Chapter V

The Pelham Administration--Corruption rife--“The Duke of
Newcastle as the Complete Vermin-Catcher of Great Britain;
or, the Old Trap new baited,” 1754--Ministerial bribes
and baits--Boroughmongering--“Dissection of a Dead Member
(of Parliament)”--A mass of corruption--Henry Pelham’s
measures--The Jews’ Naturalization Bill, 1753--Death of
Pelham--“His Arrival at his Country Retirement and Reception,”
1754--Pelham’s reception across the Styx--The elections of
1754--Humours of canvassing--The election for the City of
London: “The Liveryman’s Levee,” 1754--“The City Up and Down;
or, the Candidates Pois’d,” 1754--City candidates: Sir John
Barnard, Slingsby Bethell, William Beckford, Sir Richard Glyn,
Sir Robert Ladbroke, Sir Crispe Gascoyne, and Sir William
Calvert--Sir Sampson Gideon, the loan contractor, and “The
Jews’ Naturalization Bill”--“A Stir in the City; or, Some
Folks at Guildhall,” 1754--Ballad on the City election at the
Guildhall--“The Parliamentary Race; or, the City Jockies,”
1754--Ballad on “The Parliamentary Race for the City”--The
London and Oxfordshire elections--“All the World in a Hurry;
or, the Road from London to Oxford,” 1754--Ballad on “The
London Election”--The Oxford Election; Candidates: Wenham and
Dashwood _versus_ Turner and Parker--Ballad on the Oxford
election--The four election pictures by William Hogarth
having reference to the county election for Oxfordshire,
1754--“The Election Entertainment”--Humours of an election
feast--“The low habits of venal wretches”--“The New Interest”
_versus_ “The Old Interest”--Election party cries in 1754:
“Give us our eleven days”--Ballad on alteration in the
style--Party animosities--“Act against Bribery”--“Kirton’s
Best”--“Canvassing for Votes,” 1754--“Punch, Candidate for
Guzzledown”--“The Royal Oak” _versus_ “The Crown,” otherwise
“The Excise Office”--“The Polling Booth,” Oxfordshire,
1754--Ballad on the humours of polling--“Chairing the Members,”
1754--Burlesque on Bubb Dodington--The dangers of chairing--A
ministerial dinner, 1754--Hogarth’s sketches of “Bubb
Dodington and the Earl of Winchilsea”--Murderous incidents
of the Oxfordshire election--Wrecking houses--Parliamentary
interest _versus_ place--Hawking “marketable ware”--Diary
of Bubb Dodington (Lord Melcombe Regis)--Overtures from
the Pelhams--Bubb’s “parliamentary interest”--A prime
minister--“Bubbling” a boroughmonger--The intriguer
over-matched--The Bridgwater Election, 1754--Details of an
election contest in 1754, from Dodington’s diary--The Duke of
Newcastle, an arch-negotiator--Bubb and his “parliamentary
interest” bought for nothing--The vitiating effects of bribery
and corruption on a representative legislature--“Burning
a Prime Minister in Effigy,” 1756--Denunciations against
venal ministers and the vital injuries they inflict on the
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