Genre:

Essay, Drollery

Subjects:

Adulteration, Pharmaceuticals, Medical Treatment, Analytical Chemistry, Politics, Government, Disease, Health, Religion

    Describes the political activities of Lord John Russell, Benjamin Disraeli, and John A Roebuck as if they were experts analysing the adulteration of 'political drugs'. Explains that Russell found that most political articles were 'as free from deleterious matter as they could be', although he found the specimen marked 'Reform Bill' extremely difficult to analyse. Russell recommends 'a little adulteration' with 'Whig's Paradise', which 'went down wonderfully with the multitude'. Believing in the purity of Whig principles, Russell opposes the election agent, James Coppock, 'whose wonderful laboratory at the Reform Club for the manufacture of votes' had shown the existence of 'tin' patronage. Goes on to explain Disraeli's expertise in the 'manufacture of retorts' and his conviction 'that Whig Government was a regular drug' that was so pernicious that it needed 'a strong infusion of Tory politics'. Disraeli's 'careful analyses' also reveal a 'Drab' constituent in the 'Peace Party' called 'Gladstone' which itself contains large quantities of 'Jesuit's Bark' but not 'a single grain of sense', and which creates feelings of nausea. Proceeds to discuss Roebuck, whose analysis of 'Parliamentary Loaves and Fishes' from both parties, reveals them to be poisonous to the 'Body Politic', and who urges the need for the 'plainest political food'.