THE MONTGOMERYSHIRE BOROUGHS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR.
SIR—Permit me to point out a mistake which occurs in your account of the result of the last contest for these Boroughs, and which I doubt not you will feel gratification in correcting. You say, that Mr. CORBETT, the unsuccessful candidate, is a man of Liberal principles, inclined to support the present Govern- ment, and that he was the candidate of the Clive party and the Gentry; and that Colonel EDWARDES, the Member, came in chiefly by the aid of the Radical manufacturers of Newtown. Now, Sir, in the first place, Mr. CORBETT is so far from being a Liberal, that he voted against Catholic Emancipation, when he represented Shrewsbury, for which place he was returned by Tory influence. In the next place, the Independent Gentry of the county were for the most part on the side of Colonel EDWARDES ; who was backed by them, and by a great majority of the new electors of these boroughs, including those of the spirited town of Newtown. Mr. pORBETT'S supporters consisted of the Hereditary Freemen of Montgomery, who are the slaves of Lord CLIVE; and such other votes as the coalesced influences of the houses of Powls and WYNNSTAY, aided by Mr. CORBETT'S personal character (which is undoubtedly excellent), could procure. I have noticed the errors in question, because I think they are calculated in some degree to help the Conservatives, in their at-. tempts to show that men of character and property are generally. with them, and only "the mob" against them. Now, how stands the fact in these Bo- roughs ? Of the 10/. householders whose votes are founded on property, Colonel EDWARDES has an immense majority ; and it is only by means of the old Free- men of Mont,gomery, mere paupers, whose votes depend upon their "birth- right," that Messieurs the Conservatives, have been enabled to show their faces stall.
Colonel EDWARDES was in a minority of 14 a few months ago ; now he has been returned by a majority of 10, despite of Powis Castle, Wynnstay, and their mainstay the Freemen of Montgomery.. So much for Tory reaction.
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