M.E. Grant Duff, MP — 'A Philosophic Liberal'

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') renders Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff — Liberal MP, prolific diarist, and Governor of Madras — as a figure almost entirely consumed by his enormous russet beard, the head swollen to caricature scale above a slight, stooping body in dark frock coat. He clutches a top hat at his side and tucks papers under one arm, props marking the studious parliamentarian. The caption 'A Philosophic Liberal' is gently satirical: Grant Duff was celebrated less for political fire than for his vast, donnish learning — a man who corresponded with everyone and decided little. Pellegrini's exaggeration stays physiognomic rather than ethnic, though the 'philosophic' label carries the era's mild condescension toward bookish reformers who theorised empire more than they governed it.