The Sun.
London, England, 1841-02-12 00:00:00

ST. ALBAN'S ELECTION.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)
When, on Wednesday evening last, the 3d instant,
a writ was moved for St. Alban's to elect a Member
in the room of Mr. Grimston, who had accepted the
Chiltern Hundreds, the Liberal party were taken
quite by surprise. The news reached St. Alban's on
Thursday morning, almost at the same moment that
Mr. Benjamin Bond Cabbell arrived there ; the
retiring aldress of Mr. Grimston being delivered to
all the electors at the same moment with Mr. Cabbell's
address offering himself as a candidate. In the course
of that day the election was proclaimed for Monday,
being the very earliest day which it was possible to
name. The arrival of a new candidate at the in-
stant Mr. Grimston's retirement was announced,
the fixing of an election with such haste, and all the cir-
cumstances attendant upon the matter, showed the elec-
tors of St. Alban's that the scat was bargained for, sold,
and intended to be transferred behind their backs, and
without consulting them. Mr. Cabbell was not a popular
candidate at St.Alban's, he had been beaten thereinlB37,
and had not left any favourable remembrances behind him.
He commenced his canvass, and without an opponent in
the field, gained the usual promises of support from the
reta'n2rs of the Veruiam family. The agents of that party
held out, and gave the usual inducements to
their followers, which Custom had sanctioned,
and without which no Tory ever yet sat for St.
Alban's. Still, the unpopularity of their candidate, the
growing dislike to the job proposed in transferring the
seat, and the attempts evidently made to prevent any
exercise of public opinion, weighed heavy upon the
Tories ; and at the close of their first day's canvass
they had only secured 120 votes out of 520. On that
evening, Lord Listowel arrived in St. Alban's, addressed
the electors, made a very favourable impression, and then
commenced his canvass. His frank gentlemanly man-
ners and conduct gained him friends in all directions,
and, coupled with the fact that he came to prevent
the borough being sold or transferred by any would-
be patron, m ide him the people's favourite. By Saturday
night he had gained two hundred and sixty-nine promises,
and h:s election was safe, if Tory stratagems did not
come into play. On Saturday, Sunday, and Mon-
day, every trick was tried ; as much as 251. a
vote openly offered, even by persons holding
cial stations in the borough ; large inducements
held out to voters to break their promises or to go
out of the way ; but all in vain. The Tories could
not reduce Lord Listowel's number so as to give
them a chance. On Monday they knew they were
beaten ; mutual reproaches and quarrels ensued ; Mr.
Cabbell blamed Mr. Bing, and Mr. Blagg retorted
upon Mr. Cabbell. Lord Grimston and Ing-estre, with
all the Tory gentry, came to the rescue, but it was use-
less. The show of hands was in favour of Lord Listo-
wel, and a poll MU demanded for Mr. Cabbell.
Immediately after the show of hands, Lord Grimston
started for London. In five hours he returned, and
joined the Tory party at the Verulam Arms. What
passed there he best knows ; but this is well known,
that a large party of hired bullies from Hertford were
that evening brought into St. Alban's.
At the opening of the poll on Tuesday, a delay of
nearly twenty minutes occurred before a vote could
ha taken. There were no inkstands, no ink, no pens,
for the clerks. The Mayor then read a requisition
by electors to put the bribery oath, but no
deputies were appointed to administer it. When the
deputies were appointed one of them actually put the
returning officer's oath to the voters, until the error
was pointed out and corrected. The Mayor was
a strong Tory ; the town-clerk canvassed day by
day with Mr. Cabbell—knew the way to the
Tory voters' hearts better than any man in St.
Alban's, and yet, as the adviser to the Mayor, wit.
nessed all these things. From the very first, Lord
Listowel headed the poll. Tne delay of the bribery
oath did not answer, and some fresh contrivance
was required. At half-past ten an old half idiot
freeman, named Adams, came to the poll, and
upon the bribery oath being tendered, handed
to the Mayor a paper containing two five-pound
notes and two sovereigns, which he stated had been
given to him by the proposer of Lord Lis-
towel, to vote for Lord Listowel. The old man then
voted for Mr. Cabbell. The Mayor made a speech to
the populace, very indistinctly heard, and very imper-
fectly understood, commenting upon this atrocious act
of bribery, and for near half an hour the poll was almost
suspended. It was then again taken up, and at the
close the majority of Lord Listowel was declared to
be 47.

Now, so far from Adams having ever promised to
vote for Lord Listowel, the facts, vflikh can be
proved by the canvass-books, by the sheet of va•
riations, and by the testimony of several to whom
Adams did offer his vote, are, that he was entered in
the canvass books as a voter for Cabbell, that he
was reckoned an opponent, and that being now, and
always, a Vernlam voter, he was never thought of as
being likely to vote For a Liberal. His hope of pay
lay on the other side. The whole affair was a stage
trick, got up to produce cff2ct, and it signally failed,
although for the moment productive of service to the
Cabbellitcs. l'he money was girCil him by the Tories.
Let the Verulam party fairly show their sheet of ex-
penditure, and their list of promises at this elec-
tion—let them get back their notes of the sonic
bank given by them, as those which Adams produced
—let Mr. Bond Cabbell declare that he made no
promises to voters, and his agents that they gave no
money—and we shall then believe their virtuous indig-
nation at the loss of a scat which they deemed so safe
as not to be worth consulting the electors upon its sale
or transfer.

There was gross bribery on the Tory side ; it did not
succeed because the popular feeling was all against
them, nine out of ten—men, women, and children—
wishing success to Lord Listowel.
There are plenty of bribery cases against the Tory
party, infinitely worse than Adams's trumped up state-
ment, even if it were true.