The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-15 00:00:00

DEATH OF MR. THOMAS SLINGSBF
DUNCOMBE, M.P.

Mr. Thomas Siingsby I)uncombe, M P. for the
borough of Finsbury, whose death we record this
day, ha, followed his old antagonist, Sir James
Graham, to the tomb within a few days. Although
Mr. Dancombe had been in failing health for some

time, the melancholy event was not anticipated, and
it will take the public by surprise. He was a
man who had for 30 years occupied a conspicuous
place in the public attention, partly from the fre-
quency and smartness of address, partly from the
piquancy of the assertion of the most wild and extra-
vagant Liberal dogmas by an aristocrat pur sang.
That an enormous constituency like that of Fins-
bury—one, too, which is proverbially fickle—
should, while cashiering a Challis and a Cox, men of
their own kidney, stick fast to Mr. Duncombe, who,
except in name, could have no thought in common
with the electors, is creditable to the generosity, it
not to the discernment of that body. " Tommy"
had been for years a chartered libertine, and so
great was his popularity that, in spite of his negli-
gence, hauteur, and other eccentricities, it was
hopeless to expect to turn him out, even if any one
had been venturesome enough to make the attempt.
Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, though theoretically
democratic and patriotic, was by birth, manners, and
social position onE of the " upper ten thousand," and
wo betide the Finsbury shopkeeper who presumed
to accost him in the familiar style of equality and
fraternity—except on the hustings. He was the
son of Mr. Thomas Duncombe, of Copgrove, near
Boroughbridge, Yorkshire, by Emma, daughter of
the Right Rev. Dr. Hinchcliffe, Bishop of Peter-
borough, and, no doubt, his episcopal connections
produced in him that ardour in the cause of religion
which was only equalled by the purity of his demo-
cratic zeal. The Duncombes originally came from
Buckinghamshire, and one of the family, still eli-
gibly located in the neighbourhood of Mr. Benjamin
Disraeli, was created a baronet when the right hon.
successor of Hampden was leader of the great Con-
servative party in 1858-9. A younger son of Mr.
Wm. Duncombe, of Ivinghoe, came to London in
the 17th century, and his son, a Sir Charles Dun-
combe, was Lord Mayor of London in 1708. Sir
Charles's sister, a Airs, Brown, who inherited his
fortune and called herself Duncombe, had issue by
her highly respectable husband a daughter who
became Duchess of Argyll and Greenwich, and a
son, who bought an estate in Yorkshire, and mar-
ried a daughter of Sir Thos. Slingsby, of Scriven.
The father of Mr. Thos. Duncombe, of Copgrove
(father of the just deceased M.P.), derived his estate
from his brother, who, though married three times
—first, a daughter of the fourth Earl of Carlisle—
left no issue.

Mr. Thomas Duncombe was born in 1797. Where
he was educated is uncertain, nor is it material in
estimating the political status of the man, but it is
known that he served for some time as an officer in
the 4th Dragoons, which regiment he quitted with
the rank of lieutenant shortly after the close of the
war. He entered the House of Commons first in
1826, as member for the borough of Hertford in the
unreformed Parliament ; and having been lucky
enough to gain the confidence of his constituents,
was re-elected in 1830, and again in 1831. In 1832,
on the passing of the Reform Bill—to the success
of which he had powerfully contributed by his
animated and vigorous addresses, both within and
without the walls of the House—he was turned out
with his Liberal colleague, Lord Mahon (Earl Stan-
hope) and Lord Ingestre (Earl of Shrewsbury and
Talbot) being the successful candidates. Although
the Conservative members were unseated on peti-
tion for bribery and treating, Mr. Buncombe did
not stand again. He remained out of Parliament
for two years. Lord John Russell, by his Reform
Act, brought into being the metropolitan borough
of Finsbury—a borough containing 350,000 inhabit-
ants, and about 20,000 registered electors. The first
members after the passing of the Reform Bill were
a Liberal, the Right Hon. Sir Robert Grant, and
(strange to say) a Conservative, in the person of Mr.
Sergeant Spankie. In the course of the summer of
1834, Sir Robert Grant accepted the Governorship
of Bombay, and Mr. Duncombe stood—of course in
the ultra-Whig interest—against three other can-
didates, of whom Mr. Thomas Wakley, his future
colleague, was one, and won the election by at
least 600 votes. In spite of all his political aberra-
tions, his personal eccentricities, his absence from
the House, his simulated patriotism, " Tommy Dun-
combo" has been re-elected ever since—often under
protest, but still re-elected—in Dec. 1834, July 1837,
June 1841, July 1847, June 1852, March 1857, and
April 1859. Mr. Wakley, coroner for Middlesex, '
was the congenial colleague of the hon. gentleman
from 1835 to 1852 ; Mr. Challis, a respectable
alderman in the fleshing trade, from 1852 to 1857 ;
and the memorable William Cox from 1857 to 1859.
Sir S. M. Peto has done the constituency the honour
of redeeming it in a measure from the disgrace
which had indirectly the effect of preventing the
creation of another metropolitan borough in 1860.
Mr. Thomas Duncombe's political views were
broad and unmistakable. Nothing on earth is so
easily or so cheaply accomplished as a reputation
for going the " whole hog." He was a strenuous
supporter of triennial Parliaments, secular educa-
tion, the ballot, separation of Church and State,
and the rest of the " entire animal" platform—that
is, he was loud in the advocacy of these measures as
long as he knew they could not possibly be passed ;
for, to take the first on the list, triennial Parlia-
ments would have been very inconvenient and dis-
agreeable to a gentleman of his habits. He rarely
spoke when member for Hertford, but steadily voted
for all liberal measures—Roman Catholic emanci-
pation, reform, parliamentary and municipal; but
the exigencies of a metropolitan constituency com-
pelled the hon. gentleman to speak—as metropolitan
members do speak—with frequency, if not effect.
His specialite has been church rates—his studies
and education having chiefly lain in an ecclesiasti-
cal direction—which he has vehemently opposed
ever since the year 1834, when he presented a peti-
tion against them. He also proposed, and we be-
lieve carried, a resolution forbidding the interfer-
ence of peers in elections as "unconstitutional."
His most important achievement, however, was
his vehement opposition to Sir James Graham,
for his causing the opening of Mazzini's
letters during their passage through the Post-office,

through which manipulation the Bandiera brothers
were executed by Austria. Mr. Duncombe was the
popular hero of the day. He denounced Sir James,
then Home Secretary, in the House and out of it,
day after day ; and though Lord Brougham in the
House of Lords at once exposed the fallacy of the
Earl of Radnor's arguments directed against Sir
James, by showing that the power of opening
letters had been notoriously the prerogative and
duty of the Secretaries of State since the days of
Charles James Fox, Lord Radnor's chief, who had
exercised the right in common, the matter formed a
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proved. It is impossible to particularise all the
debates in which " Tommy Duncombe" took a noisy
if not a very influential part. He spoke very often,
indeed, ever since Finsbury marked him for her
own ; and in late years many Symptoms of the
wonted fires were visible in the emaciate but still
fashionable-looking " roliQ of the past" as often the
agents of the Anti-State Church Association scented
out an opportunity of damaging the Church, or the
Balloteers were hard pressed for a smart speech in
their favour.
Mr. Duncombe's personal characteristics have

been probably the cause of his popularity, which

otherwise would be utterly unintelligible, for he
never proposed any practical measure, never car-
ried any item in the little bill of the ultra-
Radicals. He was a fop and a dandy of the first
water; his style of dress was in perfect taste, his
manners pleasant and genial, his person—even to
the last, in spite of the ravages of time—handsome.
Radical as he was in his youth, he was always a
welcome guest at aristocratic tables, and mixed in
the highest society ; and if of late years he Wm
gradually withdrawn from society, the cause is not
to be sought for in his waning popularity, but in
circumstances totally different. His latest
elll
appearance has been in connection
i
with the patriots