks”--

 

“Leave you of mighty Interest to brag,

And poll two voices like _Sir Robert Fagg_.”

 

“The Humours of a Country Election,” of which the first version

appeared in 1734, beyond the light it offers upon the subject in

question, is curious and interesting, as Mr. F. G. Stephens is inclined

to suggest[40] that Hogarth may have borrowed the idea of illustrating

the chief incidents of an election from the “Humours” therein

described. The plate is in three divisions, and forms the frontispiece

to the collection of songs published under the title of “the Humours

of a Country Election” in 1734, at which time there was a general

election; it was republished in 1741,[41] under similar circumstances.

The print is sufficiently described by the original advertisement,

inserted at the time of its publication in the _Grub Street Journal_

(No. 233), June 13, 1734. “_This Day is publish’d_ (Price One

Shilling), Neatly printed, and _stitched in blue paper_, ‘The Humours

of a Country Election.’”

 

“Being mounted in their best array,

Upon a steed, and who but they?

And follow’d by a world of tall lads

That merry ditties, frolics and ballads,

Did ride with many a Good-morrow,

Crying, Hey for our Town, thro’ the Borough.”

 

(_Hudibras._)

 

“A motley mixture! in long wigs, in bags,

In silks, in crapes, in Garters, and in rags;

From Drawing-rooms, from Colleges, from Garrets,

On horse, on foot, in Hacks, in gilded Chariots.”

 

(_Grub Street Journal_, No. 268. Also in the Poems Edition.)

 

“With a curious frontispiece explanatory of the same in the following

particulars:--

 

“I. The candidate welcomed into the town by music and electors

on horseback, attended by a mob of men, women, and children. The

candidates saluting the women, and amongst them a poor cobbler’s wife,

to whose child they very courteously offer to stand God-father. II.

The candidates are very complaisant to a country clown, and offering

presents (a bag marked 50_l._) to the wife and children. The candidates

making an entertainment for the electors and their wives, to whom

they show great respect; at the upper end of the table the parson

of the parish sitting, his clerk standing by him. III. The place of

electing and polling, with mob attending. The members elect carried in

procession in chairs, upon men’s shoulders, with music playing before

them; attended by a mob of men, women, and children huzzaing them. To

which is added the character of a Trimmer in verse, &c.”

 

“A new Year’s Gift (for the year 1741) to the Electors of Great

Britain,” contains the information that “The Oath imposed upon

Electors--the only preservative of public Liberty from the secret and

fatal attacks of Bribery and Corruption,” was as follows:--

 

“‘I, ---- ----, do swear, I have not received, or had myself,

or any person whatsoever, in Trust for me, or for my Use and

Benefit, directly or indirectly, any sum or sums of money,

Office, Place, or employment, gift, or reward, or any promise,

or security for any money, office, employment, or gift, in

order to give my vote at this Election, and that I have not

been polled before at this Election,

 

‘So Help me God.’

 

“Let every man of common sense judge whether an oath so

wisely framed and strictly worded can possibly admit of any

equivocation, to cover the base villainy of taking a bribe

to his country’s ruin; and what shall we think of those men

who dare tempt others to the breach of a duty so sacred!

Ought they not to be stoned, or hooted out of society, as the

destroyers of public Faith, Virtue, Religion, and Liberty?

Do not such agents for the Devil compass his ends most

effectually, by seducing men from the indispensable duties they

owe to God and their country, to themselves and their posterity?

 

[Illustration: THE HUMOURS OF A COUNTRY ELECTION. 1734.

 

[_Page 90._]

 

“Wisely, therefore, hath that good Law annexed the shameful

penalties of the pillory to the breach of that Sacred Oath,

with a large Fine of Five Hundred Pounds; and justly excluded

all base perjurers from the most valuable Rights and Privileges

of _Englishmen_, in the following paragraphs:--

 

“‘And be it enacted, That whosoever shall be convicted of false

swearing, shall incur and suffer the Pains and Penalties as in

a case of wilful and corrupt Perjury.

 

“And whosoever shall receive or take any money or other reward,

by way of Gift, Loan, or other device, or agree or contract

for any Money, Gift, Office, or Reward whatsoever, to give his

vote, shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of Five

Hundred Pounds, and be _for ever_ disabled to vote in any

Election of any Member to Parliament, and be for ever disabled

to hold any public office.’

 

“Will any man, pretending to common honesty, thus basely

forfeit his Birthright, his most glorious privilege as an

Englishman, by a shameful perjury for the Lucre of a Bribe?

Can such a Bribe make him and his posterity happy in the midst

of his country’s ruin, and the just contempt and abhorrence of

all his neighbours? No, surely: but when the small wages of

his iniquity are spent, he must, like the Traitor Judas, hang

himself, or starve to death; because no man can either pity, or

deal with such a perjured abandoned wretch.

 

“Artful corruptors of the present times may flatter weak minds

with hopes of being admitted to vote without taking the Oath;

but it is a vain delusion; since the Law allows the _Candidates

or any two of the Electors_ to put the Oath to whomsoever they

please; and surely there are at least _Two Honest Men_ in every

Borough of the Kingdom, who will think it their duty to bring

Corruption to the Test of this just and necessary Oath, to the

eternal infamy of all Corruptors, and the Corrupted.”

 

The oath thus explicitly explained was in sober earnest administered

by the lawyers retained in the respective interests, as illustrated

by Hogarth in his “Polling Booth,” 1754. It is rather alarming to

think of the huge amount of perjury which has followed electioneering.

The general elections of the spring of 1741 were a trying ordeal for

Walpole; all the well-worn clamours were revived, the “Convention” was

once more torn to shreds, and fresh attacks upon the “excise projects”

were turned to bitter political account. Amidst a shower of squibs,

both literary and pictorial, we find the caricature, “Dedicated to the

worthy Electors of Great Britain,” of “The Devil upon Two Sticks,”

in which Walpole, as the “Asmodeus” of the situation, is represented

as being supported upon the shoulders of two of his bought-majority

to ford the “Slough of Despond,” already crossed by some of his

followers, who, though in safety on the bank, bear evident marks of

the dirty ordeal through which they have been compelled to struggle

upon “Robin’s” account. Britannia and her patriotic friends(?) remain

high and dry on the other shore; below the satire appears a pointed

indication of the unpopular Walpolians, as “Members who voted for the

Excise and against the Convention.”

 

[Illustration: To the worthy Electors of Great Britain. Walpole carried

through the “Slough of Despond.”

 

THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS. 1741.]

 

“A Satire on Election Proceedings” was given to the public in

pictorial guise on the occasion of the appeal to the constituencies

in May, 1741; the specific part of this squib was aimed at Walpole’s

unpopular taxes and similar enactments, and the whole was dedicated

to “Mayors and Corporations in general.” A dying elector--who, from

the evidence of a paper inscribed “£50,” and seen in his pocket, has

sold himself to party--is in the hands of a ministerial candidate and

the personage of Evil; who are, between them, dragging the moribund

and venal voter towards a precipice, “the Brink of Despotism, poverty,

and destruction, inevitable if such courses are continued.” The

candidate or agent is apparently heedless of the precipice at his

feet; he is waving his hat in exultation, and shouting, “A vote,

a vote, a dead vote for us!” The devil, who is the deepest of the

party, is asserting with plausibility, “I’ll have the Majority, I

warrant you!” His pocket contains the measures which had destroyed

Walpole’s popularity and at that time foreshadowed his fall--fancifully

supposed to have had their suggestion in the brain of the arch-fiend

himself: “Standing Army,” “Lotteries,” “Cyder” (tax), “Stamp Act,”