The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-25 00:00:00

REIGATE.

REIGATE, 0ur.„23.
At-fro'clock- this morning the polling Vocal.§
were opened, the principal one being in the town of
Reigate and the other at Redhill,or lteigate Foreign,
as it is termed. The contest, as was contemplatd,
has been a very close one, and until nearly the close
of the poll it was very uncertain which of the two
candidates would be the successful one. The
friends of Mr. Wilkinson made the most strenuous
exertions to place him at the head of the poll upon
the first return bein., made, and by a strong effort
they succeeded in doing so, the numbers declared
at 9 o'clock being :—Wilkinson, 87 ; Monson, 83 •,
majority for Wilkinson, 4. This put the friends of
Mr. Wilkinson into very great spirits, but the re-
turns of the succeeding hour damped their ardour.
At 10 o'clock another return was made, when there
appeared to have voted for Mr. Monson 182, and for
Mr. Wilkinson 170, the minority of the preceding
hour being thus changed into a majority of 12 for
Mr. Monson. The polling after this time was very
slack, the greater portion of the electors having
already recorded their votes. At 1 o'clock the num-
bers were—

Monson
Wilkinson
Majority for Monson -18
At 2 o'clock the numbers were—

Monson .. .
Wilkinson .

Majority for Monson
This return created intense excitement among
the supporters of Mr: Wilkinson, and they declared
that a number of their adherents who had held back
Were beginning to poll, and that at the next return
they,should have a majority. They were, hOwever,
, disappointed, for at 3 o'clock the numbers were—
Monson
• Wilkinson
Thus increasing the majority of Mr. Monson to 15.
During the succeeding hour only seven voters
polled, four of whom gave their votes for Mr. Mon-
son and three for Mr. Wilkinson, the numbers re-
turned at 4 o'clock thus being—
Monson
Wilkinson
Majority for Monson
When the last return was made the friends
of Mr. Monson who were in his committee
room at the White Hart gave three tre-
mendous cheers, and warmly congratulated him
upon the result of the contest, and shortly after 5
o'clock they escorted him to the Town-hall, where
the official declaration of the poll was to be made.
Mr. Wilkinson was also present, accompanied by a
large number of his supporters, and Mr. Monson
was received with a tremendous volley of groans
and hisses by the friends of the unsuccessful candi-
date, and this, joined to the cheers of his own sup-
' porters, rendered the noise almDst deafening. The
returning officer (Mr. Martin), a very aged gentle-
man, who has filled that office in the borough for
more than half a century, in vain endeavoured to
say a few words to the meeting, and at length he
was obliged to content himself with announcing in
dumb show the official declaration of the poll as
follows :
For Mr. Monson
For Mr. Wilkinson
Majority for Mr. Monson —ls
and he therefore declared the Hon. W. J. Monson
to be duly elected as a burgess to serve in Parlia-
ment for the borough of Reigate.

This announcement was received with loud cheers
by the friends of Mr. Monson, and with tremendous
Tells and hisses by those of Mr. Wilkinson. Mr.
Monson in vain endeavoured to address the electors
for a considerable time, but at length he was under-
stood to say that, after a protracted and arduous
struggle, the electors of Reigate had done him the
honour of returning him as their representati7e,
and he assured them that he was deeply sensible of
the honour that had been conferred upon him, and
that he would repay the confidence that had been
placed in him by carrying out every pledge he had
given. At the nomination he had expressed a con-
fident o2inion that he should be successful, and the
event had justified his anticipations, and he ex-
pressed his thanks to the electors who had given
him their votes, to his committee, to whose exer-
tions his success was mainly attributable, and also to
the general body of the electors, for the courtesy
and kindness he had experienced from them during
his arduous struggle.
Mr. WILKINSON then attempted to address the
electors, but he could not make himself heard, and
after a good deal of noise and confusion a resolution
of thanks to the High Bailiff was proposed and
carried, and the proceedings of the election were
thus brought to a conclusion.
This has been the mostsevere contest ever known
to have taken place in the borough of Reigate,
which was formerly a complete pocket borough in
the Tory interest, and it is an extraordinary proof
of the change of public opinion to find two gentle-
Inen professing extreme liberal opinions contesting
the borough, and that out of 505 electors, who com•
pose the constituency of the borough, 435 should
have recorded their votes.