A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 4

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 4

visit constituencies--Choice of seats offered to the young

premier, 1784--Nominated for the City of London--Invited

to stand for Bath, represented by his late father Earl

Chatham--Pitt returned for the University of Cambridge,

1784, which he represented till his death--The dissolution

delayed by the theft of the Great Seal from the Chancellor’s

residence, 1784--Pitt’s letter to Wilberforce on the coming

elections--Pitt “a hardened electioneerer”--The war carried

into the great Whig strongholds--The subscription to forward

Wilberforce’s return for Yorkshire--Earl Stanhope on “Fox’s

Martyrs”--Fox’s courage under adversity--Wilkes returned as the

ministerial representative for Middlesex--Wilkes’s “address

to the electors”--“The Back-stairs Scoured”--“The boldest

of bilks”--“Reconciliation of the Two Kings of Brentford,”

1784--“The New Coalition,” 1784--Charles James Fox’s first

entry into public life--Returned for Midhurst, 1769--His first

speech on the Wilkes case--Wilkes at a levée: he denounces to

the king his friend Glynn as a “Wilkite”--Canvass of Pitt’s

friends--The poet Cowper’s description of Pitt’s cousin, the

Hon. W. W. Grenville, seeking for suffrages--The amenities of

canvassing in the old days: saluting the ladies and maids--A

most loving, kissing, kind-hearted gentleman--W. W. Grenville

and John Aubrey returned for Buckinghamshire, 1784 226

 

 

CHAPTER X.

 

The Great Westminster election of 1784--Wilkes’s famous

election contest for Middlesex dwarfed by comparison-State

of political excitement--Relations of parties in the

Commons--Fox’s India Bill--“Carlo Khan”--Downfall of the

Coalition Ministry--Pitt made premier by the will of the

king--“Back-stair influence,” and Court intrigues--“The

royal finger”--Hostility of the East India Company against

Fox--An administration called to power with a working

minority--Defeated on division--Vote of want of confidence--The

House dissolved--The great election campaign--“The storm

conjured up”--The popular aversion to the late Coalition

Ministers shown at the hustings--“The royal prerogative exerted

against the palladium of the people”--Horace Walpole on the

situation--The Whig losses all over England--Fox’s contest for

Westminster--A forty days’ poll--The metropolis in a state of

ebullition--Party cries--The streets a scene of combat--The

rival mobs--The Guards--Hood’s sailors; their violent

partisanship and reckless attacks--The “honest mob”--Fox’s

narrow escape--The Irish chairmen beat the sailor-mob--A

series of pitched battles--Partial behaviour of the special

constables--Their interference and violence--Flood of ballads

and political squibs--Rowlandson’s caricatures on the

contest--The odium revived against the late Coalition Ministry;

turned to political account by the Court party--“The Coalition

Wedding: the Fox and the Badger quarter their Arms”--“Britannia

aroused; or, the Coalition Monsters destroyed”--Pitt’s election

manœuvres; his bidding for the favour of the citizens--Pitt

presented with the freedom of the city--“Master Billy’s

Procession to Grocers’ Hall”--The king threatens to retire

to Hanover in the event of a defeat--Ministerial wiles--Bids

of place and pension--Extensive “ratting”--“The Apostate

Jack Robinson, the Political Rat-catcher. N.B. Rats taken

alive!”--“The Rival Candidates: Fox, Hood, and Wray”--Rival

canvassers--“Honest Sam House, the Patriotic publican”--The

hustings, Covent Garden--The “prerogative standard”--“Major

Cartwright, the Drum-Major of Sedition”--“The Hanoverian

Horse and the British Lion”--“Fox, the Incurable”--Fair

canvassers--The ladies of the Whig aristocracy a bevy of

beauty; the Duchess of Devonshire, the Countess of Duncannon,

the Duchess of Portland, Lady Carlisle, etc.--“The Devonshire,

or Most Approved Manner of securing Votes”--“A Kiss for a

Vote”--Tory lady canvassers: Lady Salisbury, the Hon. Mrs.

Hobart--“Madame Blubber, the Ærostatic Dilly”--Walpole’s

account of the canvassing--Fox’s favour with the fair--The

Duchess of Devonshire’s exertions on behalf of the Whig

chief--Earl Stanhope on “Fox’s Martyrs”--His account of

the contested election--Pitt’s letters on the Westminster

election, to Wilberforce, and James Grenville--Pitt’s account

of the country elections--His anxiety about Westminster--Earl

Stanhope’s summary of the Westminster election--Ballads on

the contest--“The Duchess Acquitted; or, the True Cause of

the Majority on the Westminster Election”--Tory libels on the

Duchess of Devonshire--“The Wit’s Last Stake; or, the Cobbling

Voters and Abject Canvassers”--“The Poll”--Animadversions

against Sir Cecil Wray--“Lords of the Bedchamber”--“The

Westminster Watchman”--A flood of _jeux d’esprit_--“On undue

influence”--“A concise Description of Covent Garden at the

Westminster election”--“Stanzas in Season”--The Prince of Wales

a zealous partisan of Fox--“Lady Beauchamp, Lady Carlisle, and

Lady Derby at the Hustings”--Poetical tributes--The Duchess

of Devonshire saves the Whig cause at Westminster--“On the

Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Duncannon canvassing for

Fox”--“On a certain Duchess”--Horace Walpole’s nieces, the

Ladies Waldegrave, “the three Sister Graces,” canvassing

for Fox--“Epigram on the Duchess of Devonshire”--“Impromptu

on her Grace of Devon”--“Ode to the Duchess”--“The Paradox

of the Times”--A new Song, “Fox and Freedom”--The downfall

of Wray--“The Case is Altered”--Bringing in outlying

voters--“Procession to the Hustings after a Successful

Canvass”--“Every Man has his Hobby-Horse”--Fox carried into the

House by the duchess--_Exit_ Sir Cecil Wray!--“For the Benefit

of the Champion--a Catch.” “No Renegado!” Wray defeated--“The

Westminster Deserter drumm’d out of the Regiment”--Apotheosis

of the fair champion--“Liberty and Fame introducing Female

Patriotism (the Duchess of Devonshire) to Britannia”--The

close of the poll--Wray demands a scrutiny--Partial and

illegal conduct of the high bailiff as returning-officer--Fox

triumphant--The ovation--The chairing procession--Two days

of festivities--The reception at Devonshire House--The

Prince of Wales’s rejoicings--The fête at Carlton

Palace--Rival interests--Mrs. Crewe’s rout--The tedious and

prolonged progress of the scrutiny--Fox for Kirkwall--“The

Departure”--Fox recovers damages against the high bailiff

for illegality in refusing to make a return--The affair only

settled a year later--“Defeat of the High and Mighty Balissimo

Corbettino and his Famed Cecilian Forces, on the Plains of

St. Martin,” 1785--Corbett ordered by the court to make his

return--Cast in damages--Fox’s final majority 257

 

 

CHAPTER XI.

 

Another Westminster election, 1788--Lord Hood appointed

to the Admiralty Board, 1788--A fresh contest--Lord John

Townshend, a candidate in the Whig interest--Defeat of Lord

Hood--Two Whig members for Westminster--Mob violence, the

Guards, Hood’s sailors--Ministerial support--“Election Troops

bringing their Accounts to the Pay-table” (Treasury Gate),

1788, by J. Gillray--“An Independent Elector”--Helston,

Cornwall, 1790--Lady canvassers--A violent “eccentric”--“Proof

of the Refined Feelings of an Amiable Character, lately a

Candidate for a Certain Ancient City,” by J. Gillray--“The

‘Marplot’ of his Own Party”--Abuses of patronage--Traditions

of boroughmongering--Accumulations of seats and parliamentary

interests--Cartwright’s tables of pocket boroughs--Pitt’s early

patron, Sir James Lowther--“The tyrant of the North”--“Pacific

Entrance of Earl Wolf (Lord Lonsdale) into Blackhaven,”

1792--Great distress prevalent throughout the country, in

1795; its effect on political agitation--Political clubs

clamour for parliamentary reform--The king and his advisers

in disfavour--Revolutionary societies and the “Seditions

Bill”--Gillray’s caricatures--“Meetings of Political Citizens

at Copenhagen House,” 1795--Whig agitation against the

threatened incursions on the “liberty of the subject”--“The

Majesty of the People”--“A Hackney Meeting,” 1796--A threatened

constitutional struggle averted by a dissolution of parliament,

1796--Pitt’s tactics--“The Dissolution; or, the State Alchymist

producing an Ætherial Representation,” 1796--Mr. Hull’s

costly electioneering experience at Maidstone, 1796--Horne

Tooke unsuccessful at Westminster, 1790 and 1796--Fox and

the favour of the mobocracy--“The Hustings, Covent Garden,”

1796--Electioneering squibs--The _Anti-Jacobin_ and the

member for Southwark--Canning’s lines on George Tierney,

“The Friend of Humanity and the Knife-grinder,” 1797--Grey’s

reform measure first moved in 1797--Defeat of the Whigs,

and their temporary abs