oose texture, on a coast destitute of
rocks, it is not surprising that its building shall have successively
yielded to the impetuosity of the billows, breaking against, and easily
undermining the foot of the precipice." Certainly not, say we; and it is
equally un-surprising that seven out of its eight parishes having been
long ago destroyed, their political consequence should not exist beyond
their extermination. Mr. Oldfield, whom we remember to have often met,
was a man of jocose turn, and he has not spared Dunwich his whip of
humour, for, speaking of its gradual decay by the sea, he says--"the
encroachment that is still making, (1816) will probably, in a few years,
oblige the constituent body to betake themselves to a boat, whenever the
king's writ shall summon them to the exercise of their elective
functions; as the necessity of adhering to _forms_, in the farcical
solemnity of borough elections, is not to be dispensed with."

We must be brief with its representative and political history. "Out
brief candle!" It has sent members since the 23rd Edward I. Bribery and
other irregularities against the sitting members in procuring votes were
proved in 1696: in 1708, Sir Charles Bloyce, one of the bailiffs was
returned, but upon a petition proving bribery, menaces, treating, &c.
this was proved to be "no return:" Sir Charles was declared not capable
of being elected, "as being one of the bailiffs; nor had the other
bailiff alone any authority to make a return, the two bailiffs making
but one officer."[1] In 1722 another bribery petition was presented, but
the affair was made up, and the complaint withdrawn. After this display
of venality, it is amusing to read that the corporation consists of two
bailiffs and twelve _capital_ burgesses.[2]

[1] The reader may often have noticed in county advertisements
the two sheriffs designated as _one officer_. Thus, in the
advertisement of the recent Middlesex election:--

SIR CHAPMAN MARSHALL, } Sheriff of Middlesex.
SIR W.H. POLAND. }

[2] This reminds one of the admiration of the Lord Mayor in
Richard III. by George the Second, so ill-timedly expressed by
the King to Garrick, the stage king:--

"Fine Lord Mayor! capital Lord Mayor! where you get such
Lord Mayor?"

Mr. Oldfield described this borough fourteen years ago, as consisting of
only forty-two houses, and _half a church_, the other part having been
demolished.