The fact that the public was being treated to the excitement of perhaps the most momentous and embittered, if not the hardest-fought election on record, is shown in Rowlandson’s version of the Covent Garden Hustings, round which is assembled a crowd of persons who are being addressed from the platform, whereon stands one of the ministerial candidates, Admiral Lord Hood, who is made to announce his intention of carrying “two faces under a Hood!” This caricature is a pointed comment upon the Court manœuvres, and exposes those royal tactics which had already demoralized the allies of the defunct Coalition Ministry. Major John Cartwright--the consistent and energetic advocate of reform, of which he was one of the most valorous pioneers--is made the mouth-piece of the artist’s satirical strictures, while endorsing those views held by “The Drum-Major of Sedition” (March 29, 1784), as the liberty-loving major, who remained conspicuous in the foremost ranks of reformers all his days, was entitled by his adversaries. A strongly ironical tendency characterizes the speech, which may be regarded as a tolerably pungent electioneering squib:-- [Illustration: _Themistocles._ Lord Hood. _Demosthenes._ Charles James Fox. _Judas Iscariot._ Sir Cecil Wray. T. ROWLANDSON: THE RIVAL CANDIDATES--GREAT WESTMINSTER ELECTION. 1784. “The gallant Lord Hood to his country is dear, His voters, like Charlie’s, make excellent cheer; But who has been able to taste _the small beer_ Of Sir Cecil Wray? “In vain all the arts of the Court are let loose, The electors of Westminster never will choose To run down a Fox, and set up a _Goose_ Like Sir Cecil Wray.” [_Page 266._] [Illustration: MAJOR CARTWRIGHT, THE DRUM-MAJOR OF SEDITION.]