OLD ELECTIONS i35 



beeu brought to an end tlirougii the agency of the 

 several Eeform Acts, passed by well-meaning Legisla- 

 tures to secure the purity of Parliamentary elections. 

 As if treating, and the crossing of horny hands with 

 gold were the only ways of corrupting a constituency 

 that the wit of man, or the address of a candidate, 

 could discover ! The palm no longer receives the coin ; 

 but who has not heard of the modern art of ' nursing 

 a constituency,' by which the candidate, eager for 

 Parliamentary honours, sits down before a town, or a 

 county division, subscribes liberally to hospitals and 

 horticultural societies, cricket and football clubs, opens 

 bazaars, and presides at Young Men's Christian 

 Associations, thereby winning the votes which would 

 in other days have been acquired by palming the men 

 and kissino- all the babies ? This tea-ficyht business 

 gives us no picturesque situations like that in which 

 Charles James Fox figured. Fox was canvassing 

 personally, and called upon one of the bluff and blunt 

 order of voters, who listened to his eloquence, and 

 remarked, ' Sir, I admire your abilities, but damn 

 your principles I ' To wdiich Fox supplied the obvious 

 retort, ' Sir, I admire your sincerity, but damn your 

 manners I ' 



Andover no longer sends a representative to 

 Parliament, but in the brave old days it elected two. 

 With a knowledge of the wholesale purchasing of 

 votes that then went on, it will readily be perceived 

 that Andover, with two members to elect, must have 

 been a place flowing with milk and honey ; or, less 

 metaphorically, a happy hunting-ground for guineas 

 and free drinks. It was somewhere about a hundred 



