and have been no ill husbands neither; but, if we had not met with the difficulties aforesaid, half this expense would have served. And, if ever there should be the like occasion, you are sure of Bramber; for Peircy, I reckon, has passed over his interest for ever: they long very much to see you, when you come over (which I begin to hope to hear of); Mr. Pelham and I have engaged they shall
their liberties and properties, and whatever is dear to Englishmen, to assist the religion and government by law established. The latter pretended to the same, but thought the King was to have a competent income, and be invested with due power for the exercise of his regal office, without having too great a dependence on the people, a cause which had been of such pernicious effects to his royal father. Hence it was that gentlemen bestirred themselves more than usual to be elected into a seat in parliament; so that great was the competition between the candidates, and at great expenses they were, even from one or two hundred to two thousand pounds. But the concerns of the public were not what alone actuated all men; some wanted to be in the House, to be screened from their debts; that Parliament (the long Parliament) having sate a long time, and some had obtained great emoluments from the Court to stand up for their interest. So that it is no wonder that I had no less than five competitors when I offered myself for Aldborough."—Reresby's Mem. 177. Such was the state of things in 1674, and. considering the difference in the value of money, the expense of a seat in Parliament was nearly what it is at present, and the mode of obtaining it, judging from this letter of Spencer's, very much the same.
