A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 15

A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering 15

The obstinate and infatuated zealots, who would insist on keeping up

the pretence that parliaments were essential to the constitutional

government of the kingdom, were, with the suspected association,

treated to all the witticisms Cavalier balladists could bring to bear

against preposterous attempts to assail the royal prerogative, and

enforce the just balance of the State:--

 

“’Tis to preserve his Majesty,

That we against him rise,

The righteous cause can never die

That’s manag’d by the wise.

Th’ _Association’s_ a just thing,

And that does seem to say,

Who fights for us, fights for the King,

_The clean contrary way_.”

 

(“_A Hymn exalting the Mobile to Loyalty._”)

 

The members representing Buckingham town in the fourth parliament of

Charles II., 1679, were Lord Latimer and Sir Richard Temple.

 

“Of thirteen men there were but six

Who did not merit hemp well,

The other seven play their tricks

For Latimer and Temple.”

 

The Buckingham ballad, “The Sale of Esau’s Birthright,” which relates

to these members, is interesting from an electioneering point, as

proving bribery, and as showing there were only thirteen electors of

this limited constituency concerned in this particular return. Six

voted, according to a list at the end of the ballad, “for their king

and country,” and seven for Lord Latimer and Sir _Timber_ Temple (the

Earl of Danby, in another version), “for popery and their Town Hall”

(“Sir R. T. his Timber, Chimney-money and Court,” according to another

version). It seems certain that Sir Richard Temple had offered a

present of timber for the Town Hall--in fact, some years later he is

called “Timber Temple” (“State Poems”)--which was regarded as a bribe;

it also appears that some delay had arisen in its payment.

 

“Our prating Knight doth owe his call

To Timber, and his Lady;

Though one goes longer with Town-Hall,

Than t’other with her baby.

 

“The Bailiff[18] is so mad a spark

(Though h’ lives by tanning leather),

That for a load of Temple’s bark,

He’d sacrifice his father.”

 

The other electors were a barber, two maltsters, a baker, and a farmer;

the peppery ballad castigates the former, and concludes with a groan

against the members returned:--

 

“Thus Buckingham hath led the way

To popery and sorrow;

Those seven Knaves who make us slaves,

Would sell their God to-morrow.”[19]

 

“The Wiltshire[20] Ballad,” also belonging to this so-called “group of

election ballads,” professes to be--

 

“A new Song, composed by an old Cavalier,

Of wonders at Sarum by which doth appear,

That th’ old Devil came again lately there,

To raise a Rebellion

By way of Petition.

 

“From Salisbury, that low Hous’d Town,

Where steeple is of high renown,

Of late was brought unto the Crown

A Lesson:

’Twas drawn up by three worthy wights,

Members they were, and two were Knights,

Great trencher-men, but no one fights

Mompesson.[21]

Through discontent his Hand did set

First to the scroll without regret,

Then pilgrim-like travel’d to get

Some others,

From house to house, in Town and Close,

Our zealous Preservator goes;

Tells them of dangers and of Foes;

But smothers

The true intent of what they bring,

Who beg’d the House may sit; a thing

Which only can preserve the King,

When nothing

Destroys him more; for should he give

Consent, he’d never that retrieve,

But part with his Prerogative;

A low thing

Make himself by ’t, the rabble get

Into his high Imperial seat

They’d make him Gloriously Great!

We trow it.

They serv’d his Father so before,

These Saints would still increase the store

Of Royal Martyrs, Hum! no more,

We know it.

The herd of zealots long to see

A monarch, but in effigie,

A project which appears to be

Most witty;

And they at helm aspire to sit,

There govern without fear or wit,

King and un-king when they think fit;

That’s pretty.

To see (’twould make a Stoic smile)

_Geneva Jack_[22] thus moil and toil

To Lord it in our British Isle

Again, Sir;

And ‘Pulpit-Cuff’ us till we fight,

Lose our Estates and lives outright;

And when all’s done, he gets all by ’t,

That’s plain, Sir.

But this, I hope, nor make no mars

_Charles_ knows what’s meant by all these jars,

And these domestic paper-wars,

Conceive it;

_Tom_ of Ten Thousand,[23] is come in,

Sure such a hero much will win,

On skulls as thick, as his is _Thin_,

Believe it

The people would have power to call

Parliaments, and dissolve them; all

Regalias possess; what shall

The Saint, Sir,

Not have the power of Peace and War?

Religion steer? Holy we are,

And rich, the King shall we (be ’t far)

Acquaint, Sir?”

 

The Court party lost no opportunity of abusing their opponents of the

Constitutional and Protestant party; they not only did the Whigs the

favour to hate them cordially, but, as their own satires abundantly

demonstrate, they also dreaded and feared them not a little.

 

The more sober-sided attacks came from the opponents of overstrained

prerogative and those who upheld the popular rights of representation

against absolute monarchy; witness the following:--

 

 

“PLAIN DEALING,

 

_Or a Second Dialogue between Humphrey and Roger, as they were

returning home from choosing Knights of the Shire to sit in

Parliament_.

 

(PRINTED FOR T. B.)

 

_Roger._ Well overtook, neighbour. I see you are not a man

of your word; did you not promise me, when we last met,

that you would vote for our old members, that sat in the

last Parliament, to be Knights of the Shire, to sit in the

parliament at Oxford.

 

_Humphrey._ I thought to do so, but, by my brown cow, I have

been over-persuaded to the contrary by my Landlord and his

Chaplain, _Mr. Tantivie_, and a pestilent fine man, I think

they said he was a courtier, that lay at my Landlord’s house;

and what with arguments and wine, they drew aside my heart, and

made me vote against my conscience.

 

_Roger._ ’Twas ill done, neighbour _Numps_, but all their

artifices would not do, we have carried it by some hundreds

for our old members, that stood so bravely for their country.

 

_Humphrey._ I am glad of it with all my heart, for, to tell you

truly, tho’ my landlord had my voice, the old members had my

heart, and I’ll never do so again.

 

_Roger._ I hear most of the Counties in England are of the same

mind, and all the Burgess Towns, Cities, and Corporations; but

what arguments could they use to alter thy mind?

 

_Humphrey._ First, I say, they made me continually drunk, and

then my Landlord asked me so very civilly, and gave me so many

good words, and fine promises what a kind Landlord he would

be, that I forgot all your instructions; and methought he had

invincible arguments to persuade me.

 

_Roger._ What were they?

 

_Humphrey._ Nay, I have forgot them; but I thought no

Counsellor-at-Law, nor any Bishop, could have contradicted

them: I now remember one argument that took with me; you know I

was ever for the King, and he told me the King did not love the

old Parliament-men, and therefore I should not vote for them;

but I, being bold, asked him how he knew that.

 

_Roger._ What said he then?

 

_Humphrey._ Why he laid me as flat as a flounder, that is, he

fully convinced me, for, said he, if the King had loved them he

would not have dissolved them. I think that was demonstrable.

 

_Roger._ ’Tis no matter, tho’ the King did not love them, they

lov’d you and your country, and you should so far have loved

yourself, as not to have betrayed your own interest. What said

the Courtier?

 

_Humphrey._ ‘Faith he said not much to me, but I suppose he had

said enough to my Landlord.

 

_Roger._ And was this all your Landlord said to you? Had you

nothing to say for yourself? You spoke rationally the last time

we were together.

 

_Humphrey._ Nay, I was forward enough to speak I’ll assure you;

and I told them I was sure our old members would be for the

rooting up of Popery, and would stand stiffly against Arbitrary

Government.

 

_Roger._ What said they then?

 

_Humphrey._ My Landlord laughed at me, and told me I had been

among the _Presbyterian Whigs_, and bid me have a care of

being cheated into Rebellion, by those two words _Popery_ and

_Arbitrary Government_. Then he showed me a printed paper, I

think he called it _The Mistress of Iniquity_, which showed as

plain as the nose on my face, that in ’41 they did as we do

now, and by that means they brought one King to the block, and

so they would now do by our present Sovereign, God bless him.