A CURIOUS ELECTIONEERING BILL. IT° THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'}

SIE,—During the time of a contested election in Meath some sixty-five years ago, Sir Mark Somerville sent orders to the proprietor of the hotel in Trim to board and lodge all persons who should vote for him. In due course he received the fol- lowing bill, which he had framed and preserved in Somerville House, County Meath, A copy of it was found in the month -of April, 1826, among the papers of the deceased Very Rev. Archdeacon O'Connell, Vicar-General of the Diocese of Meath. It ran thus :— MY BILL Youa noNoun.

To eating 10 freeholders above stairs for Sir Marks at

3s. 6d. a head is to me .42 12 0 For eating 16 more below stairs and two Priests after

supper is to me ... ...

2 15 9 To six beds in one room and four in another at two guineas every bed and not more than four in any bed

at a time—cheap enough God knows, is to me ...

22 15 0

To 18 horses and 5 mules about my yard all night at 13s. every one of them, and for a man which was lost

on head of watching them all night, is to me ... 3 5 0 For breakfast on tay in the morning for every one of them and as many more as they brought as near as

I can guess is to me ..

4 12 0

To raw whiskey and punch without talking of pipes and tobacco as well as for porter, and as well as for breakfasting a lot above stairs and for glasses and delf for the first day and night I am not sure, but, for three days and a half of the election as little as can call it and not to be very exact it is in all or thereabouts and not to be too particular it is to me

•

79 15 9

For shaving and cropping of the heads of the 49 free- holders for Sir Marks at 13d. for every head of them by my brother who has a vote, is to me ...

2 13 1 For medicine and nurse for poor Tom Kernan in the middle of the night when he was not expected, is to

Tim ten hogs—I don't talk of the Piper or for keeping him sober, as long as he was sober, is to me ... 40 10 0

The total is £100 10s. 7d., you may say £111; so your honour Sir Mark send Ille this Eleven hundred by Bryan himself, who and prays for your success always in Trim and no more at present.—

8i gned in place of Jemmy Can's wife, his

BRYAN + GARRATY

mark.