Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 93, No. 570, April, 1863Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 93, No. 570, April, 1863
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
It would have been idle in Mr Graham to offer himself again to the
constituency of Hull. He had done nothing in Parliament to secure a
re-election, except at the cost of a second contest, and that he could
not afford. The interest of the debt incurred by the first election
pressed heavily upon his small income, and he at once made up his mind
to look for a seat elsewhere. Now the Lowther influence, powerful as it
had heretofore been, was beginning to give way in the north of England.
Both the county of Cumberland and the city of Carlisle were growing
restive, and the Whigs declared their intention of fighting for both
seats in the city, and for one at least in the county. It was proposed
to Mr Graham that he should stand in the Liberal interest for Carlisle;
while Mr Curwen, up to that time the city member, contested the county
against Sir John Lowther. Anxious as he was to return to the House of
Commons, Mr Graham had the good taste to decline this proposal. He could
not fight under a Whig banner so close to Netherby without greatly
distressing his father; and, vaulting as his ambition was, it did not
blind him to the impropriety of such a course. He contented himself,
therefore, with throwing the weight of his influence into Mr Curwen’s
scale as candidate for the county. Mr Curwen succeeded, so did Mr John
Cam Hobhouse in Westminster, advocating household suffrage, triennal
Parliaments, and counting among the busiest of his canvassers the late
member for Hull. Mr Graham’s activity on that occasion fixed upon him
the attention of certain gentlemen connected by property with the little
borough of St Ives. They took him up, he canvassed the constituency, and
on the day of election was brought in at the head of the poll. And well
and zealously he redeemed the pledges which he had given to his Liberal
supporters. He voted with Mr Hume against a proposed increase to the
civil-list of George IV., and for inquiry into the expenses of the
Regency during the five preceding years. He took part with Mr Brougham
in his attack on the droits of the Crown and of the Admiralty, and
joined Lord John Russell in demanding that the report on the civil-list
should be deferred till the estimates for the year had been fully
examined. Every proposal, in short, which had for its object the
weakening of the influence of the Crown and the overthrow of existing
usages, received his cordial support. He was, with Mr Curwen and Mr
Brougham, a decided enemy to the Corn Laws as they then existed. He went
into the gallery with Lord John Russell for the disfranchisement of
Grampound, and the transfer of its members to Leeds. In a like spirit,
he stood by Lord Archibald Hamilton when denouncing the Scottish system
of election, and requiring that the number of Barons of the Exchequer
should be reduced. Finally, in the disputes which arose about Queen
Caroline, he ranged himself under her Majesty’s banner. This was pretty
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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