in the previous year to restore the ancient household suffrage, and had thus established a claim of gratitude on the new constituency, in addition to twenty years' labour in the cause of reform. Along with him stood Mr. Thicknesse, a banker of Wigan, a reformer. Against him were Mr. Kearsley, an eccentric, and not very much cultivated man, a tory of the old school and Mr. Whittle, editor of the Manchester and Salford Advertiser, a Cobbettite, who said he stood mainly because none of the other candidates would promise to vote against the tax on the "poor man's beverage." At the end of the first day's polling Kearsley resigned, and so did Whittle, who had obtained only thirteen votes. Some delay took place in making up the return, and during the absence of the mayor for that purpose, the multitude in front of the hustings, to the number of at least five thousand, swaying about alarmingly, like waves of the sea, I was requested to occupy their attention. I congratulated them on the peaceable manner in which a great constitutional right had been exercised, contrasting it with the drunkenness that used to prevail at former elections; Mr. Potter had been placed at the head of the poll, and he deserved to stand there, considering what he had done for the emancipation of the borough from its self-elected burgesses; Mr. Thicknesse came next, at only a short distance, and he deserved to stand so near, as he had voted faithfully for the Reform Bill; Mr. Kearsley was far behind, and it was right that he should, for he had voted against reform. The multitude was now stilled, and I went on to express the gratification that I, who had been present when measures were originated to emancipate the borough, felt at witnessing the triumph that had been achieved; the results of the Reform Bill ought to be cheap government, cheap food, and the removal of all those restrictions on trade which prevented the working man from receiving
