ad prevented the sentence by voluntary surrender. They had now been
reconstituted in such a manner that they were certain to return members
devoted to the crown. Where the townsmen could not be trusted, the
freedom had been bestowed on the neighbouring squires. In some of the
small western corporations, the constituent bodies were in great part
composed of Captains and Lieutenants of the Guards. The returning
officers were almost everywhere in the interest of the court. In every
shire the Lord Lieutenant and his deputies formed a powerful, active,
and vigilant committee, for the purpose of cajoling and intimidating the
freeholders. The people were solemnly warned from thousands of pulpits
not to vote for any Whig candidate, as they should answer it to Him who
had ordained the powers that be, and who had pronounced rebellion a sin
not less deadly than witchcraft. All these advantages the predominant
party not only used to the utmost, but abused in so shameless a manner
that grave and reflecting men, who had been true to the monarchy in
peril, and who bore no love to republicans and schismatics, stood
aghast, and augured from such beginnings the approach of evil times.
[257]

Yet the Whigs, though suffering the just punishment of their errors,
though defeated, disheartened, and disorganized, did not yield without
an effort. They were still numerous among the traders and artisans of
the towns, and among the yeomanry and peasantry of the open country. In
some districts, in Dorsetshire for example, and in Somersetshire, they
were the great majority of the population. In the remodelled boroughs
they could do nothing: but, in every county where they had a chance,
they struggled desperately. In Bedfordshire, which had lately been
represented by the virtuous and unfortunate Russell, they were
victorious on the show of hands, but were beaten at the poll. [258] In
Essex they polled thirteen hundred votes to eighteen hundred. [259] At
the election for Northamptonshire the common people were so violent in
their hostility to the court candidate that a body of troops was drawn
out in the marketplace of the county town, and was ordered to load with
ball. [260] The history of the contest for Buckinghamshire is still more
remarkable. The whig candidate, Thomas Wharton, eldest son of Philip
Lord Wharton, was a man distinguished alike by dexterity and by
audacity, and destined to play a conspicuous, though not always a
respectable, part in