London
March 2d 1831
My dear Henry
The ministers ought to be obliged to you for the able apology you have written for them in your letter to me. I find no fault except for their vapouring so much about retrenchment even up to the last moment. If their retrenchment was a humbug nobody can say the same of their reform! Last night will be an ever to be remembered epoch in my life, never was such a state of excitement, such a sudden surprise. My reform <1> was to extend the right of voting to Scot & lot payers , <illegible deletion> in boroughs, to contract the same right to £10 freeholders in counties, <2> & to give to all, ballot. Never did I contemplate the forced disfranchisement of 60 boroughs, declaring at once their charters null & void, still less the diminishing the total number of members of Parliament. Glorious Lord John! <3> but the thing can never pass into a law, besides the natural enemies of Reform he has raised up 168 additional opponents – It was most amusing as his plan gradually developed itself during the most awful stillness occasionally interrupted by burst of uncontrollable exultation or deprecation, to see the gradually lengthening visages of the gentlemen on the opposition benches! When he came to the list of to be disfranchised boroughs it was comical to hear the exclamations of each affected individual “That dishes me” “Done by G–” “I say how do you feel?” &c &c – and now & then a most discontented drawling “Hear Hear! <4> Sir C. Wetherell <5> particularly distinguished himself, he went on exclaiming in this way for several minutes, in a sort of hysterical manner, to the great amusement of the house & interruption of his lordship, which was greatly renewed when his own borough Boroughbridge was denounced. The house was crammed in a manner never seen before & dreadfully hot. Lord F. Gower <6> made a speech full of images & poetry, I doubt if even Ld Morpeth <7> could outdo it, the like I never heard, but it savoured to my mind much of the midnight oil. They have treated us in Wales very cavalierly, Lord John did not even read the names of the Welsh towns correctly, so that I am ignorant even now of what he really meant. The secret was admirably kept, & the surprise to all complete. The alteration of the election law is very obvious & judicious. Of the disfranchisement of the boroughs I think the question lieth not in a nutshell, but “I for one” am favourable to it – by the by my borough of Kenfig stands a poor chance –
Ever truly Yours
C R M Talbot
London March two 1831 C R M Talbot
W. H. F Talbot Esqr
Laycock Abbey
Chippenham
Notes:
1. The introduction of the first Electoral Reform Bill (became the great Reform Act 1832), was initially defeated in March 1831.
2. With the 1832 Reform Act, the franchise was granted in the counties to Borough freeholders who could then vote if their freehold was between 40 shillings and £10, or if it was over £10 and occupied by a tenant.
3. Lord John Russell (1792–1878), statesman, who was largely responsible for framing the Bill.
4. No closing quotes.
5. Sir Charles Wetherell (1770–1846), extreme opponent of reform.
6. Lord Francis Leveson-Gower.
7. George William Frederick Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle (1802–1864), MP.