An attempt was made to bully them, in 1747, under aufpices which feemed to infure fuccefs. It appeared that, at the election of 1734, the right of non-resident freemen to vote had been queftioned; and it was now refolved to try the iffue. The minister, to whom the Grosvenor family was inimical, encouraged baron Mainwaring to oppofe administration. They were probably induced to this from the hope that, if the queftion concerning non-residents fhould be agitated, his fupport would not be wanting. The election was carried on with all the heat and violence of former times; and the Tory party, counting non-residents, had the majority.

A petition was prefented, and the inquiry commenced, which clearly tended to establish the right of election in refident freemen only. And now Sir Robert Grosvenor found himself in a very difagreeable dilemma: he confidered that his interest in Westminster must be devoted to the minifter, or he would be obliged to refign one representation for his hereditary borough, to which he could by no means confent. But, as it was no novelty in his family to change principles, for the purpose of preferving the fuperiority in Chester,

a

cr

a compromise was made the evening before the final iffue of the petition: and, notwithstanding the refolutions of the preceding day, the counfel for the petitioners were inftructed to say, "that they would give the house no farther trouble." Thus was the baron made the victim of minifterial duplicity. We may therefore rejoice at the day that Mr. Grenville's act has placed the iffue of contefted elections in more impartial hands than those of an influenced majority of the house of

commons.

From the above and other fucceeding circumftances, refpecting the conduct of the corporation and their opponents, it is evident that the former have always endeavoured to preferve their power by abridging and extinguishing the liberties of the people as much as they poffibly could, while the latter have always endeavoured to found their pride and distinction on the defence of the rights and privileges of their fellow-citizens.

ANCIENT REPRESENTATION.-This city being the capital of a county palatine, did not fend members to the national parliament before they were granted the privilege by charter, given 34 Henry VIII.

RIGHT

RIGHT OF ELECTION-was determined, Dec.

2, 1690, to be in the freemen.

NUMBER OF VOTERS-are 1000.

PATRON-Earl Grosvenor.

CORNWALL.

ANCIENT DESCRIPTION.

THIS county is in the diocese of Exeter, and province of Canterbury, and is divided into nine hundreds; in which are contained, according to Camden and Speed, 161 parishes; according to others, 180; and, in Martin's Index Villaris, they are faid to amount to 198. There are here twentythree market towns; of which Bodmyn, Camelford, Fowey, St. Germain, Grampont, Helfton, St. Ives, Kellington or. Callington, Launceston, Lifkard, East Looe, Penryn, Saltash, Tregony, and Truro, are boroughs, and fend two members cach to parliament; befide St. Austle, Boscastle,

St.

St. Columb, Falmouth, Market Jew, Padftow Penzance, and Stratton, which fend no members. There are alfo fix other boroughs, which fend two members to parliament, but are not market-towns; namely, Boffiney, Weft Looe, Leftwithiel, St. Maw's, St. Michael, and Newport. The whole therefore, including the two knights of the shire, which this county fends, is no less than 44 members to parliament. This ftrange extent of representation intereft in fo fmall a county may well appear extraordinary to those who not only confider that the boroughs are very inconfiderable, with refpect to their trade, wealth, and inhabitants; but who recollect not, at the fame time, that no county in England poffeffed fuch a temptation to the lords of the foil to obtain for its different towns thefe elective privileges. As the foil was internally valuable, the coafts convenient for navigation, and enriched with fisheries, and the produce of the whole county highly valuable, the owners of the territory could not better fecure to themselves thefe local advantages, than by granting them the power of fending members to parliament; by which they proportionably increased their own influence in the ftate as well as in each borough refpectively. As the town

therefore

therefore increased in confequence, they obtained by degrees the privilege of representation. When they were capable of contributing to the taxes for which parliaments were, by the Romans, and have ever fince been affembled, for the chief purpose of levying, the lords who poffeffed them had the beft of all pleas to have those rights of elective franchise restored to them that were taken from all other cities, towns, and boroughs, except fuch as had the privilege difpenfed to them by charter, or by act of parliament. Thus, in the latter end of the reign of Edward VI. feven other boroughs were added; namely, Saltash, Camelford, Weft Looe, Grampont, Boffiney, Michael or St. Michael, and Newport. In the first year of the reign of Queen Mary, Penryn gained the like privilege; and in the fourth of the fame reign, St. Ives. In the first year of Queen Elizabeth, Tregony was admitted; in the fifth, St. Germain's and St. Maw's; in the thirteenth, East Looe, and Fawey or Fowey; and in the twentyfeventh, Kellington or Callington.

The reason why so many, of modern date, were added, will beft appear from the confideration that the dutchy of Cornwall yields in tin and

lands