Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2011
George Cruikshank published his satirical print depicting an imaginary meeting of the Society five weeks after one of the most controversial presidential elections in its history. The illustration (fig 1) was the main feature in his monthly magazine The Scourge issued on 1 June 1812 and the accompanying text shows his anonymous informant to have been hostile to the winning faction. ‘The newly elected president, Lord Aberdeen … was dragged into his present situation by the officious interference of impertinent friends, and the intrigues of an individual.’ He is shown addressing the meeting; nobody is listening. ‘The secretaryship of the society is committed to Nicholas Carlisle Esquire; the dull compiler of dull topographical dictionaries.’