Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City DetectiveForrester, Andrew
General
Secret Service; or, Recollections of a City Detective
Forrester, Andrew
Detective and mystery stories, English; Fiction; Short stories
It should be also stated, for the reader's information--and he is
particularly requested to notice--that the general postal delivery from
London conveyed to each of the central committee-rooms of Mr. Fipps's
rivals an oblong packet, addressed to each of the remaining candidates
by name, and to their agents, and to all others whom it might concern,
giving them formal notice that the men whose names were included in
lists which were enclosed in the communication (being free and
independent electors of N----) had disqualified themselves from voting
at the present election, by having accepted offices of emolument, under
binding legal contracts with one of the candidates.
In consequence of this notice the poor wretches who had entered into the
engagements mentioned with my man were unable to sell their votes and
consciences to Mr. Twitch, if he had been inclined to buy them; because,
if he had bought up the tainted electors, he would thereby have insured
a petition against his return, with the certainty that his rival would,
by a scrutiny, unseat him. The returning officer received a similar
letter and a similar list.
The poll being kept open under these circumstances, the general result
may be pretty well ascertained by the reader's imagination; but, for
his particular information, I may state that the numbers announced by
the returning officer were:
Jollefat 209
Twitch 64
Fipps 1
The consequence was, that the first-named gentleman was duly returned,
and took his seat, and was for a period of several years the
unchallenged representative of the borough of N----. It is fair to say
that he was returned, at a comparatively small cost, by a large majority
of the honest suffrages of the decent men of the borough. My man, I
believe, had succeeded in disqualifying for once all the corruption of
that notorious place.
The landlord of the Green Swan was of course very glum over his
misfortunes. He managed to get his broken glass and other damage
repaired at the expense of the Hundred; but he had given up all chance
of recovering his debt from Mr. Fipps, when he received a letter from a
well-known political solicitor of Westminster, stating it was not the
desire of Mr. Fipps that any person's honest claim should go
unsatisfied; and that if mine host would make out his account and
forward it to him, it should be examined, and if found correct be
settled. The account was duly rendered, and on being scrutinised or
audited was deemed excessive. Two-thirds of the total amount--that is to
say, 100_l._--was remitted him; and, although 50_l._ was thus knocked
off, I have solid reason for believing he did not fare ill by the
candidature of Horatio Mount-Stephen Fipps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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