The English 18th century has long been described as a corrupt century, in which partisan and ideological considerations weighed little against the personal interests of political personnel, especially when compared to the revolutionary 17th century. Contemporaries, however, continued to use the political categories of the previous century, interpreting the political quarrels of the time as confrontations between Whig and Tory parties. In order to determine whether this represented more than a mere rhetorical legacy, this article attempts to analyse the concrete ideological functioning of a disputed parliamentary election, that of Bristol in 1754, notably through the study of partisan propaganda material (leaflets, articles) and the correspondence of Josiah Tucker, the mastermind of the Whig campaign in Bristol.