W.E. Gladstone's Recent Scotch Stumping Tour by Beaujolias (Hans Busk) c1880
BUSK, Hans (1815-1882). W. E. Gladstone's Recent Scotch Stumping Tour. London: Society for the Propagation of True Political Principles, [c.1880].
Single leaf broadside, 220 x 295 mm. Printed within a single-rule border. Light handling marks, with some creasing and minor edge wear, particularly towards the right-hand side; verso blank apart from show-through from the printing. A complete and well-preserved example. Very Good.
A rare Conservative political broadside attacking William Ewart Gladstone during the 1880 general election campaign and, specifically, his celebrated Scottish "stumping" tour associated with the Midlothian campaign. Written as an alphabetical acrostic from A to Z, the verse subjects Gladstone and his supporters to a sustained sequence of insults, beginning "A was an Ass, with a voluble screech" and proceeding through Donkeys, Vermin and worst of all the "bad Whiskey they swill at the bar". It is signed pseudonymously "Beaujolais".
The broadside was published by the grandly named Society for the Propagation of True Political Principles and was intended for an anti-Gladstone, Conservative audience. Gladstone's Scottish campaigning proved enormously effective: he won Midlothian and the Liberals returned to power in 1880, with Gladstone becoming Prime Minister for the second time.
The University of Manchester Library attributes the broadside to Hans Busk (1815-1882). Hans Busk the younger was an English barrister, author and military reformer, best known as an early advocate of the Volunteer movement. While still at Cambridge he promoted rifle clubs for national defence, later publishing extensively on rifle training and military organisation. He was also active in a range of practical and public causes, including lifeboats, cookery education and geographical interests.
COPAC and OCLC locate copies at only two institutions, the University of Manchester Library copy stated and also one at the National Library of Scotland.