96 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1903 
which gave occasion to Voltaire to say that “ Englishmen 
made themselves beasts for fourteen days in order that they 
might become slaves for seven years.” This referred to 
the fortnight during which the poll was kept open, and in 
which scenes occurred such as are depicted by Hogarth. 
That his paintings convey no exaggeration will be easily 
believed from one or two illustrations I had some years 
ago from people whose experience went back to the period 
before the Reform Bill. 
A contested election practically meant a struggle for 
supremacy between two great families, who were respec- 
tively Whig and Tory. In a borough such as that with 
which I am most familiar—Gloucester—the chief voting 
power lay with the Freemen—a body which probably 
originated as far back as the time of the Roman occupa- 
tion; for our oldest records speak of the Freemen as 
already in existence. The Freeman, wherever he went, 
retained his vote; and as much as a hundred pounds has 
been paid to bring such a man from Canada to Gloucester 
to record it. The Reform Bill only allowed votes to 
Freemen residing within seven miles of the borough 
limits. But in the old days it was a serious expense to 
bring a voter even from London to Gloucester. An agent 
would be sent to negotiate terms with him, and the 
negotiations sometimes extended over some weeks. The 
former resident in our city, who was paid for his loss of 
time in revisiting it, could not bear to come down among 
his old friends without being respectably dressed; and a 
suit of clothes was paid for accordingly. Then he found 
that his wife was unwilling for him to go alone, and a new 
dress was needful to enable her to accompany him. Some 
days after this it was found that it would not be safe to 
leave the children in London while their parents were at 
Gloucester, and an arrangement was made for the whole 
family to travel together in a four-horse coach. to and from 
