“Admiral Hood tells me he left Lord Nugent at Bath, disposed to come to town if a vote at Westminster should be material. I think from the state of the poll it may be very much so. There is no doubt, I believe, of final success on a scrutiny, if we are driven to it; but it is a great object to us to carry the return for both in the first instance, and on every account as great an object to Fox to prevent it. It is uncertain how long the poll will continue, but pretty clear it cannot be over till after Monday. If you will have the goodness to state these circumstances to Lord Nugent, and encourage his good designs, we shall be very much obliged to you; and still more, should neither health nor particular engagements detain you, if, besides prevailing upon him, you could give your own personal assistance. At all events I hope you will forgive my troubling you, and allow for the importunity of a hardened electioneerer.... Mainwaring and Wilkes are considerably ahead in Middlesex, and Lord Grimston has come in, instead of Halsey, for Herts.” Pitt further alludes to W. W. Grenville, his cousin, “the kissing young gentleman” who visited Cowper in the course of his canvass, “I have not yet heard the event of Bucks, but William was safe, and, by the first day’s poll, Aubrey’s prospect seems very good.” John Aubrey was returned second, and William Grenville was at the head of the poll. Fox’s prospects were gradually improved as concerned his own seat at Westminster; but the slaughter amongst his followers was altogether unexampled, the muster-roll of “Fox’s Martyrs” grew ominously longer as each election was determined. On the twenty-third day of the polling at Covent Garden the Whig chief passed Sir Cecil Wray, and continued to advance until the fortieth, when, by law, the contest closed. On the 17th of May, the poll stood--Lord Hood, 6,694; Fox, 6,237; Sir Cecil Wray, 5,998. “There was,” writes Earl Stanhope, “strong reason, however, to suspect many fraudulent practices in the previous days, since it seemed clear that the total number of votes recorded was considerably beyond the number of persons entitled to the franchise. For this reason Sir Cecil Wray at once demanded a scrutiny, and the High Bailiff--illegally, as Fox contended--granted the request. But further still, the High Bailiff, Mr. Corbett, who was no friend to Fox, refused to make any legal return until this scrutiny should be decided. Thus Westminster was left for the present destitute of Representatives, and Fox would have been without a seat in the new Parliament but for the friendship of Sir Thomas Dundas, through which he had been already returned the member for the close boroughs of Kirkwall.” Gallant Whig poetasters were rapturous in their praises of the fair canvassers who were making such havoc in the Tory ranks.