honour of its
confidence. Pay he did, indeed, in large and numberless subscriptions,
in the endowment of reading-rooms, in presents of public parks, and I
know not what besides.

At least it is a fact that almost every advantage of this nature enjoyed
to-day by the inhabitants of Dunchester, has been provided for them by
former Conservative members for the borough.

Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that in choosing
a candidate the majority of the electors of the city were apt to ask two
leading questions: first, Is he rich? and secondly, What will he do for
the town if he gets in?

Now, Sir Thomas Colford was very rich, and it was whispered that if he
were elected he would be prepared to show his gratitude in a substantial
fashion. A new wing to the hospital was wanted; this it was said would
be erected and endowed; also forty acres of valuable land belonging to
him ran into the park, and he had been heard to say that these forty
acres were really much more important to the public than to himself, and
that he hoped that one day they would belong to it.

It is small wonder, then, that the announcement of his candidature was
received with passionate enthusiasm. Mine, on the contrary, evoked a
chorus of disapproval, that is, in the local press. I was denounced
as an adventurer, as a man who had stood a criminal trial for wicked
negligence, and escaped the jail only by the skin of my teeth. I was
held up to public reprobation as a Socialist, who, having nothing
myself, wished to prey upon the goods of others, and as an
anti-vaccination quack who, to gain a few votes, was ready to infest the
whole community with a loathsome disease. Of all the accusations of
my opponents this was the only one that stung me, because it alone had
truth in it.

Sir John Bell, my old enemy, one of the nominators of Sir Thomas
Colford, appeared upon the platform at his first meeting, and, speaking
in the character of an old and leading citizen of the town, and as one
who had doctored most of them, implored his audience not to trust their
political fortunes to such a person as myself, whose doctrines were
repudiated by almost every member of the profession, which I disgraced.
This appeal carried much weight with it.

From all these circumstances it might have been supposed that my case
was hopeless, especially as no Radical had even ventured to contest the
seat in the last two elections. But, in fact, this was not so,