A young woman implores her father to allow her to marry a politician who supported a different candidate in the Middlesex by-election from the one favoured by the father. Engraving by J. Miller, 1769.

The father is Mr Plummer, a wealthy linen-draper, while the lover, who stands by with his hand on his heart is called Mr Massey: the latter is a mercer who had given up his trade for politics solely in order to become eligible to marry Miss Plummer. The elections for the constituency of Middlesex at Brentford in 1769 were the subject of much dispute: John Wilkes was one of the candidates, but his victory in the April election was contested and subsequently overruled