The proceedings of the victorious candidate
subsequent to the election are sufficient
evidence of the way in which this election
had been carried. A petition was presented
to the House of Commons containing
the usual allegations of bribery, and
claiming the seat. As the petitioners were
clearly in earnest, and as there could be
little or no doubt of the result, the newly–
elected member executed a strategic
movement, and ran away. That is to say, he
wrote to the Speaker announcing his intention
not to defend his election, but to
let judgment go by default, and thus
abandoned the position. Probably the
petitioner would have obtained the seat but
for the death of King William the Fourth,
which occurred at this time, and which
was the signal for some further jockeying
in the matter of this petition. Parliament
was presently dissolved, and, of course, the
House of Commons had no opportunity of
investigating the matter.

The election to the first Parliament of
the reign of her present Majesty took place
in 1837, and the result of the Bridgwater
polling was perhaps the most extraordinary
ever chronicled. Mr. Broadwood, the gentleman
who had not accepted the wager of
battle on the petition just mentioned,
offered himself once more for election in
the Conservative interest. With him stood
Mr. Courtenay, another of those wealthy
strangers who appear to have always been
ready to pour their gold into the greedy
lap of Bridgwater. The Liberals, on
their side, were ready with two
candidates. The one, Mr. Sheridan, had
been defeated by Mr. Broadwood at the
previous election, and had subsequently
petitioned, and the other was Sir T. B.
Lethbridge. These two gentlemen had
consented to contest the borough on receiving
a requisition signed by a majority
of the registered electors inviting them to
come forward and promising support. But
the result showed that treachery must
be added to venality in the catalogue of
Bridgwater's failings. The numbers were:

Four years later, Bridgwater was again
gladdened by a contested election. Mr.
Broadwood again offered himself, and had
as an ally yet another wealthy stranger, "a
large iron merchant in Wales," while the
Liberals, on their part, produced two more
wealthy strangers. A vast expenditure of
money resulted in the return of both Conservatives.
Bribes ranged from forty to
fifty pounds each, and were taken by
men worth thousands of pounds. What
are the miserable pounds, and two pounds,
and fifteen shillings of Beverley to this?

It was well for the bribees that money
was plentiful on this occasion, as six years
passed without another contest. It was
not until the general election of 1847 that
the pleasant chink of corrupt gold was
again to gladden the venal ears of Bridgwater.
Mr. Broadwood again took the
field. Against him there was but one
candidate in the Liberal interest, Colonel
Tynte. Even Mr. Broadwood had at
last become tired of the frightful expenditure
necessary at Bridgwater elections.
Colonel Tynte had not as yet had personal
experience of it, but, being the son of an
old member for the borough, doubtless
knew something of the circumstances, if
only by tradition. Both candidates being
thus of one mind, Mr. Benjamin Lovibond,
solicitor, "patron," and, so to speak,
backer of the colonel, had little difficulty
in privately effecting a coalition with the
backers of the other man. But this arrangement
did not at all suit certain other legal
gentlemen attached to the Liberal party.
A contest must be secured, or how could
all the lawyers of the town profit by the
election? A candidate must be found on
any terms. Accordingly, Mr. Henry
Lovibond, only distantly, if at all, related to
Mr. Benjamin Lovibond, went to London,
and returned on the nomination day itself,
only just in time to win the show
of hands, with a "Purity" candidate in
the Liberal interest. The coalition between
the other candidates was talked
of in the town, and was not popular
—naturally enough, as, if successful, it
would have stopped the accustomed flow of
bribery money. The "Purity" candidate
was so warmly supported, that soon after
the opening of the poll he was found to be
in the second place. Here was a dilemma
for Colonel Tynte's backers! It was impossible
to avoid, outwardly at least, the
show of supporting the other Liberal; but