n regle_,
and as such "goings-on" were to be found as much on the one side as the
other, neither party's pot had a right to call the opponent's kettle
black. Prior to the enfranchisement of the borough, one of the most
exciting elections in which the Brums had been engaged was that for the
county of Warwick in 1774, when Sir Charles Holte, of Aston Hall, was
returned. The nomination took place Oct. 13, the candidates being Mr.
Shipworth (a previous member), Mr. (afterwards Lord) Mordaunt, and Sir
Charles, who for once pleased the Birmingham folks by calling himself an
"Independent." The polling, which commenced on the 20th, was continued
for ten days, closing on the 31st, and as Mr. Mordaunt had the lead for
many days the excitement was intense, and the rejoicings proportionate
at the end when the local candidate came in with flying colours. The
voting ran:--Shipwith, 2,954; Holte, 1,845; Mordaunt, 1,787.--A
Birmingham man was a candidate at the next great county contest,
forty-six years after. This was Mr. Richard Spooner, then (1820) a young
man and of rather Radical tendencies. His opponent, Mr. Francis Lawley,
was of the old-fashioned Whig party, and the treatment his supporters
received at the hands of the Birmingham and Coventry people was
disgraceful. Hundreds of special constables had to be sworn in at
Warwick during the fourteen days' polling, business being suspended for
days together, but Radical Richard's roughs failed to influence the
election, as Mr. Lawley obtained 2,153 votes against Mr. Spooner's 970.
As Mr. Spooner grew older he became more prominent in commercial
circles, and was peculiarly _au fait_ in all currency matters, but he
lost his hold on local electors by turning to the Conservative side of
politics. Of this he was more than once reminded in after years, when
speaking in the Town Hall, by individuals taking off their coats,
turning them inside out, and having put them on again, standing
prominently in front of "Yellow Dick" as they then called him.

That the inhabitants of Birmingham, so rapidly increasing in numbers and
wealth, should be desirous of direct representation in the House of
Commons, could be no wonder even to the most bigoted politicians of the
last and early part of the present century. Possibly, had there been '91
Riots, nor quite so much "tall talk," the Legislature might have
vouchsafed us a share in the manufacture of our country's laws a little
earlier than they did, and