The general election of 1747 furnished Hogarth with a suggestion which employed his attention anterior to his more ambitious election series. The House of Commons dissolved on the 18th of June, and the artist, taking time by the forelock, had his engraving “A Country Inn-yard at the Time of Election” ready for publication while the contests were occupying the public. As the print in question informs us, the cry of a “Babe of grace,” heard at the City election of 1701, was repeated in 1747. The subject of the stage-coach and inn-yard is generally familiar. It contains the figures of the fat woman of abnormal proportions being assisted into the coach by the efforts of her meagre husband; while the equally obese landlady, seen at the bar window, which she fills, is vigorously pulling the bell to summons the coach passengers. It is the background of the picture which illustrates the present subject. The sleek landlord, wearing an apron, and with a pair of snuffers pendent at his girdle, is presenting to an election agent a bill for the expenses incurred for the entertainment of his party; that the amount is excessive is conveyed by the expression of suspicion which pervades the features of the agent, who is preparing to settle the account; the landlord is evidently protesting as to his immaculate reputation, while a part of the _Act_ against bribery on elections is projecting from his pocket. The galleries of the inn-yard are filled with spectators, who are favoured with a sight of the humours of an election procession--a posse of men carrying sticks and bearing an effigy of a more than life-size baby, with a child’s rattle and hornbook, or A.B.C. Behind the chair, in which this figure is seated, is carried a flag with the inscription, “No Old Baby.” Nichols and Stevens, in their “Notes to Hogarth” (1810) have explained that the “Old Baby” effigy and cry were resorted to by the antagonists of the Hon. John Child, whose family, by Act of Parliament, took the name of Tylney in 1735. This candidate stood member for the county of Essex in opposition to Sir Robert Abdy and Mr. Bramstone. At the election, a man was placed on a bulk, with a mock infant in his arms, who, as he whipped the babe in effigy, exclaimed, “What, you little Child, must you be a member?” The member in question was then Viscount Castlemaine, and afterwards Earl Tylney. At this disputed election, it appeared, from the register book of the parish where this candidate was born, that he was a “Child” in more than one respect, being but twenty years of age when returned for parliament. CHAPTER V. SATIRES ON THE PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS OF 1754.