istrict in which his
humble life was cast; and there was a vehement struggle betwixt his
lordship and a neighbouring nobleman for ascendancy in the county. The
ranks of either party were swelled by the multiplication of freehold
qualifications, for the purpose of acquiring votes. One of the
expedients, as is well known, for the attainment of such objects, is the
creation of nominal and fictitious voters, by conferring on the
_friends_ of a political party an apparent, but not a real interest in a
landed estate; and this is practised and justified by a legal fiction,
and a little casuistry, with which political agents are quite familiar.
The ordinary mode in these cases, is to confer such _parchment_
franchises on dependents and personal connections of the great man who
needs their support--and the Earl of Bellersdale, who had the patronage
of many churches of greater or less value, found, even among the clergy
who had hopes of preferment from his hand, several individuals
sufficiently unscrupulous to accept of such discreditable titles to a
political franchise as freeholders.[I] Amongst others, my father, who
was in good odour at the castle, was deemed a _likely_ person to be
intrusted with so precious a privilege as a right to vote for any tool
of the earl who might be brought forward as a candidate for representing
the shire in Parliament. The factor was despatched to Bellerstown to
offer this high behest to the poor parson, whose ready compliance was
expected, _as a matter of course_. But he calmly and peremptorily
refused the proffered vote, and intimated that he held it derogatory to
the sacred nature of his office to pollute himself with such politics,
and inconsistent with every principle of honour, morality, and religion,
to take an oath, as required by law, that he was possessed of a landed
estate, while, in truth, he had no earthly title to an inch of it. This
scrupulosity gave mortal offence at the castle; and the recusant parson
was doomed to ridicule as a pious fool, and to ruin. And as, in such
cases, when an offending individual is completely dependent on the
offended party, pretexts are never wanting for cloaking the lurking
purpose of mischief: these were soon and easily discovered. If the
minister of Bellerstown discoursed on integrity and truth as Christian
virtues, or on the sacredness of an oath, the earl's underlings bore the
tidings to the castle, where such doctrine was deemed high treason
against