“The rival candidates swarm up a pole, inscribed ‘Westminster Election’, in front of the hustings in Covent Garden. At the top is Burdett with the body and beak of a goose … He is precariously poised on one webbed foot, the right leg. hanging down, dripping blood from a wound in the thigh (from Paull’s bullet), but he is supported by a pitchfork held against his rightump by Horne Tooke, or the Devil, who stands astride the roof of the hustings. Tooke has webbed wings inscribed ‘Deceit’ and ‘Sedition’, cloven hoof and barbed tail, with round hat, coat, and clerical bands. Burdett’s wings are ‘Conceit’ and ‘Vanity’; his neck is stretched out towards an irradiated sun in the upper right. corner of the design, at which he is hissing, ‘ssss [&c]’ issuing from his beak. On the disk is a crown on a cushion; it is encircled by the words: ‘The Sun of the Constitution’. Just below the goose is Cochrane, wearing the cocked hat and coat of a naval officer with striped seaman’s trousers. He is active and agile, one hand on the pole, and one leg round it. In his right. hand he holds up a bludgeon: ‘Reform’, shouting fiercely to the mob below; his right. foot rests on the cask which encloses the paunchy body of the man below (Elliot), who is falling backwards. From his pocket issues a paper: ‘Charges against St Vincent.’ Below him legs and arms wildly outflung emerge from the cask which is inscribed ‘Quassia’ … The head of the falling cask, inscribed ‘Elliots Home Br[ewed], drops off, and its foaming contents pour down. Elliot drops a paper: ‘Sixpenny Jack’s Address’. Below Elliot, Sheridan, in his Harlequin suit (see BMSat 9916), enormously fat, grasps the pole with arms and legs, making no progress. Below him Paull falls head foremost and in back view to the ground; he is dressed as in BMSat 10725 and his (wounded) left leg breaks above the top-boot. He drops his shears and a cabbage. …”–British Museum online catalogue
- Printmaker: Gillray, James, 1756-1815, printmaker.
- Title: Election-candidates, or, The republican-goose at the top of the polle [graphic] : the devil helping behind! / Js. Gillray invt. & fect.
- Publication: [London : Pubd. May 20th, 1807, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. Jamess [sic] Street, 20 May 1807]
Catalog Record & Digital Collection
807.05.20.01+
Acquired October 2015