The contest had been an expensive one; it was declared that Proctor and his party had been canvassing for six months; and, as an instance of the cost attending the election of a knight of the shire, it is set down as worthy of remark that the ribbons for hats alone, i.e. “favours,” to distinguish Glynn’s friends, cost four hundred pounds; the outlay of the Court candidate must have been excessively heavy.
“The populace in general, and the people of Brentford in particular, were very desirous to chair Mr. Serjeant Glynn after the sheriffs had declared his election; but he very politely entreated them to decline it, which, after much solicitation, they complied with.”
In the letter of acknowledgment addressed to his supporters in the county of Middlesex, the serjeant declares—
“As my private advantage and honour were by no means the motives of your exertions in my behalf, so neither shall they be the objects of my actions. I consider the choice you have made of me for your representative as the most authentic declaration of your abhorrence of those arbitrary and oppressive measures which have too long disgraced the administration of these kingdoms, and which, if pursued, cannot fail to destroy our most excellent constitution.
“I hope that your example will lead other counties also to assert their independence, and that the sacred flame of liberty, which always ascends, will reach at length the higher orders of this nation, and warm them likewise to a disdain of offering or accepting the wages of corruption.”
John Horne Tooke was only second to the successful candidate in the eulogiums showered on his name and conduct at this emergency. A portrait of “the parson of Brentford” was published, representing him in his clerical guise, at full length, seated in his study at a table, with his right arm resting on his “Treatise on Enclosing Commons, addressed to Sir Jno. Gibbins,” an essay which brought him an unusually handsome acknowledgment; in his other hand is a reference to his late correspondence with the defeated ministerial candidate—a paper inscribed, “Mobs made after the Court Fashion, by B. Proctor, Milliner of Brentford.”
Parson Horne wears a singular wig, with the sides in what has been described as a “cornuted”[52] roll,—as peculiar as that affected by his friend Wilkes, to whom he bears a further resemblance from the obliquity of his eyes, his right eye having been blind, and fixed in its orbit.
The “Parson of Brentford” appears in the Oxford Magazine; it is evident that Horne’s parliamentary aspirations were talked of at this time, for opposite to the portrait is printed an “Extempore,—on the report that a certain Clergyman has a view on a seat in the House of Commons.”
“And is it true, and can it be?
Does Freedom so inflame him?
Exalt the Horne of Liberty;
No minister shall tame him.
Grant Heaven, we see it prove no jest,
But find, ere next November,
The man who makes a Patriot priest,
Become a Righteous Member.”
A copy of verses, with a quotation, “Templum Libertatis,” due to the pen of Phileleutheros Oxoniensis, confronts the copperplate portrait of Parson Horne:—