154 EVESHAM AND BENGEWORTH.

(on the other aide of the Avon, with which it was connected by a bridge) was incorporated with the town, constituting one borough. This charter waa granted by his Majesty " on the special petition of his firstborn son, the Lord Prince Henry; being the first petition which he made to his Majesty in the kingdom of England." And in constant memorial of this, the town selected its armorial bearings from those borne by the Prince of Wales, Duke of Cornwall, and Earl of Chester.

Evesham from a very early period sent two representatives to Parliament, besides having the benefit of its abbot in the royal councils. Some of the elections here during the present century have been remarkable for profuseness of expenditure and the tricks of party warfare, which were iu most instances undisguisedly a " matter of money." In the early part of the century it was the custom to admit any man to vote who had paid poor-rates for six months previously, so that in fact the town enjoyed almost universal suffrage. In 1818 a petition was presented against Rouse Boughton's return, and the committee decided to strike off all scot-and-lot voters. It was on this occasion that Lord Palmerston was taken into custody for not being present when the committee was balloted for, but he was discharged on paying £30 fees. In 1830 the Marquis of Chandos brought in a bill to disfranchise the borough on the ground of bribery, but Parliament was dissolved before it could be passed. The Cockerells and Boughtous stuck to the borough till the time of the Reform Bill, when Evesham appeared in Schedule C, and therefore continued to send two Members, in spite of the population not numbering 4,000 and the electors only 359. Sir C. Cockerell and Mr. Hudson were elected under that bill, and it was then that the celebrated Peter Borthwick first introduced himself to the electors. The latter was elected in 183S, and he prosecuted an action for libel against a neighbouring newspaper for repeating Mr. G. May's accusation that he had been a bookseller at Dalkeith and failed; that he had been iu gaol; had been excommunicated by the Scotch kirk ; and was an