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Richard Whitworth, Benjamin Franklin, and Political Electricity Carla J. Mulford (bio) In their multivolume Catalogue of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (1883), Frederic George Stephens and Edward Hawkins characterized Richard Whitworth's 1770 broadside satire, Political Electricity, as (with just one exception) "the most complex and difficult of all the satirical prints yet catalogued in these volumes." This "extraordinary" sheet "advisedly styled a 'Prophetical Print,'" created, they wrote, "a very remarkable reference to the then recent researches of Benjamin Franklin in electrical science."1 Given their knowledge of the collections of prints in the British Museum, the comparative analysis offered by Stephens and Hawkins is striking. As they introduce their discussion of the broadside, they call it "[t]he most elaborate, if not the most recondite of all the sequential satires in the entire National Collection."2 In more recent years, this broadsheet has been brought to our attention by the insightful scholarship of historian of science James Delbourgo, who uses the satire as visual evidence of scientific imagery in the Opposition's "conspiracy narrative on the eve of revolution."3 Richard Whitworth's singular broadside offers us an opportunity to examine significant issues of political allegiance, alliance, and interest in Britain during the second half of the eighteenth century. Richard Whitworth (the primary concern of this essay) was, like Benjamin Franklin, working on [End Page 23] the critical question, "what is liberty," at a crucial moment during Britain's evolution toward global empire. Whitworth's intriguing broadside, Political Electricity, aligned him with the Opposition against the Administration and its central leaders, John Stuart, third Earl of Bute, and Augustus FitzRoy, third Duke of Grafton. Yet, as we shall see, Whitworth's politics, across his lifetime, were far more complicated and volatile than his early career and publications—the best known part of his life—would suggest. We can best attend to the complications of Whitworth's broadside and his life if we have a passing recollection of the political circumstances of the late 1760s and early 1770s and the concerns of Opposition propagandists, some of whom were, it seems, genuinely alarmed by the imperial war machine that seemed to deny Britons their ancient liberties. After a brief summary of relevant events of the day, I will turn to a discussion of the broadside itself and then to its intriguing creator whose life and writings have remained obscure before now. The Political Scene, 1769–1770 The British political scene was in turmoil during the late 1760s and early 1770s, the air definitely replete with political electricity, as Whitworth (Veridicus) framed it. Parliament and ministry were embroiled in power disputes within and across party lines.4 Britons in North America were pressuring for equal legal status with Britons in England, and they resisted Grenville's Stamp Act and then the Townshend Acts, which imposed duties on necessities used daily, including glass, paint, lead, paper, and tea. When a Board of Customs was established to enforce Townshend's duties, protests developed throughout the northern colonies and erupted in Massachusetts in 1768 and 1769, ending in the Boston "massacre" in early March 1770.5 Britain's expansion into India, a brutal and costly effort, was being contested in Parliament and the ministry, while those like Robert Clive, who had been directly involved in India, were reaping financial benefits.6 In Ireland, absentee landlords and the plantation system left laborers in poor working conditions while pockets of British leaders were being lined with silver. Irish trades were circumvented by several longstanding acts that constrained the economy of Ireland while enriching England's laboring and manufacturing sector and thus its overall economy.7 Britain's global imperial project was being challenged by France (in North America and India and at sea) and Spain (especially in the Falkland Islands crisis) at the time that its strong relationship with the Netherlands was weakening.8 In the eyes of Opposition members, or those opposed to the government's controlling measures, Britain's leaders were sacrificing the liberties of the people while enhancing their own coffers; rather than watching out for [End Page 24] the state, leaders were watching out for their own wellbeing. The turmoil centered...
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