in Yorkshire did much worse, the tones having gained in seven instances and lost only in one. Hull and Liverpool had "freemen" nursed in all the corruption of the old system; Knaresborough, returning as many members as as Manchester, had a handful of voters easily corruptible; and Wigan had been rotten when a close borough, and the old leaven had leavened a great part of the new mass. Boroughs too small, boroughs cursed with "freemen," boroughs needing the protection of the ballot—these were the causes of defeat in those three counties, which ought to have given a preponderance of free-trade votes, equivalent to the loss which was anticipated in the agricultural district.
There were some elections which could not fail to afford high gratification to every true friend of his country, as giving proof that the good seed would, in due time, produce good fruit. Thus, at Walsall, where some doubt was entertained of returning an anti-corn-law candidate—where it was feared that neglected registration and the length of the Gladstone purse would, for one Parliament, give the representation to that family, Mr. Scott, a member of the League, was triumphantly returned. The abundant instruction which had been diffused amongst the electors during the canvass of Mr. J. B. Smith, had not been forgotten, and the spirit which had been engendered there by Mr. Cobden's addresses had not subsided. Mr. Scott, without treating a single voter, without expending a single farthing beyond the legal expenses, and with no other services from the League than the services of Mr. Joseph Hickin, its secretary, a native of Walsall, routed his antagonist under circumstances that promised to drive him from that borough for ever. Thus, at Bolton, John Bowring was returned, to give effect in Parliament to the political and commercial principles of Jeremy Bentham. As an honourable ambassador to other nations he could have effected treaties that would have elevated this country
