found a letter at the post office informing
me that the Honourable Captain Streatham,
our opponent, would be down on Tuesday, and
meet his electors the same evening. "He
cannot be away long from town," wrote my
informant, "for he is a guardsman, and his
colonel, not liking his politics, will throw every
possible hindrance in the way of his getting
much leave. But I know he will be down on
Tuesday, meet the electors, do a little canvassing,
and make haste back to town." We also
must make haste if we wished to steal a march
on him to any purpose.

Since we had secured the services of ten
public-houses, I so arranged that we met a certain
number of the free and independent at each
of those places of entertainment, thus giving
each publican a fair chance of his share of custom.
At the house chiefly used by small tradesmen
who do not spend their evenings at home, we met
as many as professed our political creed. Their
club-room was so full, that we were obliged to
adjourn to the bowling green, and there, standing
upon an empty chest, Mr. Mellam addressed
them. He said he had been asked to stand for
their borough by a numerous and influential body
of the electors (the deputation that went to him
consisted of his own local solicitor; the saddler
he employed; the rector of the parish to whom
his father had given the living, and three gentlemen
who were connexions of his wife's), and that
he felt no small pride in being asked to represent
the ancient borough of Northenville, with
which his family had been connected for the
last hundred years and more. To many of those
who possessed a franchise it was, continued
Mr. Mellam, often a somewhat difficult matter
to make oneself fully understood, but by
educated gentlemen (a marked emphasis on
these words, which were received by a "hear,
hear, hear") like those he was now speaking
to, who represent the commerce ("hear, hear"
again) and the wealth of the place, he was sure
his words would be fully understood, and his
observations, although perhaps of little value
("no, no"), would meet with that response
which all who value this that and the other
tint of Mauve would duly appreciate.

One very decided trump card Mr. Mellam
played at my suggestion. This was the taking
with him two showy London men with handles
to their names. Lord Henry Leaver was known
to be the brother of the Marquis of Greystake.
The fact of the Marquis's brother accompanying
Mr. Mellam, showed that the most noble lord was
his friend, and Greystake Castle made all its
purchases at Northenville; so did Sir George
Strayling, who had not long ago come of age, and
was about to be married and to settle down on
his own property. Each of these gentlemen
addressed a few words to the various publics of
our public-houses. We went the round of
them throughout the day, the evening, and
part of the night, until we had visited all the
ten whose services we had secured. At each of
them resolutions were carried to the effect
that Mr. Mellam was a fit and proper person to
represent Northenville in the House of
Commons, and that those present pledged
themselves to do all in their power to secure his
return.

Although the electors of Northenville are
not – or were not under the old franchise –
numerous, the town itself is a large one,
and the population very straggling. One part
of the borough is almost exclusively inhabited
by a very rough, although by no means a poor,
class of men, chiefly employed, either as
masters or servants, in the cattle trade. These
men are nearly all freeholders, although some
of them own but small plots. Upon the
Almshouse question they were fully expected to
support the Mauve candidate. But there were
others on which they were not at one with the
party which Mr. Mellam represented. They
were a rough lot, much given to drinking
spirits, and not scrupulous how, where,
or with what they struck any one who
provoked them. But as they numbered some
hundred and fifty votes, as they almost
invariably voted the same way, and as, with all
their faults, they were not to be bribed, the
candidates of every contested election at
Northenville made a point of conciliating them,
and trying hard to talk them over. At the last
election they had all voted with the Carmine
party, and this made us the more anxious to
see what could be done with them before "the
other side" had innings. It was, therefore,
agreed that they should be seen last, and in the
evening, at a public-house which they
frequented. In the mean time, Mr. Mellam
and his friends ordered dinner to be ready at
six o'clock to a minute at the Green Dragon
inn, where were our head-quarters.

If anything like strong drinking with parties
who have strong heads is expected, there is
nothing like a dinner of beefsteaks before the
meeting takes place. By my advice Mr. Mellam,
with half a dozen of his finest friends, proposed
to meet the cattle dealers in a friendly way
after dinner. There would be no speechifying. If
Mr. A. B. C. and D. – leading men among these
dealers – would drop in in a quiet way, we
might have a glass of grog together, and
talk over matters; and if each would bring all
his friends with him, so much the better would
we be pleased.

For good canvassing work there is nothing
like your real swell. He don't like what he has
to go through, but he rides at it as he does
at bullfinches in the shires, and his very
pluck seems to carry him over. To see Lord
Henry Leaver, Sir George Strayling, and the
rest of Mr. Mellam's fine friends drink their
tumblers of hot rum and water, or hot brandy
(brown English) and water, and smoke their
long clay pipes, any one would think they
must have been brought up to it all their lives.
I can take my glass when obliged to do so, but I
could not match stomachs with these men, who
had probably never tasted the villanous
compounds more than half a dozen times in their
lives. The meeting was a decided success;