Catalogue Number
NMLH.2011.29.19 x
Object Name
Print
Title
'View Of The Hustings In Covent Garden. -- Vide. The Westminster Election, Nov. 1806.'
Place
Westminster, London, UK
People
William Cobbett
Events
Elections, 1806 Westminster Election
Date
1806
Creator(s)
Gillray, James
Description
A print of a large crowd of middle class men standing on a hustings stage labelled 'Loyal Parishes of St Paul's and St Giles'. They look down, appalled, at a crowd of faceless tradesmen brandishing tools and clubs, shouting demands and complaints.
The image implies that the working class tradesmen are disorderly, violent, and unfit to engage in politics. While some of their demands are political in nature such as 'Pay your debts Mr Treasury' and 'where's my renters share', others are seemingly senseless or irrelevant including demands for 'sherry & liberty'. This mixing of real political concerns of working men with implications of drunkenness and violence aims to discredit everything the workers who cannot vote might want.
The print was created at a time when the working classes were not allowed to vote, and campaigns to change this were starting to emerge. William Cobbett (9 March 1763 â 18 June 1835), who is pictured in the centre of the hustings holding a copy of his newspaper, The Political Register, later emerged as a leading voice for voting reform, and the English working classes, though he did so through advocating for the continuance of the slave trade as a means of improving white working class lives.
*On Display*
