"The Jaws of Civil Discord": Edmond Beales and the Reform League in the Tomahawk (1867)

Abstract

Abstract:The Tomahawk (1867–70) was a weekly satirical journal whose short existence coincided with the debates around the Second Reform Act. This article examines the Tomahawk's concerns about class, culture, and politics through its treatment of the Reform League and its leader, Edmond Beales, to whom no fewer than twenty-eight pieces were devoted between May and December 1867. By analyzing how the Tomahawk presented Beales and his Leaguers as vectors of revolutionary thought, this article argues that, for this "organ of embattled gentlemanliness," the point was not only to condemn the League's political transgression but also to defend British institutions against the risks of extended suffrage.