298 Malmesbury Election Petition, 1807. 



succeed Mr. Wilkins unless they were pretty certain to get the 

 same or better terms out of Mr. Estcourt. Mr. Estcourt sat with 

 Mr. Wilkins when the latter was high steward, he was recommended 

 to them by Mr. Wilkins as his successor, he subsequent to his 

 election as high steward took a house in Malmesbury, he gave a 

 dinner two days before the election at which he recommended the 

 two men who were subsequently returned as members, and I confess 

 I think that there is more than a suspicion that the electors of 

 Malmesbury did not suffer pecuniarily from the change of high 

 stewards. But in justice to the memory of a high-minded gentleman, 

 such as both sides were at pains to admit that he was, I would 

 ask you to realise that at this date there was nothing derogatory 

 to such a character as he bore in being concerned with traffic of 

 this nature. The committee treated the whole matter with dignity 

 and reticence, and no doubt that which seems to us open to 

 criticism was a matter of common occurrence a hundred years ago. 

 You must remember, too,that more tban sixty years elapsed before 

 this jurisdiction was transferred to the judges from the committees, 

 on account of the notorious partiality of election committees, 

 and such committees were not likely to be less partial when 

 probably a certain number of their members owed their seats 

 to devices somewhat similar to those alleged to have been used in 

 the case of Malmesbury. 



You may, perhaps, ask what was the motive of these proceedings, 

 and how they came to be published at private expense in pamphlet 

 form, and I think I have a reasonable theory to account for both. 

 Now the petition was presented by Mr. Bouverie alone, his colleague 

 had nothing to do with it, nor did Mr. Bouverie claim the seat, as 

 his counsel urged at some length on the committee, and my surmise 

 is that the candidature, the petition, and the subsequent publication 

 of the proceedings were instigated by his cousin, Lord Folkestone, 

 and carried through simply to expose the system of corruption in 

 this borough. Lord Folkestone, who was then the Radical member 

 for New Sarum, afterwards became well known in the House of 

 Commons as a vigorous opponent of privilege in all its forms, and 

 afterwards as almost the only Badical member of the House oft 



