The Express.
London, England, 1848-11-23 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 23, 1848.

George Weed, the present member for Sheffield
and Beornta to the Admiralty. Mr. Ward had just
returned from Mexico, to which country he had been
sent as plenipotentiary for the acknowledgment of its
republic. He came before the St. Albans electors a
young man, of county influence and connexion, with
it wee supposed ample fortune, and by no means an
indisposition to spend it liberally He was every-
thing in fact that they required. Sir Francis Vincent
again presented himself. His popularity continued
to be great. Unfortunately, however, though the feet
was at that time unknown to the electors, his private
circumstances had materially altered. The expenses
of his first election at Bt.Alban's had been considerable,
but they had been nothing to the expenses of his first
year upon town. It is said now that everything had
gone but the family plate, and that that supplied the
means for this contest. The Orimaton family upon
this occasion played a skilful game. No member of
their own house wan put forward: their influence was
not sufficiently recovered for that, nor was it safe to
'hitt another doubtful battle; and doubtful it must be
with the new constituency. A Mr. Turner, how-,
ever, of Cottesford Hall, near Bicester, was invited to
offer himself upon their principles. If he succeeded
—well ; the seat would be kept warm for them until
the next election: if he lost, he lost—and they were
not implicated. Mr. Turner received all the aid that
dorhambury could afford him. Mr. Ward, however,
had declared from the first that be would not be
b. at, and the contest conecquently proved moat
severe. By each of the candidates the expenditure
was most lavish. The constituency (6.57) was polled
up with the exception of 13—a circumstance in itself
sufficient to show the inducement and pressure which
must have been put upon the voters. At the close
there had voted for Vincent, 392; Ward, 373;
Turner, 345. ' If a Orimaton had stood we should
have got him in," said the tory ',gents. The enormous
expenses of this contest were defrayed with great
difficulty. Sir Francis Vincent's ready money had
gone only part of the way to rni et his costs; he was
unable to raise more, and his bills went unpaid.
Mr. Ward bled west freely. Mr. Turner expended
all he had, which proved very insufficient : 1,2001. is
now said to have been left unliquidated.

The next general election was in 1835. Sir Francis
Vincent of coarse did not appear. The period was
one of great conservative expectation. Toryism, in
its new guise, had made a rally, and was putting
forward its best energies. The Grimatons reappeared
upon the scene. The candidate nominated in Sir
Francis Vincent's place was Mr. Edward Harbottle
Grimston, the second mono( Lord Verulam, who 'nut at
the time fresh from All Souls College, Oxford, where
he had just obtained a fellowship. Together with him
there came an equally young aspirant for parlia-
mentary honours in the person of a Captain Beres.
ford (son, it is believed, of Lord Decies), of whom
nothing was ever heard at St. Alban's before or since.
Oa this occasion, in fact, the Oorhambury family
made a desperate effort not only to recover their lust
ascendancy but to obtain the second seat. The ex-
penditure on all sides was most lavish. It is said that
on the night before the election the thing was so un-
certain that one of Mr. Ward's most active agents
told him he did not see how he could possibly win,
and yet he intended to put success beyond a
doubt. The Beresford party fought, as they
supposed, a winning game. Their money was
laid out with that object, and as this was also the
case upon the other side, probably this was one of the
most expensive contests that ever took place in St.
Alban'e. By one o'clock, however, on the day of
election (the turning point at St. Alban's is always
one o'clock). Mr. Ward's success was as certain as his
agent intended. When the poll closed at four, Mr.
Grimstun tad polled 360, Ward 281, Bereafurd 237,
and the two first were elected. This was the hurt
contest Mr. Ward ever wood at St. Alban's. He was
destined for a purer constituency and a more honour.
able position. He deserved it on more accounts than
one, and certainly not least in consideration of the
trice he had paid fur his experience. Between
8,0001. and 9,000/. was dropped by the right
hon. gentleman during the few years he had the
honour to sit in parliament for the borough of St.
Alban's.

The progress of the narrative may be here inter-
rupted to mention two names since very celebrated in
the annals of this borough. Very materiel assistance
was rendered to Mr. Ward in his contests by a Mr.
Henry Edwards, who was for some years a clerk in
Messrs. Martineau and Story's bank. On the disso-
lution of that partnership Mr. Edwards left the bank
with Mr. Martineau. Shortly after a Mr. Maskett
came into the town. He had been a patent varnish
manufacturer at Bermondsey, and had made a great
deal of money in that trade as well as in other com-
mercial speculations, such as the upholstery basin( ss
and slate mining. A small estate at Rickmansworth
which he had purchased brought him into connexion
with St. Alban's ; and he fancied that money might
be made and reputation won by the establishment of
a liberal bank in the borough, which he accordingly
started, with Mr. Edwards as his managing clerk.
The moneys of Mr. Ward passed through " Mus-
kett's." The bank became much concerned in the
political circumstances of the town, and a personal ac-
quaintance with the electors and their concerns ren-
dered Mr. Edwards, the managing clerk, very influ-
ential in the electoral contests.

At the dissolution consequent upon the King's
des h in 1837, Mr. Ward left St. Alban's for
Sheffield. There was no one exactly fitted to supply
hie place. Mr. Muskett, however, presented himself.
" A third man" was wanting. but could not readily
be found. At last Mr. Benjamin Bond Cabbell was
induced to try his luck. This gentleman has visited
one place after another, endeavouring to inoculate
constituencies (usually corrupt ones) with his crot-
chute, and rarely succeeding further than in emptying
his pocketa of cash, and getting laughed at. He was
regarded by the corrupt at St. Alban's as a weak-
minded sort of person, very useful as a decoy duck.
One of Mr. Cabbell'e crotchets was said to
be, that 1,0001., and no more, should be
the price of a seat in parliament. I,COO/.
in St. Alban's, within two yearn after such a contest
es that between Warr, and Beresferd, was a mere'
joke. However, as the town began rather to stink
' in the nostrils of public men, and as none could be
I found willing to incur Mr. ard's or Mr. Beresford's
outlay,Mr. Cabbell was brought down. He succeeded
exactly to the extent he ueserved for offering 1,0001.
The numbers polled were for Grimston 300, and for
Muskett 349. Mr. Cabbell polled 220—just enough
to induce him to come again and spend 1,0001. on
another occasion. "If you had not been so late in the
field, sir," said his agents and Mende, " you would
have stood much better on the poll" Mr. Cabbell'si
vanity was amply gratified, and he was far from re-
grettent; the tender of "1,0001."
This election, upon the whole, was cheaply con-
ducted. Mr. Muskett, of course, paid for votes, but
" there was only a thousand pounds on the other
side," so that the " competition," as it is called, in St.
Alban's was not great, and suffrages were bought upll
at a very much lower figure than usual. The thing
was managed with very little disguise. The voters
went into the parlour at Mr. NluArett's bank, where
it is evident that they were comp:etely satisfied as tol
that gentleman's
all
for a senator ; for, on
leaving it, they all repaired to an inn immediately op-
posite,
in which Mr. Marken himself sat to re-'
cave them, and where they wished him joy, and
"drank a glass" to his health and prosperity. Mr.
Cabhell in the meantime was lecturing a select party
in some other quarter of the town on abstruse points,
connected with poor-laws and ecclesiastical affairs,
firmly believing that he was deeply impressing them
with the importance of the principle of the " act of
Elizabeth," :And with hie own estrcmely benevolent
and pions disposition.
But there was " a good time coming" for the boys
of St. Alban's. and it aro,.e out of a singular circum-
stance. In 1841 the livings of Great and Little Hea-
ney, appropriately situated near Sudbury of all
places. tell vacant. They were in the gift
of the Earl of Verulam, and great was
the consternation of the family. Great and
Little Henney, and the fat vicarage of Pebmarsh
all lie close together, and united form a tolerably fat
ecclesiastical preferment. The " Hon. Francis," the
youngest son of the family, and, consequently, the
proper member thereof to be made a parson, was
only 19 when this " untoward event " occurred. The
family could rot afford that the livings should go out
of it. The " lion. Charles" was in the Guards, and,
of course, he could not be expected to doff the scar.tt
forthe surplice at a month's notice. There we. nothing
for it but that " Harbottle," the second son, should go
into the church. Now, the said " Hon. Harbottle"
had made some way at college, but had made
none whatever in parliament. lie was, more-
over, about to enter into a contract matrimonial,