In Scotland, serious rioting took place at Jedburgh and Hawick, polling places for the County of Selkirk, when Captain Elliot, the ministerial candidate, was defeated by Lord John Scott. On the morning of January 17th, the second day of polling, the Jedburgh mob, having learned the probable success of the Conservative candidate, began to assume a surly aspect. Lord John Scott, on making his appearance, was loudly hissed; and, when leaving the town, a few ruffians assaulted him, by throwing pieces of ice, etc., but, fortunately, without doing him any injury. In the afternoon, when the certain defeat of Captain Elliot's party became evident, symptoms of restlessness were displayed by a great part of the crowd, and several voters and others, in the interest of his lordship, could only with great difficulty reach the polling place; later in the evening the conduct of many of those assembled became more outrageous, and several of the friends of Lord John Scott were struck and abused by the mob; but the streets were quiet at night.
At Hawick, the mob was much more riotous. On the 16th, the first day of polling, notwithstanding the strong constabulary force sworn in for the occasion, the crowd got very noisy, and used every sort of annoyance to the voters for Lord John Scott, such as pushing, spitting, throwing stones and snowballs, and tearing clothes, etc., while they cheered the voters for Captain Elliot. As the day advanced, the rabble got worse and worse, insulting and maltreating all voters, and others friendly to his lordship's cause, in defiance of the strenuous efforts of the sheriff and a number of the justices of the peace, the bailies and others. The Sheriff ultimately found it necessary to read the Riot Act.
On closing the poll for the day, the mob surrounded the Tower Inn (where Lord John's voters were), and, whenever any person attempted to leave the inn to go home, he was immediately attacked and abused; in consequence of which a great number were compelled to remain at the inn during the night. The doors of the inn were frequently attempted to be forced open, most of the windows were broken; and, in the course of the night, the windows of the houses of many of the inhabitants were riddled with stones. An additional number of constables were sworn in on Saturday.
The mob appeared more desperate than on the preceding day, and every means of intimidation were practised to prevent Lord John's voters coming forward; in one case where a voter in that interest was going to the booth in a carriage, the crowd attempted to upset it—and, upon his voting and returning from the booth, he was seized, in spite of the efforts of the constables, and abused and maltreated. The Riot Act was again read, and the town became quieter, especially when a troop of the Scot's Greys arrived. Captain Elliot, the defeated candidate, in his address after the election, thanked the populace for their orderly conduct!
I have given these as specimens of ante-ballot elections in time when William IV. was King.
Most of us know the ballad of Billee Taylor, how he was impressed and taken to sea—and how
"Soon his true love followed 'arter
Under the name of Richard Carr,
And her lily white hands she daubed all over
With the nasty pitch and tar."
And some of us may probably know the true history of Mary Ann Talbot, who fought both in the army and navy, and was wounded both in the ankle and in the thigh, a little above the knee, in the action of the "Glorious First of June." She lay in Haslar Hospital without her sex being discovered, afterwards was taken prisoner by the French; then shipped to America as steward, and when going a voyage to the Mediterranean, was impressed, and discovered her sex rather than serve again in the navy.
But her story belongs to the latter part of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. Here is one, happening in this year, and is thus reported in all the newspapers of the time, and in the Annual Register.
"Mansion House, 10th Feb.—The Lord Mayor having observed a statement in the Observer newspaper relative to a female who for some time past had performed the duties of a seaman, directed an inspector of police to make inquiries into the circumstances, in order that, if the girl required assistance, it might be rendered to her, without subjecting her to annoyance. The inspector now appeared before the Lord Mayor, accompanied by the girl, the captain of the vessel in which she came to London, and several gentlemen who felt an interest in the remarkable details of the case.