This series satirizes the notoriously violent and disorderly nature
of the Oxfordshire election of 1754, in which the liberal Whigs, representing
new interests, challenge the conservative Tories, the established
ruling aristocracy. Hogarth attacks both political camps for losing
sight of all common interest, working solely for egotistical, undemocratic
ambitions. The excessive banquet of the two Whig candidates reveals
the loss of political control. One of the two candidates seated under
the party flag, reading 'Liberty and Loyalty,' gets his hand squeezed
by a grinning cobbler, receiving, moreover, a cloud of pipe smoke
in his eyes; the other candidate allows himself to be kissed by a
fat, old and toothless woman for the sake of a vote.
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