The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-17 00:00:00

T lI U Ili d 1; A Y

KNARESBOROUGH.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sia,—l have bee spending the last week in Knares-
borough, and in return for the great pleasure I often ex-
perience in perusing your highly-talented journal. and, in
particular, the letters signed "An Old Reformer," I ven-
ture to send you some perticulars concerning Knares-
borcugh and the late election, which may probably
gratify many of your readers.
In the first place, then, Knaresborough is a beautifully
picturesque town; it contains in the parish the fashion-
able watering place of Harrogate, eo justly celebrated
for its mineral waters. Now, Harrogate is only two
miles and a half from Knareeborougb, and contains about
as many inhabitants, and in the new Reform Bill which
is promised by Lord John for the next year, it is hoped
that the whole parish of Knaresborough will be included.
Certainly it ought to be, and then there will be far less
corruption in the place, as the constituency would he in-
creased from 360 to upwards of 900. It is now very
corrupt indeed, and is celled a second .Pontefract—the
inhabitants must take care they do not find it a second
Sudbury!
Knaresborough, under the rotten borough system,
was perhaps the best represented of any town in the
kingdom! For the last twenty-one years of the old sys-
tem, the Duke of Devonshire nominated the Right Hon.
George Tierney and the Right Hon. Sir James Mackin-
to,h. Now, under the Reform Biil, there has been a
miserable falling off in the representation of that ancient
place.
The first Members were Mr. Henry Rich and the
well-known Mr. Fernand; its late Members were the late
Mr. W. S. Lascelles, the brother to the Earl of Hare-
wood, and Mr. Westhead, a gentleman first nominated
by the Manchester League. Mr. Westhead is himself a
rich cotton spinner, and bears the reputation of a quiet
and inoffensive man.

The well-known and highly-respected Mr. Eneas
Macdonnell also visited the borough and offered himself,
but being a Roman Catholic he did not receive that
support which his great talents ought to have insured
to him.

At the last election, also, there was an address to the
electors issued by a late townsman, and a native of the
place. I was favoured with a sight of the address, which
was treasured up by an old gentleman like sterling gold,
and he told me the address was reprinted at Manchester
and at Glasgow, and many thousands sold, as a model
address, worthy to be followed out by every Member of
Parliament, and had this been the case the country would
now be very different to what it is at the present day.
Mr. Foster in this address appears to be an indepen-
dent Conservative, of the Peel original school. Ho
contended that " justice ought to be dealt to the indus-
trious British farmer as well as to other classes of
the Queen's subject,'" fie described himself "as too
poor to contest the borough, and could he afford to do so
ho would not buy the constituency, because he would
never sell them, but would employ all the energy and
talents which od had given to him for their benefit and
that of his country."
Mr. Foster was also described to me by his old friend
as the firm and personal friend of the late highly gifted
William Cobbett, and that the latter had told him when
on a visit to Ripley Castle, that it was a ahem such a
man as Mr. Foster was not in Parliament, as he was
the fittest man he knew to be sent there—that his com-
mercial knowledge was not excelled by any one in the
House of Commons, whilst on the subject of the Cur-
rency I delight in calling him my first disciple." This
was the opinion of by far the greatest politician of the
day of Mr. Foster.
In this address, which was valued, it would appear,
every where except iu the venal borough of Knaresbo-
rough, Mr. Foster " pledged himself, if returned (viz ,
in 1847), immediately to move a total repeal of the Win-
dow-tax, a repeal of the Income-tax, and a re-modelling
of the new Poor-law." This was, indeed, " thinking
like a statesman."
Mr. Foster is now, I am told, in the prime of life, and
is the father of that highly-talented young and rising
barrister, Mr. Campbell Foster, the late Times' commis-
sioner in Ireland.
Mr. Collins, jun., and Mr. Lawson, the two candi-
dates from the very rump of the Tory camp, were the
only gentlemen who were offered for the choice of the
electors; and Mr. Collins was returned. He also is a
young barrister, but who, albeit he has plenty of talk,
will certainly " never set the Thames on fire; his father
is not, nor ever was, the vicar of Knaresborough, as has
been falsely represented; but he is " a Reverend unat-
tached." His grandfather was an attorney, of the firm
of Collins and Richardson, whilst his notorious great-
grandfather—" the less that is said about him the
better."
Knaresborough is also justly celebrated for its ancient
castle—perhaps the remains of the strongest feudal edi-
fice in England. A capital account of this castle is given
by a very able historian and good man, the late Mr. Ely
Hargrove, of Knaresborough, a book which will well
repay its perusal; it also contains the original account
of Eugene Aram, now immortalized by our great Bul-
wer; also the birth of Mother Shipton, who was born
near the famous " dropping well" at Knaresborough;
also the history of the famous " Blind Jack," of Knares-
borough—perhaps the most extraordinary blind man of
modern times.—l am, Sir, &c., G. W.
Bradford, July 16.