32 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



London ? I thought it was only we old Tories w^ho did 

 this sort of thing ! " "I don't care," said the Baron, '^ if 

 Wentworth stands Bethell shall retire at once " ; and 

 he did, for he left the town that night for good. I 

 mention this to show how bitterly the Rothschilds and 

 the landed gentry, Liberal as well as Tory, at that time 

 resented any interference with their power — for a great 

 power this family had become in the neighbourhood of 

 Aylesbury. After this election, Mr. Nathaniel Roths- 

 child, Baron Lionel's eldest son, became the M.P. for 

 Aylesbur}^ and retained his seat until he was called to 

 the House of Lords as the first peer of the Jewish 

 persuasion that ever entered that august assembly. 



While on a visit once at Rotherham in Yorkshire, I 

 heard a curious story of the great Arkwright, the 

 inventor of the marvellous machinery which gained 

 England superiority over the world in the manufacture 

 of cotton, w4iich — I give it cum grano sails — illustrates 

 how bribery at elections was not always an unmixed 

 evil. At a General Election, I think in 1784, Mr. 

 Lascelles was one of the candidates for Preston, backed 

 by the interest of the Harewood family. Enormous 

 sums were spent by the candidates on either side. 

 During the polling, which lasted many days, Mr. 

 Lascelles was told that there was a barber named 

 Arkwright, who lived in a cellar and shaved his 

 customers for a penny, who had not voted, and wished 

 to see him. Mr. Lascelles went off alone the next 

 morning and sat down to be shaved. When the 

 operation was completed, he told ]\Ir. Arkwright, the 

 barber, who he was, and give him a ten-pound Bank of 



