Vignettes of Peel's first ministry. Coloured lithograph, 1835.

Date:
2 February 1835
Reference:
12240i
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Description

Refers to the British General election which took place between 6 January and 6 February 1835. Above, two horse-drawn omnibuses are shown, one labelled "Conservative" driven by Robert Peel with the Duke of Wellington at the back, the other representing the Whigs, with Lord Melbourne as the coachman disconsolate at losing. This seems to have been the result of a wrong prediction, as the Whigs emerged as the largest party, though the Tories formed a minority government. Below left, a man (possibly Lord Lyndhurst: John Singleton Copley, Baron Lyndhurst) apparently renouncing the Lord Chancellorship and then (right) accepting it under pressure from the Duke of Wellington. Below left, the devil and a man, the former representing the "Head of the destructives" and the latter the "Head of the conservatives". Below centre, Wellington and another man present plans for modernising an old church building, to the approval of a third man (John Bull): this presumably represents Peel's policy of reforming the Church of England. Below right "The giant's head, in the new spectacle of King Arthur": possibly the head of Daniel O'Connell. A musical spectacle called "King Arthur and the knights of the round table" was being performed at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in January 1835: it included a character called Cormoran, Giant warder of the Enchanted castle (The theatrical observer, 3 January 1835)

Publication/Creation

[London] (26 Haymarket) : Thos. McLean, 2 February 1835 ([London] : Ducote & Stephen Lithog.)

Physical description

1 print : lithograph, with watercolour ; border 34.7 x 24.8 cm

Lettering

Monthly sheet of caricatures. No. 62. or The looking glass. Published on the first of every month.

References note

Too late for the British Museum, Catalogue of political and personal satires, London 1870-1954

Reference

Wellcome Collection 12240i

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