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Moral trespass in Georgian London: gaming,gender, and electoral politics in the age of George III*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Phyllis Deutsch
Phyllis Deutsch
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania
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Abstract

In the late eighteenth century, the British electorate began thinking about politics and statecraft in a new way. Britons challenged the natural rights of the nation's aristocracy to rule, and actively linked the personal behaviour of individual noblemen and women to real or imagined public consequences. Aristocratic gaming provided Britons with a rich vocabulary for voicing such concerns. The noble gamester, perceived as erratic, self-interested, and without honour, personified those aspects of private aristocratic vice most likely to undermine national well-being. The 1784 Westminster election specifies two aspects of this controversy. The political unworthiness of notorious gamester Charles James Fox (a front-runner in the election) was linked early on to his personal financial mismanagement, which intimated, in the public mind, his potential abuse of public funds. Fox further contaminated his suitability for public office by allowing the fifth duchess of Devonshire, herself a gamestress, to canvass for him. Her presence in Westminster not only dramatized Fox's gamester persona, but effeminized it. Pittite propaganda stressed Fox's culpability on both counts, and emphasized a new concern with private virtue as fundamental to the moral prerogative to rule.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , September 1996 , pp. 637 - 656
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

1 ‘A General Toast’, A history of the Westminster election (1785), p. 438.Google Scholar

2 Although several historians have noted the importance – and increase – of gaming in aristocratic circles in this period, none examines the cultural and political significance of noble play at any length. Indeed, the study of aristocratic culture is relatively new. Itzkowitz, David C. offers a history of the English fox hunt in Peculiar privilege: a social history of English foxhunting, 1753–1885 (Sussex, 1977)Google Scholar. Duelling has attracted several historians; works on duelling include Donna, Andrew, ‘The code of honor and its critics: the opposition to duelling in England, 1700–1850’, Social History, V (1980), 409–34Google Scholar; Greenberg, Kenneth S., ‘The nose, the lie, and the duel in the antebellum south’, American Historical Review, XCV (1990), 57–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kiernan, V. G., The duel in European history: honour and the reign of aristocracy (New York, 1988)Google Scholar, and Francois, Billaçois, The duel: its rise and fall in early modem France, trans. Trista, Selous (New Haven, 1990)Google Scholar. Most recently, Linda Colley has analysed the remaking of upper-class British culture in a context of the development of British national identity. I examine aristocratic gaming and its changes to specify the nature and meaning of what Colley calls an aristocratic ‘strategy for endurance and recovery’. See Linda, Colley, Britons: forging the nation, 1707–1837 (New Haven, 1992), p. 151, esp. ch. 4.Google Scholar

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4 I use the term ‘continuum’ to express the relationship between private and public space, personal and political concerns, in an effort to move beyond the schematic (and polarizing) notion of ‘separate spheres’. I hope to collapse what I view as an artificial dichotomy by describing a much more complex – even symbiotic – relationship. Feminist historians and literary critics are beginning to challenge the accuracy of the old ‘separate spheres’ chestnut. For some interesting work on the topic, see Mary, Poovey, Uneven developments: the ideological work of gender in mid-Victorian England (Chicago, 1988)Google Scholar; Alison, Light, Forever England: femininity, conservatism, and literature between the wars (London, 1992)Google Scholar; and Amanda, Vickery, ‘Shaking the separate spheres: did women really descend into graceful indolence?’, Times Literary Supplement, 12 March 1993, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

5 This election was exceptional for the violence it engendered (one police officer was killed during a riot), and for the intense propaganda wars launched by the opposing sides. In a hotly contested three-way race, Fox enlisted the help of both plebians and noblewomen. The participation of commoners like publican Sam House has been chronicled by John, Brewer in ‘Theater and counter-theater: the mock elections at Garrat’, Radical History Review, XXII (1978–1980), 7–40Google Scholar. Linda Colley has examined the canvassing activities of the duchess of Devonshire, and linked them to contemporary attitudes toward public, political women. Colley, Britons, ch. 6. Neither Brewer nor Colley allude to the fact that both Fox and the duchess were notorious gamesters.

6 Biographers of Fox and the duchess have never grappled with the personal and social significance of their gaming. Fox's biographers usually link his gaming to a permissive upbringing, although I. M. Davis viewed it as an expression of his ‘real and unadmitted feelings concerning his father's stigmatised wealth’. Davis, , The harlot and the statesman: the story of Elizabeth Armistead and Charles James Fox (Buckinghamshire, 1985), pp. 62–3Google Scholar. Despite the specificity (and superficiality) of these analyses, Fox's biographers do at least acknowledge the serious repercussions of his gaming by connecting it, at least in part, to his political difficulties in the early 1780s. The duchess's gaming has received still less attention. In biographies of the duchess, her gaming takes second place to the (seemingly) more lurid tale of her husband's infatuation with Lady Elizabeth Foster, and the ensuing ménage-à-trois that lasted until the duchess's death in 1806. (The duke married Lady Foster a few years later.) When her biographers do turn to her gaming, they interpret it as a childlike need for stimulation, or as an endearing aspect of her fun-loving and essentially frivolous character. It was, in fact, her raison d'être. See, for example, the treatment of the duchess in Coleridge, E. H., The life of Thomas Coutts, banker (London, 1920)Google Scholar; Earl of Bessborough, , Extracts from the correspondence of Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire (London, 1955)Google Scholar; and Arthur, Calder-Marshall, The two duchesses (London, 1978).Google Scholar

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12 Mitchell, L. G., Charles James Fox, p. 16Google Scholar. Despite such tarnished paternity, I refer to Fox as an aristocrat because that was how he was raised, how he behaved, and how he viewed himself. Although he was not a bona fide member of the grand whiggery, those families comprised an important part of his social and political circle.

13 For an in-depth study of how the British state raised revenue in the eighteenth century, see John, Brewer, The sinews of power: war, money, and the English state, 1688–1783 (New York, 1989).Google Scholar

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15 Attitudes towards gaming bore a complex relationship to both commercial and later industrial capitalism. Simply stated, over the course of the eighteenth century, specific components of gaming – especially risk-taking and unpredictability – were eliminated from descriptions and definitions of legitimate capitalist transactions. Space precludes a discussion of this process; here I am concerned with how notions of legitimate political authority were enmeshed in discourse about lending, borrowing, spending and debt.

16 For example, Fox resigned his post in the government in July 1782, in protest of the king's appointment of Lord Shelburne. Because his resignation directly challenged the king's right of appointment, his critics viewed it as a further example of Fox's opportunistic efforts to prolong governmental instability.

17 Norbert Elias provides a fascinating, if somewhat benign, analysis of the development of the British parliamentary system in the eighteenth century. In response to the dangerous factionalism of the previous century, the British aristocracy agreed to rule the nation by maintaining peace among themselves in the political realm. Hence a key feature of parliament was ‘the readiness of a faction or party in government to hand over office to its opponents without the use of violence’. Elias's view suppresses the tensions inherent in coalition-building, especially in periods of political disarray. See Norbert, Elias and Eric, Dunning, Quest for excitement: sport and leisure in the civilizing process (Oxford, 1986), pp. 27–31.Google Scholar

18 Pittite propaganda presented the electorate with a series of negative images, refracted through the gamester's lens, against which a positive image of a statesman might emerge. This ideal statesman was less vividly defined than the demonized Fox; in fact, proponents of both Admiral Lord Hood and Sir Cecil Wray spent less time advocating their special virtues than in simply reiterating the most salient point of their defence: that their candidates were not Fox.

19 Gerald, Newman, The rise of English nationalism: a cultural history, 1740–1830 (New York, 1987), p. 216.Google Scholar

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21 Colley, , Britons, p. 192.Google Scholar

22 Newman, , Rise of English nationalism, p. 212.Google Scholar

23 Hare was the son of an apothecary who augmented his limited fortune by marriage to the only daughter of a baronet. George Hangar, fourth Baron Coleraine, notorious for self-indulgent behaviour, was connected for a time to the prince of Wales. Fitzpatrick, the second son of John, first earl of Ossory, was, like Fox, a member of parliament and a lover of pleasure, as was the politician/playwright R. B. Sheridan.

24 Pittite propaganda frequently expressed the fear that Fox would not hesitate to burden landed property with fresh taxes, since he would be exempt from paying them (History of the Westminster election, p. 91).Google Scholar

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28 History of the Westminster election, p. 268.Google Scholar

29 Ibid. p. 214.

30 Fox, unlike his critics, maintained a distinction between his private and public life, and cared little about what the world in general thought of his behaviour, so long as he retained the loyalty of his intimate circle of whig friends. His attitude enraged opponents insulted by such social exclusivity, and fuelled criticism that Fox and his ilk were intentionally out-of-touch with the needs of the nation at large. Mitchell, , Charles James Fox, p. 92.Google Scholar

31 Castle Howard Collection, J14/1/273, 11 June 1781.

32 Ibid.

33 The ‘vermin’ of the title is Lord North. The reference to ‘Jew's harp’ alludes to the Jewish moneylenders Fox supposedly supported through his gaming.

34 Wit of the day, pp. 115–16.

35 The reference to ‘Old Noll of Huntingdon’ suggests a parallel to Cromwell's anti-royalist stance. Fox's opponents depicted him as a latter-day leveller who would ‘nul charters, invade rights, and seize on property’, and, along with other whig oligarchs, establish a government ‘independent of the Crown’. Fox's levelling qualities were linked to his reputation as a demotic politician (History of the Westminster election, p. 94).Google Scholar

36 Edward Lascelles suggests that Fox formed the coalition in order to drive home a ‘good stout blow’ at the power of the king, whose alliance with Shelburne threatened Foxite influence. Lascelles argues that the alliance with Lord North was not so unseemly as critics suggested, since the distinction between whigs and tories was more theoretical than real. In any case, Fox's change of allegiance did not necessarily mean a change in his principles. Lascelles, , Life of Charles James Fox, pp. 111–12.Google Scholar

37 A satiric print from 1784, ‘The political weathercock’, shows Fox, blown by a ‘north’ wind, astride a compass whose directions are marked on dice.

38 According to Mitchell, it was the East India Bill that gave the Fox–North coalition its ‘malodorous quality’, since whoever controlled the patronage of India could buy up most of the house of commons. Fox's proposed board of commissioners were all his close friends. The India bill, defeated on 15 Dec. 1783, brought down the Fox–North coalition. Mitchell, , Charles James Fox, p. 60.Google Scholar

39 History of the Westminster election, pp. 91, 214.Google Scholar

40 For the broader discussion of Renard the fox in his renaissance context, see Pitkin, Hanna Fenichel, Fortune is a woman: gender and politics in the thought of Niccolo Machiavelli (Berkeley, 1984)Google Scholar, part II, ch. 2.

41 See, for example, David, Garrick's adaptation of Shirley's play, The gamesters (London, 1778)Google Scholar; Mackenzie, Anna MariaThe gamesters: a novel (London, 1786)Google Scholar; Sharpe, Richard Scrafton, Theodore: or, the gamester's progress (London, 1799)Google Scholar; The gamblers, a new melodrama in two acts (London, 1823).Google Scholar

42 Other noblewomen canvassing for Fox were the Duchess's sister Lady Duncannon, Lady Archer, the duchess of Argyle, Mrs. Thrale, the duchess of Marlborough, and the duchess of Portland. Admiral Lord Hood and Sir Cecil Wray also had female canvassers; these were Mrs Hobart, the duchess of Rutland, and Lady Salisbury. (Of these, Lady Duncannon, Lady Archer and Mrs Hobart were also well-known gamestresses.)

43 History of the Westminster election, p. 254Google Scholar. Opponents quickly transformed Fox's heroic selfappellation ‘Man of the people’ to ‘Man for the ladies’ (p. 251).

44 Although nobelwomen often canvassed for relatives running for family seats in the country, the duchess canvassed in Westminster, a populous urban neighbourhood, and Fox was not related to her (Colley, , Britons, pp. 244–5)Google Scholar. Despite her notoriety in the 1784 election, polling lists suggest the duchess played a crucial role in Fox's victory: he r an last in the race until early April, when the duchess began canvassing. After that, Fox rose slowly in the polls, and finally obtained more votes than Sir Cecil Wrav.

45 The Westminster election, 1784, p. 434.Google Scholar

46 See, for example, the duchess's own autobiographical novel, The sylph (1778); Charles, Moore, A treatise on gambling (1790)Google Scholar; The female gamester, or the pupil of fashion (1796)Google Scholar; and Charles, Sedley, The faro table, or the gambling mothers (1808).Google Scholar

47 Three of these women, Lady Buckinghamshire, Mrs Sturt and Mrs Concannon were arrested the next year for running faro games out of their homes. The arrest followed an edict by Lord Kenyon (9 May 1796) which threatened aristocratic gamestresses with the pillory. Although none of these women was subjected to such humiliation, a number of sexually sadistic prints appeared showing the women, in various states of undress, in public pillories. Fox was featured in several of these as well.

48 The duke, a regular at Brooks's, was also a gamester. The Devonshire financial crisis was so severe by 1787 that an estate manager was called in to clear matters up. His recommendations resulted in some extremely minimal cutbacks, along with the duchess's promise to spend less time in London.

49 Pitkin, Fortune is a woman, part III.

50 Pocock, , Virtue, commerce and history, pp. 109–18.Google Scholar

51 I wish to thank Deborah Prosser for bringing this portrait to my attention.

52 History of the Westminster election, p. 254.Google Scholar

53 I wish to thank W. A. Speck for bringing both the Fuseli painting, and Rowlandson's satire, to my attention.

54 Mitchell, , Charles James Fox, p. 71.Google Scholar

55 Davis, , Statesman and harlot, p. 152.Google Scholar

56 Colley, , Britons, p. 246.Google Scholar