The Butchers of Freedom

This is one of approximately eight prints by Gillray about the hotly contested and often violent Westminster by-election which pitted Lord John Townshend, the Whig candidate, against the naval hero, Admiral Hood, on the Tory side. Other prints include The Battle of Bow Street, John Bull in a Quandary, Election Troops, Bringing in Their Accounts to the Pay Table, and Charon's Boat, or Topham's Trip with Hood to Hell..

During the two weeks of the election process, there were multiple accusations of violence, intimidation, and perjury on both sides. Whigs accused the Tories of sending out bands of armed sailors (supporting Admiral Hood) to drive away Townshend voters. Tories accused Whigs of hiring demonstrators with clubs and other crude weapons to drive away Tory voters. Both noted instances of voter fraud through bribery and perjury.

The Butchers of Freedom

The Butchers of Freedom [1788]
© National Portrait Gallery, London

As usual, Gillray draws upon several accounts in the newspapers of the time to create one of the most gruesome satiric images of mob violence before the French revolution.

One source was likely the account published in the Public Advertiser for July 22 (p.2) of a skirmish between the opposing electoral factions which took place on July 18th at the King's Head, in James Street, Covent Garden kept by Timothy Martin.

It appeared by the testimony of several witnesses, that a body of sailors, armed with bludgeons, had issued from his house, and had caused an affray at Wood's Hotel, by attempting to pull down the flag of the opposite party. The sailors were driven back to Martin's house, who, came out with pistols to assist their retreat.

Another source may have been Morning Post and Daily Advertiser for July 24, 1788 where Gillray may have seen the following FRAGMENT:

And it came to pass on the 22nd day of July, 1788, the Man of the People with his followers of butchers with bones and cleavers, coal heavers, . . . ruffians, and men of the blackest dye, bent on death and dismay, came and revenged themselves upon innocent spectators, insomuch, that many were killed, others lay nearly so, and many were very much hurt.

But another source was likely to have been a couple of letters published in the July 28, 1788 edition of the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser. There Horne Tooke addresses an open letter "To Mr. Fox. Not the Man, but the Butcher of the People." In one part of his letter, he says,

BRIBERY, Perjury,and Blood, are no slight means to resort to; and such are at present the open and undignified means of your party, who with your bullies and bravos have, in a cowardly manner, hired and headed a numerous gang of bloodthirsty ruffians to assassinate those, whom you cannot individually terrify.

He goes on to quote from a letter he has just received from a J. Macnamara, "stained with his blood while he wrote it."

Lord John Townshend's, and Mr. Fox's friends, have at length carried their point against me. Here I am most terribly cut and mangled by some ruffians, who were, I doubt not, properly instructed. They first struck a poor woman, with a child in her arms, and have, I fear, killed the infant and the woman.

Gillray sets the scene of the print in front of the King's Head tavern in James Street. Fox and his friends are now butchers in every sense of the word, dressed in aprons with honing steels at their belts, and wielding meat cleavers against any and all government supporters. Fox himself significantly attacks the sign of the King. George Hanger, the long-time friend of the Prince of Wales, steps upon a sailor from the Royal Navy while cutting the throat of a constable. Sheridan and Burke attack a poor woman and child. And the tiny Lord Derby picks on a former sailor with a wooden leg. Above the central image of Townshend himself flies a flag with the words "Townshend and Liberty"–bitterly ironic given the mayhem and carnage surrounding it.

Sources and Reading

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