The Gladstone Memorial

This unsigned Vanity Fair chromolithograph imagines a bronze-style memorial group: an elderly, rumpled William Ewart Gladstone perches on a plinth, one knee raised, chin lowered in characteristic brooding intensity, while at his feet crouches Charles Bradlaugh—freethinker, atheist MP, and political embarrassment—his long hair fanning out like a faithful hound, gazing up at his reluctant patron. The caption, 'The Gladstone Memorial,' is a pointed joke at Gladstone's expense: by repeatedly refusing to exclude Bradlaugh from Parliament yet failing to champion him decisively, the Liberal Prime Minister had effectively chained himself to a scandalous liability. The sculptural format amplifies the irony—here is the Grand Old Man's legacy, already being carved in stone, with Bradlaugh as its awkward cornerstone.