JOHN GULLY. 79 



sum he should receive on that occasion. He had not got the letter 

 with him, but would very readily produce it to the hon. and learned 

 member if he desired it. He certainly at the time thought it was 

 very extraordinary, when the hon. and learned member was making 

 an accusation against Mr. O'Connell, and after being himself twice 

 accused of bribing electors, that he did not instantly inquire into the 

 subject himself." 



This, it must be admitted, was hard-hitting on the part of a 

 man who had really been quite unaccustomed to public speak- 

 ing. It is only fair to Mr. Hardy to say that he " came up to 

 time" and demanded the production of the said letter. Accordingly 

 on June 22nd, 1836, John Grully rose to call the attention of the 

 House to a circumstance which occurred in a previous debate, and 

 said "that although an apology might be due to that House, he 

 had none to make to the hon. and learned member for Bradford." 

 He thereupon produced a letter from a gentleman who had seconded 

 ]Mr. Hardy in his election at Pontefract, which could leave no doubt 

 that Mr. Hardy had been guilty of bribery. The matter was of 

 course the subject of a long and angry debate, but was eventually 

 hushed up, there being very few members of the honourable and 

 reformed House of Commons to whom discussion on such a subject 

 was not extremely distasteful. Diiring the whole course of the 

 debate, however, it is noteworthy that Gully was always calm and 

 dignified ; always at home, whether for attack or defence. In the 

 course of the affair he observed that the hon. and learned gentleman 

 had asked him whether or not he (Gully) had himself paid any head 

 money. " He would answer the hon. and learned gentleman that 

 if he had paid head-money and had afterwards declared that he 

 never had been guilty of bribery in any shape whatever, he should 

 consider himself unworthy of a seat in that House." A retort which 

 completely shut up Mr. Hardy. Gully, however, did not much care 

 for senatorial honours, in fact he would not have offered himself as 

 a candidate had he not been piqued to beard the Mexborough 

 influence at Pontefract. He was anxious to assert a principle and 

 give pleasure to his fellow-townsfolk, and, when the first purjwse 

 was secured, he retired, to their deep regret, from what would in- 

 fallibly have been a seat for life. He only sat during two sessions, 

 and resigned on the ground that the late hours had proved injurious 

 to his health. In which excuse most jDCople thought they detected 

 a touch of ironical humour. 



But to return to Mr. Gully's turf career. The success with which 

 he and Mr. Ridsdale met did not cement their friendship, and their* 

 quarrel came at last to its climax in a personal encounter in the 

 hunting-field, when Gully mercilessly thrashed his former partner, 

 after which Mr. Eidsdale brought an action for assault, that termi- 

 nated in a verdict with £500 damages for the plaintiff, a decision 

 which met with so much approval from the bulk of the spectators in 

 the crowded court, most of them hunting men, with whom " Bobby " 



