302 REMINISCENCES OF 



Having made my last speech and withdrawn 

 from the contest, I breathed more freely. I hated 

 the whole business, and I was awfully tired and had 

 a buzzing in my ears, from which I have never 

 recovered. George Whyte-Melville wrote " con- 

 gratulating me on not becoming an M,P." 



I wrote to my father-in-law : 



"CHARLETON, COLINSBURGH, 

 " igth April, 1864. 



" MY DEAR MR. GRAY, 



" I received your letters yesterday, and all 

 your remarks about the election are very just. The 

 Conservative party have done nothing either to 

 improve the registration or to keep the party to- 

 gether, and they started in the mistaken hope that my 

 personal popularity with the farmers could counter- 

 balance the Radicalism of the ten-pounders. The 

 other party have a thoroughly well-organised system 

 every shopkeeper, every foreman of works, is put 

 on their working committees, and thus influence the 

 others. Another advantage they have is, all the 

 cheap newspapers are Radical, and the Scotsman 

 newspaper and McFarlane, the agent at Dunferm- 

 line, could almost return the member without other 

 assistance. There was a majority of 125 against 

 me in Dunfermline, pledged, which it would take 

 twenty rural parishes to counteract. Another thing 

 is, many of our agents are not men of real good 

 character. 



" As for my own part, I had never given a serious 



