Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury

Plate 274, Statesmen No. 35, signed by Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape'), renders the great Evangelical philanthropist in profile: a long, prominent nose dominates the face, the jaw set with self-satisfied rectitude. He clutches a top hat, arms folded, in a dark frock coat — the uniform of Victorian public virtue. The caption, 'He is not as other men are, for he is never influenced by party motives,' cuts two ways: genuine tribute to Shaftesbury's cross-bench record on factory reform and lunacy law, and a sly puncturing of his notorious self-righteousness. Pellegrini's caricature exaggerates aristocratic physiognomy, placing the joke squarely on moral vanity.