The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-30 00:00:00

.POLITICAL POTATO-DIGGING.

Among the stories current with reference to the last
West Gloucestershire election, we have been told the fol-
lowing, which is perfectly authentic. A very active legal
agent, on the Liberal side, started to bring a man to the
poll. The agent found the elector, a poor man, in his
garden. At the moment he was engaged in digging
potatoes. " Come along," said the agent ; "we want you
to vote for Kingscote and Marling." " Well," said the
elector, "I must finish digging these potatoes first, and if
You want me to go along, you had better help me." The
agent was aman of allwork, so, taking a spade, he very ably
and adroitly assisted the voter in his work, taking some-
thing like from twenty minutes to half an hour to finish
the job. " Now, come along," said the man of law
chuckling over the delight with which he would tell of his
achievement ha the committee-room. "No," said the
elector; "I might better have left the potatoes in the
ground than dig them up and leave them exposed; you
must help me to put them away." This was more than
the agent bargained for ; but, having gone so far, he deter-
mined he would not lose his man for want of going a little
further So he set bravely to work. At length this was
completed, and the two started for the next polling_piace.
" I feel uncommonly hot," said the elector, as they passed
a public-house. " After all this work, would you not like a
little drop ?" " Oh, by all means," said the agent. " Come
in." So in they went, and had a good drink, for which the
agent, of course, paid. "For whom did you say I was
to vote ?" "Of course for Kingscote and Marling," was
the reply. " Well, I don't know that," said the other, to
the utter discomfiture of the agent ; " I always have voted
blue, and I feel as blue as ever ; but I'll think on it, and
by the time we reach the booth I'll have made up my
mind." The rest of the walk was spent by the man of
law in urging the political pre-eminence of the Liberal
side over the Conservative ; but all to no purpose, for
when the all-important question was asked of the elector
by the deputy-sheriff, he gave the name of Colonel Somerset
The agent was crestfallen ; all his glorious vision of
triumph had departed in a moment ; the crowning narra-
tive which he meant to tell of how he dug and housed the
potatoes, and made sure of his man, before an admiring
committee, vanished ; but he had taken too prominent a
part in the affair not to be obliged to give an explanation,
and thinking candour and frankness the best in the mat-
ter, he plainly told how lie had been outwitted by the
"blue clodhopper," who made him dig and house pota-
toes, and find drink for two into the bargain, and all for
nothing, or (as he considered) worse than nothing.—The
Gardener'
s Magazine.

The lit nchester Exam'ner says that to conlhm -
Lion of tho earthquake reported to Lave occurred last week
Las bccu received from its ceereditEd rtA., nt, in tli3 district.
Front a careful examination of certain d,:emm-nts and envo
which h^cc reached it, however, 11:1t journal has no
doubt that the rerorts were the rceuita of a foolish and not
very creditable freak.

• -
THE FLOODING OF TIIE OUSE.—A mc2sage fr.mu
St Germains says : "At four on Monday afternoon, in
consequence of an unusually high tide, nearly fifty feet of
the east bank of the river Ouse split and subsided into the
river close to the sluice of the St. Peter's Drain, and about
half-a-mile from St. Germain's Church. Great fears are
entertained that when it is high water, at eight this
evening, the tide will come through the breach and flood
she cowArY, g.§ :P4 4-.§102":