used every means in his power to secure a
majority. He hardly made a secret of his determination
to carry the elections by bribery and
personal influence, if he could carry them in no other
way; and by a liberal expenditure of money he
succeeded. The Tories were very strong on
the matter of this bribery. One of the
caricatures of the day is entitled "The
Prevailing Candidate; or, the Election carried
by Bribery and the D—l." Another is called,
"Britannia stript by a Villain; to which is
added, the True Phiz of a late Member." The
former is still in existence, and is engraved in
Mr. Wright's volume. It represents the
candidate—a fine gentleman in peruke and lace—
slipping a bag of money into the pocket of the
voter, who seems to hesitate, but is being
persuaded by a devil hovering in the air above him.
The wife is urged in the same direction by a
parson; but two little boys express their
contempt for the whole proceeding. The last of
some stanzas underneath runs:

"Say the boys, 'Ye sad rogues, here are French
                        wooden brogues,
    To reward your vile treacherous knavery;
For such traitors as you are the rascally crew
    That betray the whole kingdom to slavery.'"

The election which proved so advantageous
to Walpole was succeeded by a calm in the
political world, during which the caricaturists
employed themselves for the most part on
social topics. The rage for pantomime which
at that time took possession of the stage—the
humours and vanities of Rich, the harlequin-
manager of Covent Garden Theatre; of
Heidegger; of Farinelli; and of other persons
connected with the amusements of the day
—the eccentric performances of "Orator
Henley," the scurrilous clergyman who used to
preach on a tub to the butchers of Clare Market
—the quarrels of Pope, and other matters of a
purely personal character—these were the
subjects which for a long while kept the pictorial
satirists busy, to the exclusion of affairs of state.
It is curious to mark the similarity of the then
condition of the stage to the present. Burlesque
performances, grand scenic effects, realistic
contrivances, mountebanks, tumblers, rope-dancers,
and wild beasts, were the chief attractions,
against which tragedy and comedy had very
little chance. All the town rushed to see a
movable windmill, as they now flock to witness
a sham steam-engine and train. The machinist
elbowed the dramatic author out of the way,
and in one of his early caricatures Hogarth
represents a barrow-woman wheeling off, as
"waste paper for shops," the plays of
Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dryden, Congreve, and
Otway. The date of the print is 1723.

With the death of George the First, in 1727,
the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole
recommenced with great vigour. Bolingbroke, who
had been allowed to return to England,
but not to resume his seat in the House
of Lords, sought every opportunity of making
the most virulent attacks on the successful
Minister. He and Pulteney started the famous
political journal called the Craftsman, of which
the working editor was Nicholas Amhurst, who
wrote under the assumed name of Caleb
d'Anvers; and the Tories being thus joined by
the discontented Whigs, Walpole found himself
face to face with a formidable array of
adversaries. He was accused of truckling to
France (an imputation brought against every
unpopular Minister), and of fiscal tyranny in
extending the excise duties to wine and tobacco.
The Gin Act—passed with a view to restraining
the sale of our English spirit, the consumption
of which by the lower classes had led to great
disorders—was also extremely unpopular, and it
proved as complete a failure as attempts to
make people virtuous by statute law generally do
prove. All these matters contributed to bring
Sir Robert into considerable disrepute, and on
the 13th of February, 1741, Sandys, one of the
malcontent Whigs, made a violent attack on
the Premier, concluding with a motion for an
address to the King, praying him to remove
Walpole from his councils "for ever." The
motion was warmly supported by Pulteney,
Pitt (afterwards Lord Chatham), and others;
but it was lost by a very large majority. On
the same day, Lord Carteret introduced a similar
motion in the House of Lords, and was
seconded by the Duke of Argyle; but this also
was defeated. The double incident gave
occasion to a Ministerial caricature, which is
engraved in Mr. Wright's book. It is extremely
clever, full of invention, and drawn with
considerable spirit. The scene is Whitehall as it
then was—the only feature of which now
remaining is Inigo Jones's Banqueting Hall. A
coach-and-six is being driven furiously towards
the Treasury. The Earl of Chesterfield rides
the off-leader as postilion, and the Duke of
Argyle is on the box as coachman. Lord Carteret,
who sits inside, calls from the window, "Let
me get out" (the application of which, by the
way, is not clear, as it does not seem that the
proposer of the motion in the Lords endeavoured
to escape from the business), and the
coach, which has run over several people, is in
the act of upsetting. Lord Cobham, as footman,
holds on to the straps behind, and Lord
Lyttelton—a tall, gaunt figure—rides on horseback
after the carriage. In the foreground of
the picture, Pulteney, drawing a set of partisans
after him by their noses, wheels a barrow,
laden with the Craftsman, the Champion, and
other journals in the interest of the Opposition;
but he sees the catastrophe, and exclaims,
"Zounds! they're over!" Further on, Sandys,
letting fall his Place Bill, and throwing up his
hands and arms in dismay, exclaims, "I thought
what would come of putting him on the box!"
—alluding to the Duke of Argyle; while, not
far from the coach, Smallbrook, Bishop of
Lichfield, bows obsequiously to the great folks.
Several editions of the print were published
(some with variations), and the "patriots"
retorted with a parody. The original was
accompanied by some verses, rather humorously
conceived; and Horace Walpole, writing to
Conway, speaks highly of the whole, and especially
commends the likenesses.