POLITICAL HISTORY until the next year ; the second did valuable garrison duty, and the third furnished nearly 1,000 trained men for the regular army. In 1859 Staffordshire was one of the first counties to respond to the call for volunteers, and six companies were at once raised from Walsall, Longton, Hanley, Handsworth, Lichfield, and Wolverhampton ; and by the end of the next year forty companies of riflemen had been raised who were organized into five battalions, as well as one corps of artillery. In the territorial organization of 1881 the South Staffordshire Regiment comprised the 38th Foot as first battalion, the 8oth as second ; while the third and fourth battalions were composed of the First Staffordshire Militia, with three volunteer battalions. 887 The North Staffordshire Regiment was composed of the 64th and gSth Foot and the Second and Third Staffordshire Militia with two volunteer battalions ; and this arrangement of the county forces remained for five and twenty years unaltered. 868 To the South African War, 18991902, besides the two regular bat- talions mentioned above, Staffordshire sent all four militia battalions, seven companies of volunteers, and one company of imperial yeomanry. The list of members of Parliament for Staffordshire during the eighteenth century shows a constant succession of well-known county names : Wrottes- ley, Littleton, Bagot, Leveson-Gower, Dyott, Anson, Chetwynd, Paget, etc., for trade had made as yet little difference to the ascendancy of the old families. In 1747 the elections at Lichfield and Stafford were marked by unusual rioting ; at the former place the Hon. R. Leveson-Gower polled 278 votes, and Thomas Anson, the brother of the great navigator, 272, the defeated candidates being Sir Lister Holt with 237 votes and G. F. Vernon with 229. s " An excellent example of the manner in which territorial magnates con- trolled elections at this period is given by the following agreement drawn up in October, 1765, between Lords Townsend and Weymouth respecting the Tamworth election : In consideration of opposition to Thurlow upon the Manour interest being dropped by Lord Townsend, Lord Weymouth agrees that if Townsend and Mr. Luttrell will each give .500 towards the election, Lord Weymouth will provide a seat in the next parliament for any nominee of Townsend's. Weymouth also agreed to fill up by his interest one half of the corporation with Townsend's friends. 870 Accordingly Edward Thurlow of the Inner Temple was elected for Tamworth in that year, and re-elected in 1770 on his appoint- ment as Solicitor-General, and again in the next year when made Attorney- General, 871 a position which he occupied till raised to the House of Lords. 867 Army List, 1881. " Ibid. 1906. 369 Contemporary MS. in ' Lichfield Elections ' in Bodleian Lib. The riots are thus alluded to by a contemporary rhymer : ' At every meeting mobs arose, And freely dealt each other blows ; Highfliers quickly were brought down By a swinging knock o' the crown (!) In chanels weltring lay a squire, A lord perhaps flung in the mire.' 'The Lichfield Squabble,' in Bodleian Lib.
- Hut. AfSS. Com. Rep. xi, App. iv, 401. OT Par!. Accts. and Papers, Ixii (2), 131, 143.
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