Malmesbury Election Petition, 1807. 293 



what little I know of him I doubt if he was keenly interested in 

 political matters. He was not a witness before the Committee. 

 The Committee sat for four days, and heard a number of witnesses 

 on behalf of the petitioner, but no evidence was called on the part 

 of the sitting members, and at the close of counsel's speech on 

 their behalf the Committee dismissed the petition, but held that 

 it was not frivolous or vexatious. 



The hearing began before fifteen M.P.'s on 27th February, 1807,. 

 Mr. Thomas Stanley in the chair. The petition alleged that 

 at the last general election there were six candidates proposed to* 

 the electors, and charges the two who were returned, Messrs. 

 Ladbrook and Colbourn, with bribery, corruption, and treating. It 

 appears that the right of election in this place was vested in one 

 alderman and twelve burgesses (thirteen in all), and counsel even 

 at that date was compelled to admit that this seems a rather 

 small number for so important a task ; on this occasion the two 

 members were returned by the votes of five people — no other of 

 the thirteen qualified exercising their right. There were, therefore,, 

 six gentlemen soliciting the votes of five people. It is somewhat 

 remarkable that throughout the lengthy proceedings it nowhere 

 appears of what political complexion were any of these six gentle- 

 men. We may surmise that the candidates returned were Tories,, 

 inasmuch as Mr. Estcourt, who, you will hear really returned the 

 members, was probably a Tory, but whether they were supporters 

 of Lord Grenville, who was then the Prime Minister, or what 

 views they held of the late Mr. Pitt, who had recently died, or 

 whether, indeed, anybody concerned in this election paid the 

 slightest attention to any public question, cannot be gathered, or 

 indeed inferred, from anything that is reported in the course of 

 these proceedings. This may seem to you remarkable, but you 

 must remember, that we are politically in the Stone Age, and in 

 boroughs of this description the mandates of which we now hear 

 so much, were given, not as you might suppose by the thirteen 

 persons who had the power of returning a member, but by the 

 person who had taken efficient and sufficient means to secure that 

 that power should be exercised in a certain way. 



