The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-16 00:00:00

OUR REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM

GLOUCESTER.
is about a month ago since a piragr:ph an-
nouncing a " Sudden death' app arc(' in toe columns
ef the Express. It wns a case of awful:y
sudden death iudet d. An elderly gentleman stepped
into a public omnibus in Regent-etrtet : he had oily
been seated a few minutes when he suddenly fell
heck, without enunciating a word, or uttering a gro .n,
and was picked up a corpse—stone dead!
Sudden death is a fearful thing at all times: it be-
comes doubly dreadful to contemplate when it occurs
in the midst of the busy world, amid the gaieties and
hopes of our temporal existence, in a public street,
and amongst utter strangers. The body of the gen-
tlemau whose death thus happened was cone yea to
the dead-house of St. James's parish soiktiouse,
where it remained until some ore claimed it, and re-

p.,rted th. deeeased to be John Phillpottt, Esq., for
many years member of parliament fur the city of
Obsuce +ter, and the elder brother of Hmt y, by Divine
permission, Lord Bishop of the are of Exeter.
As it is upon the conneaon of Mr. Phirlpotts with
the city of GI ,ucester that the prr sent narrative mast
mainly hi. ga, it my not be out of place to say a few
words here !mating that gentleman and the family
of which he formed a part. Seventy-three years ago
an individual of the name o!Phillpotts, previously an
in r keerr, at Bridg water or Barnszable, took the Bell
Ho-el, in the Southgate, at Gloumater, a house still
in existence, and then probably, as now, amongst the
twat within the &Cy. Mr. Pnilipotts had bur sons, of
whom ',hit Phil:pots was the eldest. All these boys
were sent to the College School, and they obtained
the reputation of boing among the c'evurest of the
many clever pupils of that institution. Henry Ph illpotto
embarked in the church, and every one knows how he
has succeeded. 'Moms§ became a merchant ; George
is now a eoLuel in the Engineers; John t ,ok to the
law, and &nem; in due course of time a partner in
the firm of Whi!mrnab and hr, crackers, at
Gloucester. . .

It was, however, rather in a political than in s
professional capacity that Mr. Phillpotts obtained
his reputation. in 1810.11 there occu'red iu Glou-
cestershire a eery celebrated contest between the fami-
lies of Gai,c and Dutton for the representation of
the county. The aeietccracy exclusively supported
Dutton ; the reople were ranged upon the sde of
Guise. Mr. Phillpotts was Sir William °titre's &lent,
and after ten or twelve days' polling Sir William
was succ ssful. The result was in a great measure
attributed to the skill of Mr. Philip its,and his re-
putation end his busiaess rose accordingly.
Mr. Phllpotts became intimately emit:et-led in all
the political mermen's of the cou..ty and the city.
The politics of both were whig. In those days the
faehion of Glouceeterehite was all upon the
.peeple's
side. the Berk- lel., the Nloretons, th • Owes, the
Dutton., the Kiogscotes, and many others still re-
main professors e f whi; principles, though dome
have been lost to the cause or have treacherously
ecaerted 'he rani-loos of their forefathers. Glou-
cester itself was always a whig city. Tue old
corporation was while to a man. 'i he dignitaries
of the cathedral, within recollsc.ion, could scarcely
elect • tory member to their chapter. Mr. Phillpotts
went with the current of local opinion. Henry of
Exeter, in his time, has been many thing. : John
Phillpot s of Gloucester wee always a reform( r.
In 1818 Mr. Hebert Bransby Cooper, a brother of
Sir Astley, was, by dint of bribery, elected a member
for the city of' Gloucester, in the high t try it terest,
and he managed to retain his seat throulh three par-
liaments, met,' the general election of 1830. At this
time the constituency of Gloucester was composed of
freemen, resident at d non-resident,—in all about
2 200 eleetors. The city had bet n held by Mr.
C toper chiefly by his management of the a ut-voters.
They were numerically an impirtant class; principally
On-makers, resident in London. The " pin-makers"
inihnse days were ready "to come down" to Glou-
teeter as voters upon ether side. Mr. Cooper gene-
rally brought them. Io 1826, Mr. Phlipotte, who had
obtained a celebrity in the city, had been invited to
contest its reuresentation ; but the pin-makers were
engaged, and he found he could tot eircte el. In
1810. however, Mr. Phillpotts consented to stand :
Mr. Bransby Cooper, who had spent a little fortune
amongst the pin-makers, had no more money with
which to subsidise them; and Mr. Puilipotta, " the
man of the people" [and of the pin-mitten], was re-
turned to parliament, vice Oso.ier, at an exrence of
16,0001., nearly 13,0001. of which came cut of his own
packet and went into that of the etcetera.
Mr. Philip sits came in on what may be considered
radical principles. His colleague was Colonel Webb.
of Norton House, an old whig, who bad represented
Gloucester dining the greater part of the century.
Colonel Webb, having grown grey in the service, was
not disinclined to retire alto;ether from the repre-
sentation. He only waited until he could do so with
out injury to his party, and Mr. Phillpotts having
been returned, it was uederatool in 1830 that at the
next general election the colonel would go oat, and
that another liberal would take his place.
The other liberal refe•read to was Captain Berkeley,
the present representative, who, es a memb •r of one
of the most popular families in Gloucestershire, and,
as the I viol; er,rg ca• &dace in 181tialiad an hereditary
aid personal claim upon the town. Captain Berkeley
and Mr. Phillpotts were looked upon as the future re-
presentatives for Gloucester, and they would probably
have combined the local parties of the ci y, and com-
pletely have dyfeatel all the tory machinations in it,
had it not been for a malapropos occurrence.
The tt rgiversation of Henry Phillpotts, canon of
Durham and rector of Stanhope, on the important
question of Catholic Emancipation, had recemmended
that extraordinary pamphleteer to the Duke of Wel-
lington's administration for the next mitre that might,
perchance, fall vacant. We fate was in the balance
in the winter of the eventful year when John Phil!.
pots, Esq , now NI.P., was first elected for the town
of Gloucester. There came on, as will well be recol-
lected, an important question in the House rf Com-
mons respecting the civil list of William IV. The
government exerted a strong whip. Whether they
told the bishop that his elevation depended on his
brother'. vote, or whether the bish ip told his brother
so, or whether his brother only imagined such to be
the case, is now a matter that cannot be decided ; but
on this eventful question John Phillpotts, member for
Gloucester, faithless for the first and only tame to his
professions and his party, voted with the government
and against Ws principles.
Ws vote was of no avaiL The government were
beaten. Henry of Exeter got his cony (relire, but
the Duke of Wellington resigned. Earl Grey came
into power. The Reform Bill was poled John
Phillpotts voted in its favour, but nothing could eradi-
cate the bad impress:on which had been created by the
vote he had given, fraternally, against his principles.
When parliam' nt was diseolved in 1831, the outcry
against Mr. Phillpotts had in no degree subsided. His
friends in Gloucester were lukewarm; his opponents
were angry and active. A body of them went to
Colonel Webb. They persuaded him that it was neces-
sary for the whig interests that a man who had given
each a vote as that should not retain his seat. They
begged him to consent to sit another parliament. The
e dooel came down. Tories and whigs both voted in
his favour, and Mr. Phillpotts found himself ejected
from the seat : Colonel Webb and Captain Berkeley,
" consistent reformers," being chosen in his plat*.
The Reform Bill carried, Colonel Webb let it be
generally known that he should not again represent
the city. People, at that time, were ditposed to over-
look pest grievances, and to contemplate only a bene-
ficial future. At the election of 1832 Capt. Berkeley
and Mr. Phillpotts both cote red the field again. Their
parties were not openly united, but circumstanca
drove them into harmony. The tones brought do en
Mr. Hope, a candidate from the Carlton Club, uncon-
nected with the city, but possessed of extraordinary
wealth. Mr. Hope used every effort to get in. He
spent, it is said, 20,0001. in the contest. He was a
young man, and though at the time his chances were
but small, his supporters led him on, and assured him
of success. They fought with a determination to win :
treated to an unusual extent; introduced direct bribery
for the first time into Gloucester, and failed signally,
the numbers being, for Berkeley 684, Phillpotts 6.58,
Hope MO. This election, in which reformers were
united, was a test of the prevailing feeling of the city,
and, as we shall subsequently show, remains to this
day an index of the relative state of Glonemeter
Those who search the parliamentary debates of
11833 will find an account of a squabble which occurred
in the House of Commons between Mr. Hume and
Captain Berkeley, in the course of which the latter
told the former that he did not think he knew
what " honour " meant. It was whilst the eircum-

.. ._
stances of this silly affair were fresh before tho pub-
lio that Captain Berkeley was appointed a Lord of the

Admiralty, and was obliged to come to Gloucester to
solicit re-mention. Mr. Hope was at his heels. The
rrienda of that gentleman made use of Captain Ber-
keley's attack on Mr. Hume. just as th y had made
use of Mr. Pnidpotts' vote upon the civil bet. Ihe
remit in both cults was a aucc:: a. They succeeded
in dividing th..: liberals regarding Nlr.Plullpotta: they
succeeded also in dividing them respecting Captain
Berkeley. The gallant captain found his conatitueLts
in an unplcoutant tempt r : the radicals refused to be
parties to his return, Lind he was beaten on the poll.
Only 1,023 electors voted, and the numbers were for
Hope, 866 ' • Berkeley, 457.
Rarely has there been a cate displaying more re-
markably the value of discretion. A bad vote in
1830—a Pickwickian squabble in 1834—cost two ex-
cellent representatives each a neat. But the effect of
these blunders did not end there : it would have been
well that it had dme so.

In 1835 came the general election consequent on
the ecceeei-n of Sir Robert Peal to power. Captain
Berkeley, Mr. Hope, and Mr. Pbillpotte again took
the field. The wntga who supported the Bret were
savage with the radicals who supported the last. They
determined to give them a tit-fur-tat. At the poll Cap-
tain Berkeley and Mr. Wirt were returned, whilst
Mr. Phillpotts was rejected, though( nly by the small
majority of 23 in favour of the tory : numbers, Berke-
ley 708, Hope 621, l' .illpott4 398. On this CCCI-
- 93 liberate plumped for Captain Berkeley, and
105 split their totes between that gentleman and
Mr. Hut*.

Two years a'ter came the contest of 1837. The
wound was etili rankling. Mr. Phillpotts, ejected from
parliamert, was determined to get in el.-epite the
whip. There was a tacit but unholy coalition with
'he tory; and Captain Berkeley, in his tarn, went to
the wall, the numbers being, for Hrp.r 727, Phillpotte
719, Berkeley 630.
These alternate defeats and success.. only mode
matters worse. Captain II rkelry, now thrown out of
the Admiralty, took the next beet thing that offered,
namely, the command of a 74 in tLe Mt ditereane on.
When the election of 1841 occurred, the captain was
absent. His friends, however, put him in nomination.
Mr. Phillpotts' supporters also took the field, and Mr.
Hope came down himself, and was e xtremely busy.
The whigs and radicals were mutually suspicious.
The aerie, calculated on succeeding as before., on ac-
count of the divisions on the other side. In the course
of the canvass the friends of Mr. Phillpotts relied that
they were much the wrongest. All they dreaded was
a whig and tory coalition. Scouts acre accordingly
sent out, and measures taken to eurcer'ain every move-
ment that was going forward. It was soon ascer-
tained that the whigs were holding fee quent meeting'.
'Choy were evidently anxious and undecided. At
length information was brought that they wero all
eollected at a private house,—the house of one of
Captain Berkeley's friend.. The radicals teL that
this was the crisis : or e of them went dawn : a mutual
understanding was arrived at : it was agreed that the
two parties shott'd carman in conjunction; and the
result, us in 18.111, was a decisive victory for liberal
opinion., the numb-re being, for Phillpotts 753, it.
r-
kelev 732, Hope 646. Oely 4 electors plumped for
Phillpotts, and but 18 for Berkeley, whilst no less than
660 split for there two emendates.
Here, it might have been hoped, was an end of the
feuds and misunderstandings of the Gloucester li-
berals. During the long parliament from 1841 to
1847 all sections of re formers were we'l repre,cated.
Tneir members were free-traders; ballot men; fa-
vourable to the extension of the franchise ; agreed, in
short, upon all great questions of commercial and po-
litical freedom. The suicidal folly of their previous
policy was proved; the value and mutual security cf
unanimity lead been ca'ablished.
Unhappily, that which policy might have gattran-
te lA, the courso of nature refused to grant. Mr.
Philipette, come few years ago, although in the en-
joyment of robust health, felt that talon-like griping
ut the heart which S.r Edward Lytton, of all one
English authors, has alone described, in his ITIEV t. ly
portraiture of the fate of Justice Brandon. Mr. Phi I-
potts consal'ed his physicians. They advised repose.
Tranquillity might save him; but the first strong
emotion would assuredly cause his death. Love of
life, stronger in advanced age even than the ambition
of its prime, exerted influence in it, turn. In 1847 Mr.
Phillpotts expressed a wish to retire from parliament.
No sooner was that desire rremulfokled `elan Mr.
Hope was again a car. didate. Mr. Philip, tts could ore
'tared the excitement of a contest. He withdrew his
pretensions altogether. The radicals brought forward
a good man t r succeed him, but they were too lste.
On the strength of Mr. Phillpotts' resignation Mr.
Hope had secured the seat. He had come forward, be
it observed, not as a tory, but as a liberal coneerva-
five, pledged to free trade, and inimical to protection.
As such he was returned in 1817, toeether with Cap-
tain Berkeley, and, for the first time at Gloucester
since the Reform Bill, without the taking of a poll.
Such is the representative history of Glouce etcr ; a
his'ory peculiarly interesting and instructive to the
liberal., as showing the value of union in a common
cause, and the necessity of merging minor differences
in order to obtain a great result.
Since the Reform Bill, Gloucester has, no doubt,
been greatly influenced by corrupt practices. The
tory canvass there in 1832 introduced a system of
bribery previously unknown. The treating, in the
anti-reform days, was extensive, and the cost of an
election was frequently ruinous, by reason of the num-
ber of oat-voters to be brought from distant parte.
But at no previous period had bribery been a prac-
tice. It has since prevailed to a considerable extent.
Out of the 1,600 voters for the borough 200 are at
present notoriously corrupt, and their price is from
W. to 101. each, according to the severity of the
contest.
But wo believe that we are authorised in saying
that, come what may, as far as the radical reformers
of Gloucester are concerned, there will ba no more
practices in that city of a description so debasing and
so infamous. It is understood that one of the circum-
stances which caused the withdrawal of Mr. Price, the
radical candidate in 1817, was his determination not
to commence that public career in his native town
for which hie position and his abilities alike qualify
him, unless his success is determined by the unbiassed
I suffrages of his fellow-citizens. On the night preced-
ing the nomination Mr. Prioe's committee found him
about 150 behind Mr. Hope. That 150 might have
been made up by bribery, but Mr. Price sent his op-
ponent a communication that he had resigned ; a
!resignation which does him more honour than hi. elec-
tion under other circumstances could poseib:y have
conferred.
There is little doubt but that this gentleman, a na-
tive of Gloucester, a wealthy merchant, and a con-
sistent liberal of very considerable ability, will
eventually succeed to the representation of the city.
The registration at the present time ire, we believe,
even more favourable to the liberals than it ever has
Ibeen since the Reform Act, and the popular party are
daily gaining ground.
Gloucester, since 1830, has been far more expensive
to the torin han to the liberal candidates. All of
' them however, have spent more money than they
! werejustified in spending. Numerous agencies, bands,
banners, open houses, ribbons, and all the tawdry
paraphernalia of corruption, have been common tr all
parties in the place. But only one party has un-
blushingly bribed, and that they were openly charged
with at the last election by Mr. Guise (a grandson of
Sir William, the former member for the county), in
reply to whom Mr. Hope would only observe—(it
was more an admission than a defence)—that "he
thought it hard the sins of indiscreet agents should
he charged upon an individual candidate."

FIRES IN ESSEX.—As many as five fires have oc-
curred near Rumford during the put week. A hay stack
upon Sutton's-farm, Horuchurch, its the occupation of Mr.
Gooch, on Tuesday last took fire from over-heating, and
communicated to two stacks of pea.haulm; they were all de-
stroyed. A fire also occurred on the premises of Mr. Jame
Biggs, Manor-farm, Balking, when two new stacks of rye
were consumed ; the cause unknown. On Thursday morn-
ing last a barn, nearly empty, upon the Old Bernie., an off-
hand farm belonging to W. H. Tolbutt, Eq., and an open
shed adjoining,in which vagrants frequently intruded for lodg-
ing, were destroyed by fire when the roof of the barn, which
stood upon elevated ground fell in, the horning embers flew
to a considerable dirance; and about 2 p.m., not long after
the outbreak of the lest-mentioned conflagration, premises
in the occupation of Mr. Anthony Vince, on We bridge
farm, Hornchurch, distant about a mile from Old Bernie.,
were found to be on fire in two places. Two stacks of
wheat four of hay, and one of roe, with an extensive ranee
of buildings, the barns filled with corn, were destroyed,
•he dwellintyheuse and a few outbuilding.' alone being
saved. On Saturday morning the premises left standing on
I Mr. Vine's farm were found to be agAin on fire, but our
correspondent does not state the result of the second out-
break. The owners and occupiers of the two last-men-
,,
sured the latter Me property of the Marquis of Salis-
bury, are in.