title of Marquess of Tavistock, and call himself Lord
Russell. There will be no expense. There will be no contest. Thousands
of gentlemen on horseback will escort him to the hustings; nobody will
dare to stand against him; and he will not only come in himself, but
bring in another Whig. The widowed mother, in a letter written with
all the excellent sense and feeling which distinguished her, refused
to sacrifice her son to her party. His education, she said, would be
interrupted; his head would be turned; his triumph would be his undoing.
Just at this conjuncture the Admiral arrived. He made his appearance
before the freeholders of Middlesex assembled on the top of Hampstead
Hill, and was returned without opposition. [624]

Meanwhile several noted malecontents received marks of public
disapprobation. John Knight, the most factious and insolent of those
Jacobites who had dishonestly sworn fealty to King William in order to
qualify themselves to sit in Parliament, ceased to represent the
great city of Bristol. Exeter, the capital of the west, was violently
agitated. It had been long supposed that the ability, the eloquence, the
experience, the ample fortune, the noble descent of Seymour would make
it impossible to unseat him. But his moral character, which had
never stood very high, had, during the last three or four years, been
constantly sinking. He had been virulent in opposition till he had got
a place. While he had a place he had defended the most unpopular acts
of the government. As soon as he was out of place, he had again been
virulent in opposition.

His saltpetre contract had left a deep stain on his personal honour. Two
candidates were therefore brought forward against him; and a contest,
the longest and fiercest of that age, fixed the attention of the whole
kingdom, and was watched with interest even by foreign governments. The
poll was open five weeks. The expense on both sides was enormous. The
freemen of Exeter, who, while the election lasted, fared sumptuously
every day, were by no means impatient for the termination of their
luxurious carnival. They ate and drank heartily; they turned out
every evening with good cudgels to fight for Mother Church or for King
William; but the votes came in very slowly. It was not till the eve
of the meeting of Parliament that the return was made. Seymour was
defeated, to his bitter mortification, and was forced to take refuge in
the small borough of Totness. [625]

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