William Henry Gladstone, 'His father's son'

Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders William Henry Gladstone—eldest son of the Liberal Prime Minister—in profile, a posture that barely conceals the caricaturist's central joke: the caption 'His father's son' does all the work. The younger Gladstone stands in a frock coat and top hat, papers tucked under one arm and a walking-stick in hand, every inch the dutiful MP-in-waiting. The composition is respectful to the point of mildness; Ward exaggerates nothing grotesque, simply elongating the chin and narrowing the silhouette into a pale echo of the great man. The plate appeared during W.E. Gladstone's second ministry, lending the caption a mildly ironic charge: hereditary advantage dressed up as parliamentary merit.