rush forward like a hero, and to contrast the
thunder of his eloquence against Lord
Lincoln's imbecility." Every tongue but the
speaker's was silent; every ear was erect, and
gratified by the fulness of the speaker's
voice. The poll lasted fourteen days, when
Lord Lincoln resigned. As the poll was
closing, a riot took place, and an attempt was
made to seize the poll books. Two of Mr.
Fox's clerks narrowly escaped with their
lives.

After the declaration of the poll, a chairing
and a dinner took place. In the evening
Fox and his friends proceeded to Drury Lane
Theatre, where Fox was welcomed by the
Duchess of Devonshire and a court of English
beauties and celebrities, all of them dressed
in blue and orange, and with foxes' tails in
their head-dresses. The lobby of the theatre
after the performances (the Tempest—All the
World's a Stage) were over, looked like a
committee-room, because of the great number
of party-colours displayed both by the ladies
and the gentlemen.

The pasquinades upon this election were
mostly against Fox and his friends, and
Dibdin was retained by government to write
the street and party songs. Dibdin,
however, after this election, became one of
Fox's partisans, and lost a pension for his
patriotism. (He regained a part of it afterwards.)

In seventeen hundred and eighty-two,
Admiral Rodney was called up to the House of
Peers. A vacancy for Westminster being thus
created, Mr. Fox was deputed to write to
Sir Cecil Wray, requesting him to become a
candidate for the vacant seat. Sir Cecil
Wray, who was then in Yorkshire, replied
that his fortune was not great enough to bear
a canvass such as that of Westminster Mr.
Fox, upon this signification, wrote that "the
committee for managing the election take all
the expenses upon themselves, and a
subscription will be immediately made for that
purpose." Sir Cecil Wray was elected without
opposition, although Lord Hood's friends
were anxious for the nomination of his
lordship.

The chairing followed. An elegant chair
had been ordered for the purpose, but did
not arrive in time. The workhouse chair,
therefore, about which were several strong
ropes, was brought to the hustings by parties
unfriendly to the cause of Fox and Wray,
and the new member was forced into it by
the mob, who carried him in his very
ludicrous and perilous situation as far as
Southampton Street. There, with great difficulty,
and after promising to stand beer, tobacco,
bread and cheese to all his supporters, he
prevailed upon the people to permit him to
descend; being fortunately a brisk runner,
he no sooner was on his legs than he ran
off to his committee-room, followed by the
whole mob in full cry. More than fifty pounds
were spent in treating the men outside, before
he could be got out of his committee-room
again.

At the election of seventeen hundred and
eighty-four, Fox, supported by the Whigs,
repudiated Sir Cecil Wray, whom he had
brought forward two years before, and joined
Lord Hood. A tremendous struggle ensued,
and was of forty days' duration. The
opposition against Fox commenced previous to
the dissolution, and arose out of an address
moved to the King, at a meeting held the
twenty-ninth of January, seventeen hundred
and eighty-four, respecting the India Bill.

The nomination took place on the first of
April, and the tumult was terrific. The
high-bailiff was unable to take the sense of
the meeting by a show of hands, and the
attempt so to do was given up. The whole
district was one continued scene of riot and
confusion till about two o'clock. Lord Hood
was escorted to the hustings by a party of
sailors, some of whom bore a model of the
Ville-de-Paris, which was destroyed in the
crowd. The attempt to preserve it caused a
furious contest, ending in the defeat of the
sailors. In this battle the butchers of
Newport Market, headed by a band of marrow-
bones and cleavers, took a distinguished part.
Mr. Fox was warmly supported by the Prince
of Wales, and bitterly opposed by the Queen.
To such an extent did the court influence
extend, that Mr. Austin, a distinguished
artist, for taking an active part in behalf of
Fox, received positive orders to withdraw his
paintings from the Royal Academy Exhibition.
General St. John, brother to Lord Bolingbroke,
was dismissed from his office of groom
of the bedchamber to his Majesty for voting
for Fox. Lord Weymouth wrote him an
official letter, to say that his Majesty had no
further occasion for his services. But Fox
had a most able canvasser in the person of
the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire. Her
Grace freely bestowed kisses for promises of
votes, and had no less than three of her own
carriages constantly engaged under her
immediate directions in bringing electors to
the polling-booth. The lampoons upon her
character seemed only further to excite
her energies, and she speedily became so great
an adept in electioneering tactics as to assume
their principal direction on behalf of Fox.
Her Grace attended the meetings, sometimes
in male attire; spoke, cajoled, chaffed, drank,
smoked, treated, promised, begged, ordered,
bullied, threatened, sang, danced, prayed, and
cried, to further the cause of "her man."
As an instance of her enthusiasm it is told
that whilst she was canvassing a butcher, by
some accident her shoe became so much torn
that she could not keep it on. In this
embarrassment she kicked the shoe away, and
said:

"See! I go barefoot to serve my friends!"

She won the vote which had been
promised for Wray. Upon asking a candlemaker
for his vote—