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From the exhibition

Leslie Ward ('Spy') — 'Justice! Justice! Justice!'

Leslie Ward · Vanity Fair, 12 January 1884

Leslie Ward ('Spy') — 'Justice! Justice! Justice!'
Ward's chromolithograph shows a trim, bearded gentleman in a dark frock coat, one hand pocketed, the other holding a lit cigarette whose smoke curls in a lazy S. The caption — *'Justice! Justice! Justice!'* — is a political catchphrase, not a judicial title: Sir Edward Malet was a career diplomat, serving as British Ambassador in Brussels and later Berlin, caught up in the scramble-era rivalries over Egypt and the Congo. The cry alludes to Britain's insistence on Egyptian financial justice following the 1882 occupation. Ward's caricature is mild in treatment — a slight elongation of the nose, a knowing half-lidded gaze — reflecting the gentlemanly restraint he typically reserved for Foreign Office men rather than the sharper distortions he applied to politicians or clerics.

Leslie Ward CC0