A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 44

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 44

this moving picture, inscribed “Brentford,” represents the fate of Mr.

Clarke, whose fractured skull, caused by the brutal attack of Proctor’s

hired ruffians, ended in his death. Similar placards, “St. George’s

Fields” and “Scot Victory,” are posted on the hearse to remind the

ministers that the odium of the massacre of the people at St. George’s

Fields, and the deliberate assassination of William Allen (May 10,

1768), by a grenadier of the Scottish Regiment, were not forgotten; a

coloured picture of this episode was displayed on the other side of

the hearse. A diversion is attempted at the entrance to the palace

gates, where the figure of a short nobleman is distinguishable by the

star on his coat; he is using his broken official staff like a sword.

This personage, who actually seized one of the rioters, and who is

intended for Earl Talbot, lord steward of the household, is bareheaded,

his wig having been displaced in the scuffle with the people, and,

finally, a knock on the head cooled his courage; the Guards are coming

to his support. Further details of the ending of this vexed question

of the address are given in the political intelligence of the time.

From all accounts, Mr. Boehm, in whose charge was the fateful roll,

was too occupied in securing his own safety to trouble about the fate

of the address. It appears that the scattered procession went on to

St. James’s without the presenter of the document which had entailed

so many embarrassments. According to the _Political Register_, a

messenger was despatched back to the coffee-house for the address;

where “Mr. Boehm, having missed it, remained in great suspense.” After

many inquiries and great alarm, the roll was found under the seat of

the coach, where, by a miracle, it had escaped the search of the mob;

the address was immediately forwarded to St. James’s, where it was

expectantly awaited.

 

The history of this incident is taken up by the _Political Register_

for 1769:--

 

“The merchants and traders who retired with the address

mentioned in the account of the proceedings at the ‘King’s

Arms,’ having by means of repeated advertisements and private

letters obtained a considerable number of persons to sign

the said address at the Merchant Seamen’s Office over the

Royal Exchange; ... Wednesday, the 22nd March, at two in the

afternoon, being appointed, on that day at noon, a great number

of the merchants, etc., of this city, set out from the Royal

Exchange in their carriages, in order to present an address

to His Majesty, attended by the City Marshal and constables;

before they got to Cheapside, the mob showed them many marks

of their resentment, by hissing, groaning, throwing dirt,

etc., but when they arrived at Fleet Street, the multitude

grew quite outrageous, broke the windows of the coaches, threw

stones and glass bottles, and dispatched a party to shut up

the gates at Temple Bar, on which the cavalcade was obliged to

stop. Mr. Cook, the City Marshal, going to open the gates with

his attendants, was very severely treated; his clothes were

torn off his back and his head cut in two places. The populace

then attacked the gentlemen in their carriages; Mr. Boehm (who

carried the roll) and several of his friends being covered with

dirt, were obliged to take refuge in Nando’s Coffee-house. Some

of the coaches then drove up Chancery Lane, Fetter Lane, and

Shoe Lane; but the greater part of the gentlemen, finding it

impossible to proceed, returned home. The Addressers, however,

did at length reach St. James’s, but the mob threw dirt at the

gentlemen as they got out of their carriages at St. James’s

Gate.”

 

The few that reached the palace were so covered with dirt as to be

unpresentable, and those of the courtiers who came within reach of the

mob were also bespattered. The document which was the main cause of

this disturbance was within an ace of never reaching its destination.

 

“When Mr. Boehm was obliged to get out of his coach at Nando’s

Coffee-house to avoid the mob, in his hurry he left the address

under the cushion on one of the seats, and immediately ordered

the coachman to go home; some of the mob opened the coach door,

and began to search for the address, but the coachman declaring

‘it was sent before’ (though he knew not where it was), they

were the less diligent in their search, and missed laying hold

of it, by not feeling six inches farther on the seat.”

 

On the road thither, by the Strand, the additions already mentioned

were made to the cavalcade, to the consternation of those who formed

part of it:--

 

“When some of the coaches got to Exeter Exchange, a hearse

came out of Exeter Street, and preceded them, drawn by a black

and white horse, the driver of which had on a rough coat,

resembling a skin, with a large cap, one side black, the other

white, whose whole figure was very grotesque. On one side

of the hearse was painted on canvas a representation of the

rioters killing Mr. Clarke at the Brentford election; and on

the other side was a representation of the soldiers firing on

young Allen in the cow-house.”

 

The _Town and Country Magazine_ (1769) divulges that the driver of the

decorated hearse was “a man of fortune;” moreover, another account

avers--

 

“I have always understood that the late Lord Mountmorres,

then a very young man, was the person, who on that occasion,

personated the executioner [of Charles I. ?], holding an axe

in his hands, and his face covered with crape.” (See Wraxall’s

“Historical Memoirs;” also the “Letters of the First Earl of

Malmesbury,” etc.)

 

The hearse attended the cavalcade, making a short stop at Carlton

House, where the Princess of Wales lived, also at the residence of

the “Cumberland Butcher,” and at Lord Weymouth’s, in Pall Mall (as

the author of the St. George’s Fields massacre); thence the hearse,

with its “humiliating insignia, was driven into the court-yard of St.

James’s, followed by the mob, after which it went off to Albemarle

Street.” A copy of the address is given in the _Political Register_

(iv. 1769).

 

The address and its supporters were in a sad plight when the levee-room

was reached, after the foregoing vicissitudes. The Duke of Chandos

wrote Mr. Grenville--

 

“Out of one hundred and thirty merchants who went up with the

address, only twelve could get to the King, and they were

covered in dirt, as indeed was almost the whole Court.”

 

The riotous crowd continued to create a disturbance at the palace

gates, “accompanied with threats of a most dangerous kind” (as declared

in the royal proclamation); while the Earl of Malmesbury wrote, “Many

of the mob cried, ‘Wilkes and no King,’ which is shocking to think of.”

At last, the proclamation against tumultuous assemblies was read, and--

 

“Several persons taken into custody by the soldiers; and two

were taken by Lord Talbot, who was the only minister who had

sufficient resolution to come down among the mob; his lordship

had secured another, who was rescued, and his lordship received

a violent blow on the head, by being thrown against a coach,

and then thought it prudent to take shelter among the soldiers.”

 

A grand council at St. James’s was held on the afternoon of these

events, and in the evening a _Gazette Extraordinary_ was published,

with a proclamation by the king--who had in person witnessed the

disturbances attending the sham address,--“for suppressing riots,”

etc., beginning--

 

“Whereas it has been represented to us that divers dissolute

and disorderly persons have most riotously and unlawfully

assembled themselves together, to the disturbance of the

public peace, and have, in a most daring and audacious manner,

assaulted several merchants and others, coming to our palace

at St. James’s, and have committed many acts of violence and

outrage before the gates of our palace,” etc.

 

The proclamation further charges the lord mayor, and justices of the

peace for the cities of London and Westminster, borough of Southwark,

and counties of Middlesex and Surrey, to prevent and suppress all

riots, tumults, and unlawful assemblies, etc.

 

Another engraving on the same topic--as described by Mr. Edward

Hawkins, from whose collection, bequeathed to the British Museum, many

of these early illustrations are selected--was entitled:--

 

 

“THE GOTHAM ADDRESSERS; OR, A PEEP AT THE HEARSE.”

 

“Sing the Addressers who lately set out

To flatter the great and honesty rout,

Where Frenchmen, and Swiss, and Hollanders shy

United their forces with Charley Dingley,” etc.

 

The procession and hearse (the driver is exclaiming “Wilkes and

Liberty”) are again shown at St. James’s Palace. The chief promoter,

Charles Dingley, is made the principal butt of this satire, and,

as the address began with him, it is appropriately so terminated.

The hearse with the placards is succeeded by a coach bearing on the

roof a windmill, an allusion to Dingley’s too famous saw-mills at

Limehouse, which were dismantled by the sawyers out of work and other

rioters. The coachman of this equipage is endeavouring to pacify the

mob: “Wilkes and Liberty, Gentlemen; I had no hand in the d----d

Address.” The chief offender, seen inside the coach, is also appealing

to the incensed crowd: “For God’s sake, Gentlemen, spare me; I wish

the Address had been in Hell before I meddled with it.” His bemired

footman is declaring, “My livery’s like my master, d----d Dirty.” The