Mason, the Duke's Confectioner. . .
This is one of a number of prints about the 1788 Westminster by-election in which the Whig candidate, Lord John Townshend, challenged the incumbent Tory, Admiral Hood. Both factions went to extraordinary lengths to malign one another, terrorize the opposition electors, and to buy off the voters they couldn't intimidate.
A line item of £20 for "Mr. Gillwray" in the Hood election account, in fact, suggests that Gillray was commisioned by the Tories to produce this print in order to discredit the Fox-supported Lord Townshend. This was hardly a stretch for Gillray who had by 1788 portrayed Fox as a sly fox, the conspirator Guy Fawkes, Satan, the fallen angel from Milton's Paradise Lost, and the traitor, Ahithophel from the Second Book of Samuel. Here he suggests that Fox is a thief, using stolen goods, among other things, to finance the Townshend campaign.
© National Portrait Gallery, London
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As so often happens, Gillray's print contains a highly topical reference. In the London Chronicle for July 15,1788 p. 8, Gillray could have read the following article.
Yesterday William Mason, who is accused of having robbed the Duke of Devonshire's house of a variety of articles of great value, was brought up to the office in Bow Street, and underwent a long examination by Sir Sampson Wright. . . The prisoner is a young man, about the age of 23 and lived in the Duke's family as assistant confectioner. . . .Six repeating gold watches were produced. . . [and] a number of Greek, Roman, and Russian medals.
Fox is, then, Mason, the confectioner, arriving at one of the Townshend polling locations, with coins and one of the medals mentioned in the article, emerging from his sack. These are one of "Ways & Means" to finance the campaign. The note on the door takes on a slightly different meaning when the "Property Secured" is stolen.
Meanwhile inside the polling place, a flag with the (in this case, ironic) inscription of "Noble Townshend" flies above the candidate's head. Behind him in profile are longtime Fox allies, Edmund Burke and George Hanger, the Prince's friend. Townshend himself (in red) stands between his natural constitutents: a butcher and a chimney sweep. None of them takes notice of the Jewish man preparing to vote (illegally).
Sources and Reading
- Commentary from the British Museum on Mason, the Duke's Confectioner. . .
- Nicholas K Robinson, Edmund Burke: A Life in Caricature, 1996. p. 113
- "Charles James Fox," Wikipedia
- "Lord John Townshend," Wikipedia
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