SIR RICHARD BETHELL. 29 



of Aylesbury. When he started' for the Borough his 

 great patron was Mr. Acton Tindal, and both he and 

 Bethell were members of the Conservative Club ; yet 

 Bethcll came forward to oppose Bousfield Ferrand, who 

 was already in the field as the Tory and Protectionist 

 candidate, Bethell posing as the champion of Free Trade 

 and advanced Whiggery. He defeated Ferrand during 

 the last half-hour of the poll by twenty-two votes out of 

 a constituency of I2C0. 



As this was a test election in an agricultural constitu- 

 ency about Protection and Free Trade, it made the 

 Conservative party extremely angry, and they proposed 

 that both Bethell and Tindal should be expelled from 

 the Conservative Club. At that time Mr. W. Bcresford, 

 one of the members for Essex, had made himself very 

 notorious for his pronounced Toryism, and had delivered 

 some very foolish speeches. He was known in the 

 House of Commons by the sobriquet of '* \V. B." At 

 the meeting to consider the expulsion, as the club-room 

 was crowded, " W. B." got on a chair at the back of the 

 room, and during Bethell's speech in defence of himself, 

 called out, '' Speak louder, we can't hear you." Bethell 

 turned round, pointed at " W. B.," and, in his sneering 

 way, said, " Can't )'OU hear me .'' Why, your ears are 

 long enough." When wit failed him, rudeness was a 

 sure resource. Another story was equally characteristic. 

 It is related that when Bethell was offered the Vice- 

 Chancellorship he said, " I do not see the force of giving 

 up fourteen thousand a year, and the pleasure of making 

 very good speeches, for that of taking five thousand a 

 year and the misery of listening to very bad ones." He 



