A favourite figure with the satirists was to portray wily party manœuvrers as vermin-catchers, and those apostate representatives who were ready to sell themselves and their parliamentary trust were displayed as the spoils of their craft. A cartoon appeared at the time of these elections reflecting upon the tricks of administration. It will be seen that nearly all these early caricaturists seem disinterested, as their subjects oppose the dispensers of patronage. The engraving shows the Duke of Newcastle seated beside St. Stephen’s Chapel, and fishing for partisans among the late members, and, in anticipation, bidding for the adherence of the possible representatives in the coming parliament; this subject is entitled, “The Complete Vermin-Catcher of Great Britain; or, the Old Trap new baited.” The minister’s line is dropped through the chimney of St. Stephen’s, and is baited with _Titles_, _Bribes_, _Places_, _Pensions_, _Secret Commissions_, and patronage in _Army_, _Navy_, and _Excise_. The intriguing duke, who was a proficient in corrupting others, and spent a large fortune in electioneering wiles, is observing, “All Vermin may be caught, tho’ differently, suit but the Bait to their various appetites. But there’s a species will take no Bait; would I could scare them away; as they’re not Vermin, they will not answer my purpose.” The greedy place-hunters are swarming plentifully, and are offering to do any amount of dirty work, to “push for posts,” “Jews and no Jews,” being indifferent to everything but profit. The Pelhams, unscrupulous themselves, were past-masters of the art of finding venal tools. It is disclosed in the diary of Bubb Dodington (Lord Melcombe-Regis), the manager of the Leicester House intrigues, and himself an accomplished adept in dissimulation, how disreputably the Duke of Newcastle contrived to secure Bubb’s parliamentary influence (six seats) “for nothing!” The corrupt character of a large average of those sent to the Commons as representatives of the people was in perfect keeping with the no less greedy boroughmongers who found them seats and the mercenary voters, their constituents by presumption; what a man bought--and in those days almost everything political had its price and was purchasable--he held himself justified in selling when the chance occurred. A satirical rendering of the imperfections then supposed to affect the body of the senate appeared at the time of these elections of 1754, when, by wholesale bribery, the Administration was, at an enormous cost, doing its utmost to degrade the entire system of representation:--“Dissection of a Dead Member (of Parliament).” The subject is extended upon a table for autopsy, five surgeons have severally examined the different functions, and the results of their post-mortem inspection is thus stated:--