42 ELECTIONS 



the first of which a great number of nobles — indeed, the 

 chiefs of the Lancastrian party — were slaughtered. In 

 the second the Yorkists were defeated, and the great Earl 

 of "Warwick obliged to fly for his life. New England 

 hills, as some artificial mounds are called, apparently a 

 Roman camp is the site of one, and Bernard's heath of 

 the other. The latter is now often the scene of a far less 

 bloodv and more rational character — the war or j?ame of 

 cricket. 



This old town is also renowned for its political or 

 electoral contests ; and before, and more particularly 

 since, the Reform Bill, has always been open to the 

 highest bidder. A pot-walloping borough so near the 

 metropolis, there was never any lack of candidates, and 

 ludicrous and absurd were the means taken to ensure 

 success. Although it was notorious, and well understood 

 on both sides, that each poor voter was to receive a certain 

 sum, still it was thought necessary to give £20 for a 

 parrot, or £15 for a monkey, just brought from abroad, 

 by some seafaring member of a poor family, to place a 

 London banker, a city alderman, or a scion of the noble 

 house of Blenheim, at the head of the poll. 



I witnessed two or three of these exhibitions of the 

 representative system during the time I drove through 

 St. Albans, and I cannot say they gave me a very lofty 

 idea of the worth of the constituency, the patriotism of 

 the candidates, or the infallibility of our institutions. 

 The practice, which it was the intention of the Reform 

 Bill to prevent, had become more gross and palpable, till 

 the Legislature thought it necessary to suspend the writ, 

 which long remained in abeyance. 



