A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering in the Old Days Showing the State of Political Parties and Party Warfare at the Hustings and in the House of — Text and Context

The assembling of parliaments--Synopsis of parliamentary history--Orders for the attendance of members--Qualifications for the franchise: burgesses, burgage-tenures, scot and lot, pot-wallopers, faggot-votes, splitting--Disqualifications: alms, charity, “faggots,” “occasionality”--Election of knights of the shire, and burgesses--Outlines of an election in the Middle Ages--Queen Elizabeth and her faithful Commons--An early instance of buying a seat in the Commons--Returns vested in the municipal corporations; “Money makes the mayor to go”--Privileges of parliament--“Knights girt with a sword”--Inferior standing of the citizens and burgesses sent to Parliament--Reluctance of early constituencies to sending representatives to parliament--Paid members--Members chosen and nominated by the “great families”--The Earl of Essex nominating his partisans and servants--Exemption from sending representatives to the Commons esteemed a privilege--The growth of legislative and electoral independence--The beginning of “contested elections”--Coercion at elections--Lords-lieutenant calling out the train-bands for purposes of intimidation--Early violence--_Nugæ Antiquæ_; the election of a Harrington for Bath, 1658-9; the present of a horse to paid members--The method of election for counties, cities, and boroughs--Relations of representatives with their constituents--The “wages” of members of parliament--“Extracts from the Proceedings of Lynn Regis”--An account rendered to the burgesses--The civil wars--Peers returned for the Commons in the Long Parliament after the abolition of the House of Lords. 1

Influence of administration under Charles I.--Ballad on the Commonwealth--House of Commons: “A General Sale of Rebellious Household Stuff”--The Parliament under the Restoration--Pepys and Prynne on the choosing of “knights of the shire”--Burgesses sent up at the discretion of the sheriffs--The king’s writ--Evils attending the cessation of wages to parliamentary representatives--Andrew Marvell’s ballad on a venal House of Commons--The parliament waiting on the king--Charles II. and his Commons--“Royal Resolutions,” and disrespect for the Commons--The Earl of Rochester on Charles II.’s parliament--Interference in elections--Independence of legislators _versus_ paid members--The Peers as “born legislators and councillors”--“The Pensioner Parliament” coincident with the remission of salaries to members of the Commons--“An Historical Poem,” by Andrew Marvell--Andrew Marvell as a paid member; his kindly relations with his Hull constituents--Writ for recovering arrears of parliamentary wages--Uncertainty of calling another parliament--The Duke of Buckingham’s intrigues with the Roundheads; his “Litany”--Degradation of parliament--Parody of the king’s speech--Relations of Charles II. and his Commons--Summary of Charles II.’s parliaments--Petitioners, addressers, and Abhorrers--The right of petitioning the throne--The Convention Parliament--The Long Cavalier Parliament--The Pensioner Parliament and the statute against corruption--“The Chequer Inn”--“The Parliament House to be let”--The Habeas Corpus Parliament--The country preparing for Charles II.’s fourth parliament--Election ballads: “The Poll,”--Origin of the factions of Whigs and Tories--Whig and Tory ballads--“A Tory in a Whig’s Coat”--“A Litany from Geneva,” in answer to “A Litany from St. Omer”--The Oxford Parliament of eight days--“The Statesman’s Almanack”--A group of parliamentary election ballads, 1679-80--Ballad on the Essex petitions--The Earl of Shaftesbury’s “Protestant Association”--“A Hymn exalting the Mobile to Loyalty”--The Buckingham ballad--Bribery by Sir Richard “Timber” Temple--The Wiltshire ballad--“Old Sarum”--Petitions against prerogative--The royal pretensions to absolute monarchy--The “Tantivies,” or upholders of absolute kingly rights over Church and State--“Plain Dealing; or, a Dialogue between Humphrey and Roger, as they were returning home from choosing Knights of the Shire to sit in Parliament, 1681;” “Hercules Rideing”--“A Speech without-doors, made by a Plebeian to his Noble Friends”--Philippe de Comines on the British Constitution--On freedom of speech--A true Commonwealth--The excited state of parties at the summoning of the Oxford Parliament, 1681--Ballads on the Oxford Parliament--The impeachment of Fitz-Harris, and the proposal of the opposition to exclude the Duke of York from the “Protestant succession”--Squabble on privilege between the Peers and Commons--The Oxford Parliament dismissed, after eight days, on this pretence--“The Ghost of the Late Parliament to the New One to meet at Oxford”--“On Parliament removing from London to Oxford”--“On his Majesty’s dissolving the late Parliament at Oxford”--A “Weeked” Parliament. 22