Читать книгу A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering in the Old Days - Joseph Grego - Страница 23
EPILOGUE.
Оглавление“Ye Gypsies of Rome
That run up and down,
And with miracles the people cozen,
By the help of some saint
Get the month which you want
And make up a baker’s dozen.
“You see the old Year
Won’t help you ’tis clear,
And therefore to save your Honour,
Get a new Sun and Moon,
And the work may be done,
And ’fore George it will never be sooner.”
The political squibs of this time are chiefly written by Cavaliers, and give a one-sided view, from which, however, much may be gathered. Though not actually election addresses, they refer to the claims which the electors of the kingdom found themselves constrained to address to the throne.
Among the collection of “Bagford Ballads,” so capably edited and illustrated by J. W. Ebsworth, M.A.,12 is a group of parliamentary election ballads, apparently of the date 1679–80, and relating to Essex, Buckinghamshire, Wiltshire, and the Universities. The Titus Oates plot; the Duke of York and his threatened exclusion from the succession; the impeachment by the Commons of a secretary of State, of Lord Danby, lord-treasurer; with the opposing designs of the Papists and the rabid Dissenters; and, above all, the petitions and the counter-petitions, seem the leading topics of these satires: but they do not contain much enlightenment upon elections, pure and simple. “The Essex Ballad,” humorously explains the modus operandi of the “abhorred” petitions.
“In Essex, much renowned for Calves,
And giving verdicts in by halves,
For Oysters, Agues, and for Knaves
Of Faction,
One Peer, and men of worship four,
With gentlemen some half a score,
Did draw in ten Dutch Ells of Bore
To Action.13 The Squire, whose name does famous grow As Marcus Tullius Cicero, And keeps true time with Sir A. Carew And Ashley.14 As freely gave himself his hand, As once his voice to rule the Land By such as should not understand Too rashly. The Rout, that erst did roar so loud, A Mildmay and a Honeywood,15 Are of their choice now grown so proud You’d wonder: And these State-Tinkers must be sent To stop the leaks of Government, Grown crazy now, and almost rent In sunder. His Honour first set all his hands, Each member next in order stands; The rabble, without ‘ifs and ands,’ Sub-scratch it. The Cause, not obsolete, though old, Like Insects lay in winter cold, And warm Petitions (they were told) Would hatch it. Corn bore a price in Cromwell’s days, Nor did we want a vent for bays; Nay, even calves were several ways Advanced. And then we fear’d not wicked plots— The Godly serv’d to cut our throats, Though agents for the Pope, as Oates And Prance16 said. Those reasons did so much prevail, That they petition’d tooth and nail, To have the Sovereign strike sail, And stand by: While th’ Parliament had sate some years, To drive out Pope with Presbyteers, And try the Babylonish Peers And Danby.”17
The grievances of the petitioning constituencies are farcically rehearsed, the king is prayed that he will not “quite forget the Senate,” and the writer goes on to describe the signatories of this “Anti-Popish Bull.” When all hands had been set to the roll, it was found that—
“Several yards of fist,
Were wanting to complete the list
Sans scruple. Those scholars that could write, they bribe To prompt and proxy every side; And these did personally subscribe Centuple. But now the time draws on apace, And member itches for his place, The knights and gentlemen five brace Assemble; And brought the muster-roll to Court Tho’ Charles did hardly thank ’em for’t; But made ’em with a sharp retort To tremble. Now God preserve our King and Queen From Pyebald Coats and ribbons green, Let neither knave nor fool be seen About ’em. And those that will not say Amen, Let ’em petition once again, For every one, the Shire has ten To rout ’em.”
“Ribbons green,” were the badges of the Protestant Association, at the head of which was Shaftesbury, “the popular favourite,” or “Sejanus,” as his enemies designated him. Vide “A Litany from Geneva:”—
“From Saucy Petitions that serve to inflame us,
From all who for th’ Association are famous,
From the Devil, the Doctor, and the d——d Ignoramus, Libera nos Domine.”
The obstinate and infatuated zealots, who would insist on keeping up the pretence that parliaments were essential to the constitutional government of the kingdom, were, with the suspected association, treated to all the witticisms Cavalier balladists could bring to bear against preposterous attempts to assail the royal prerogative, and enforce the just balance of the State:—
“ ’Tis to preserve his Majesty,
That we against him rise,
The righteous cause can never die
That’s manag’d by the wise.
Th’ Association’s a just thing, And that does seem to say, Who fights for us, fights for the King, The clean contrary way.”
(“A Hymn exalting the Mobile to Loyalty.”)
The members representing Buckingham town in the fourth parliament of Charles II., 1679, were Lord Latimer and Sir Richard Temple.
“Of thirteen men there were but six
Who did not merit hemp well,
The other seven play their tricks
For Latimer and Temple.”
The Buckingham ballad, “The Sale of Esau’s Birthright,” which relates to these members, is interesting from an electioneering point, as proving bribery, and as showing there were only thirteen electors of this limited constituency concerned in this particular return. Six voted, according to a list at the end of the ballad, “for their king and country,” and seven for Lord Latimer and Sir Timber Temple (the Earl of Danby, in another version), “for popery and their Town Hall” (“Sir R. T. his Timber, Chimney-money and Court,” according to another version). It seems certain that Sir Richard Temple had offered a present of timber for the Town Hall—in fact, some years later he is called “Timber Temple” (“State Poems”)—which was regarded as a bribe; it also appears that some delay had arisen in its payment.
“Our prating Knight doth owe his call
To Timber, and his Lady;
Though one goes longer with Town-Hall,
Than t’other with her baby.
“The Bailiff18 is so mad a spark (Though h’ lives by tanning leather), That for a load of Temple’s bark, He’d sacrifice his father.”
The other electors were a barber, two maltsters, a baker, and a farmer; the peppery ballad castigates the former, and concludes with a groan against the members returned:—
“Thus Buckingham hath led the way
To popery and sorrow;
Those seven Knaves who make us slaves,
Would sell their God to-morrow.”19
“The Wiltshire20 Ballad,” also belonging to this so-called “group of election ballads,” professes to be—
“A new Song, composed by an old Cavalier,
Of wonders at Sarum by which doth appear,
That th’ old Devil came again lately there,
To raise a Rebellion
By way of Petition.
“From Salisbury, that low Hous’d Town,
Where steeple is of high renown,
Of late was brought unto the Crown
A Lesson:
’Twas drawn up by three worthy wights,
Members they were, and two were Knights,
Great trencher-men, but no one fights
Mompesson.21 Through discontent his Hand did set First to the scroll without regret, Then pilgrim-like travel’d to get Some others, From house to house, in Town and Close, Our zealous Preservator goes; Tells them of dangers and of Foes; But smothers The true intent of what they bring, Who beg’d the House may sit; a thing Which only can preserve the King, When nothing Destroys him more; for should he give Consent, he’d never that retrieve, But part with his Prerogative; A low thing Make himself by ’t, the rabble get Into his high Imperial seat They’d make him Gloriously Great! We trow it. They serv’d his Father so before, These Saints would still increase the store Of Royal Martyrs, Hum! no more, We know it. The herd of zealots long to see A monarch, but in effigie, A project which appears to be Most witty; And they at helm aspire to sit, There govern without fear or wit, King and un-king when they think fit; That’s pretty. To see (’twould make a Stoic smile) Geneva Jack22 thus moil and toil To Lord it in our British Isle Again, Sir; And ‘Pulpit-Cuff’ us till we fight, Lose our Estates and lives outright; And when all’s done, he gets all by ’t, That’s plain, Sir. But this, I hope, nor make no mars Charles knows what’s meant by all these jars, And these domestic paper-wars, Conceive it; Tom of Ten Thousand,23 is come in, Sure such a hero much will win, On skulls as thick, as his is Thin, Believe it The people would have power to call Parliaments, and dissolve them; all Regalias possess; what shall The Saint, Sir, Not have the power of Peace and War? Religion steer? Holy we are, And rich, the King shall we (be ’t far) Acquaint, Sir?”
The Court party lost no opportunity of abusing their opponents of the Constitutional and Protestant party; they not only did the Whigs the favour to hate them cordially, but, as their own satires abundantly demonstrate, they also dreaded and feared them not a little.
The more sober-sided attacks came from the opponents of overstrained prerogative and those who upheld the popular rights of representation against absolute monarchy; witness the following:—
