GENERAL GROSVENOR. 73 



as a field of battle, and, except that your own com- 

 patriots were doing their best to kill each other, 

 there was but little difference in the animosity they 

 entertained towards one another. Brick-bats used to 

 fly about instead of cannon balls, and bludgeons took 

 the place of swords, and with these implements of 

 warfare an election row was a somewhat serious affair, 

 for no greater set of ruffians could be found anywhere 

 than those who constituted an election mob ; and 

 when they had got into a real good state of excite- 

 ment, and their dander was up under the influence 

 of Chester ale, which in those days was far-famed, 

 they would stick at nothing, and would have mur- 

 dered their own father and mother if they had been 

 on the opposite side of the question. It so happened 

 that the General had gained his election, and his 

 supporters, wishing to do him all honour, had taken 

 the horses out of his carriage, and were dragging 

 him in triumph over Chester bridge ; the opposition 

 party, however, corning up, there was a regular 

 scrimmage, and their object was to throw the carriage 

 over the bridge into the Dee. This they had all 

 but succeeded in doing, but, as the General told me, 

 " I was too much for them, for just as the carriage 

 was being lifted up against the side of the bridge I 



