Chapter IV

Sir Robert Walpole “chaired” on his election for Castle
Rising, 1701--“Robin’s Progress”--Walpole in Parliament--His
offices--Impeached by the Commons for corruption on the death
of George, Prince of Denmark--Returned for King’s Lynn--Firmly
established in power on the accession of George I.--“A
Tory Bill of Costs for an Election in the West, 1715”--The
Septennial Act, 1716--The elections of 1721--Walpole’s
“universal salve”--“The Election carried by Bribery and the
Devil,” 1721--Municipal corruption--Ballad: “Here’s a Minion
sent down to a Corporate Town”--The elections of 1727--“Ready
Money, the Prevailing Candidate; or, the Humours of an
Election,” 1727--“No bribery, but pockets are free”--Ballad:
“The Laws against Bribery Provision may make”--“The Kentish
Election, 1734”--“The Country Interest” _versus_ “the
Protestant Interest”--Vane and Dering _versus_ Middlesex
and Oxenden--Vane’s treat to his electors--Walpole paraded
in effigy--Hogarth’s design on the election of 1734: Sir
Robert Fagg--“The Humours of a Country Election,” 1734--The
first suggestion for Hogarth’s series of four election
prints--Plays, operas, and poems on elections--The oath
imposed upon electors--“A New-year’s Gift to the Electors of
Great Britain,” 1741--“The flood of corruption”--Walpole, as
“The Devil upon Two Sticks,” carried through the “Slough of
Despond,” 1741--“A Satire on Election Proceedings,” dedicated
to “Mayors and Corporations in general,” 1741--Walpole’s
lease of power threatened--Satirical version of Walpole’s
“Coat of Arms”--The Westminster election of 1741--Wager and
Sundon _versus_ Vernon and Edwin--A patriotic “Address to the
Independent and Worthy Electors” of Westminster, 1741--Royal
canvassers--“Scene at the Westminster Election,” 1741--Lord
Sundon calls in the grenadiers to close the poll--The
Westminster Petition, 1741--A new election--Wager and Sundon
unseated; Edwin and Percival returned--Admiral Vernon and
Porto Bello--“The Funeral of Independency,” 1741--“The Triumph
of Justice,” 1741--Walpole defeated--“The Banner of Liberty
displayed,” 1741--A ministerial mortification--Ballads upon
the Westminster election of 1741--“The Independent Westminster
Electors’ Toast”--“The Downfall of Sundon and Wager”--“The
Independent Westminster Choice”--“The True English-Boys’
Song to Vernon’s Glory”--Triumph of the “Country party” or
“Patriots”--“The Body of Independent Electors of Westminster”
constituted into a society--Their anniversary dinners--A
dinner-ticket, 1744--The Stuart rising of 1745--Lord
Lovat’s trial--Meeting of “The Independent Electors of the
City and Liberty of Westminster” at Vintners’ Hall, March,
1747--Jacobite toasts--“The Spy detected:” ejectment of a
ministerial spy from Vintners’ Hall--The state of parties
at the Westminster election, 1747--Earl Gower and his son,
Lord Trentham--Falling-off of the Independent party--Trentham
and Warren _versus_ Clarges and Dyke--“The Two-Shilling
Butcher,” 1747--The Duke of Cumberland and the Prince of Wales
as rival canvassers--The Duke of Bedford’s support of Lord
Trentham--“The Jaco-Independo-Rebello-Plaido”--“The Humours of
the Westminster Election; or, the Scald Miserable Independent
Electors in the Suds,” 1747--Jacobite vagaries--“Great
Britain’s Union; or, the Litchfield Races,” 1747--The
Jacobite rebellion--Political animosities carried on to the
race-course--Alternate Whig and Tory race meetings--The Duke
of Bedford horsewhipped at the Litchfield races on Whittington
Heath--Ballad on the _fracas_: “The Lords’ Lamentation; or,
the Whittington Defeat,” 1747--Trentham _versus_ Vandeput,
1749--The _fracas_ at the Haymarket Theatre--Frenchified Lord
Trentham’s deadly attack on his own electors--Gallic valour
and the Admiralty Board--Ballad: “Peg Trim Tram in the Suds;
or, No French Strollers,” 1749--“Britannia Disturbed, or an
Invasion by French Vagrants, addressed to the Worthy Electors
of the City of Westminster,” 1749--Violence and bribery--“Aux
Electeurs très dignes de Westminster”--The Duke of Bedford’s
oppression and injustice to his tenants--Hogarth’s print of “A
Country Inn-yard at the Time of an Election,” 1747--The Hon.
John Child--“No Old Baby.” 78