‘The Brummagem Frankenstein’ in Punch, or the London Charivari

1866

Storage Journal AP 101 P8 1865-67

London: Published at the Office

John Bright was a leading radical voice in the House of Commons. On 27 August 1866, at the Great Reform Demonstration in Birmingham, Bright delivered the first of a series of speeches across Britain calling for increased voting rights. ‘I have no fear of manhood suffrage’, said Bright, ‘and no man is more a friend of the ballot than I am’. Here John Tenniel (best known for his 1865 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrations) portrays a terrified Bright tiptoeing past the working-class giant he has awakened. The 1867 Reform Act gave the vote to (male) skilled city workers, but excluded agricultural labourers.