Other multifarious incidents are given in the fourth plate of the “Election.” A soldier with the Buff colours is washing the wound received on behalf of his employers; his sword is snapped across the blade. A pig-driver, flourishing a formidable flail, is doing battle with a bear-leader, who is armed with a bludgeon. The backward swing of the flail is imperilling the security of the new member’s seat, while wounding the chair-bearers. Bruin is helping himself from the offal pail of a passing ass--the patient animal stopping to munch a thistle by the wayside; the driver is belabouring the bear over the head, to the alarm of a monkey equipped _à la militaire_ and riding on the brute’s shoulder. In the monkey’s fright, a musket at his side is discharged in the face of a little chimney-sweep, who, raised aloft on the wall, is stooping forward to ornament a sculptured skull or effigy of death, placed above the church gate, with a pair of huge round spectacles, in imitation of those worn by Lord Winchilsea. This burning of powder, like the other episodes, has its significance; for, according to the account of Nichols, who claims to have discussed the hidden meanings of these pictures with Hogarth himself, it was “during the contested Oxfordshire Election in 1754 an outrageous mob in the ‘Old Interest’ had surrounded a post-chaise, and were about to throw it into the river (occupant and all), when Captain T----, withinside, shot a chimney-sweeper who was most active in the assault. The captain was tried and acquitted.” Among the items in these election bills it will be observed that more or less mortality has generally to be reckoned, “death by misadventure” having been sufficiently prominent in most contests of the kind during the turbulent times of the past. Private property was held in small respect while rioting was rife; for instance, Hogarth has, in the scene of the chairing, shown a mansion partially demolished, intending to imply that the house had been wrecked by the riotous mob in the course of their eccentric diversions: it will be noted that the wilful destruction of houses and furniture was another recognized feature of election times.