warfare was mostly manifested at election times. A burlesque “Bill of Costs” was printed in the _Flying Post_ (Jan. 27, 1715), “for a late Tory election in the West,” in which part of the country the Tory interest was strongest:-- [Illustration: WALPOLE CHAIRED. 1701. (From “Robin’s Progress.”) (Dr. Newton’s Collection.)] £ _s._ _d._ _Imprimis_, for bespeaking and collecting a mob 20 0 0 _Item_, for many suits of knots for their heads 30 0 0 For scores of huzza-men 40 0 0 For roarers of the word “Church” 40 0 0 For a set of “No Roundhead” roarers 40 0 0 For several gallons of Tory punch on church tombstones 30 0 0 For a majority of clubs and brandy-bottles 20 0 0 For bell-ringers, fiddlers, and porters 10 0 0 For a set of coffee-house praters 40 0 0 For extraordinary expense for cloths and lac’d hats on show days, to dazzle the mob 50 0 0 For Dissenters’ damners 40 0 0 For demolishing two houses 200 0 0 For committing two riots 200 0 0 For secret encouragement to the rioters 40 0 0 For a dozen of perjury men 100 0 0 For packing and carriage paid to Gloucester 50 0 0 For breaking windows 20 0 0 For a gang of alderman-abusers 40 0 0 For a set of notorious lyars 50 0 0 For pot-ale 100 0 0 For law, and charges in the King’s Bench 300 0 0 -------------- £1460 0 0 =============== It will be observed in this “bill” that bribery is not put down as one of the prominent features of an election at this period; violence was, as yet, found to be more effective than corruption. In March, 1721, when the first of the succession of triennial parliaments dissolved, the country was already in a state of fermentation at the prospect of the coming contest. Violence was now utilized in new methods, such as beating off voters of opposition candidates; while hostile electors were surrounded by mobs hired for the purpose, and cut off from the polling-booths; and in some cases voters were carried off forcibly, and locked up until the election was over. In country boroughs much agitation was manifested, and in several places, such as Coventry, formidable riots took place.