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THE COVENTRY ELECTION OF 1830 - AN EPHEMERAL HISTORY

[COVENTRY]. [A folio scrap album containing a collection of 85 pieces of printed ephemera relating to the parliamentary elections in Coventry, 1830].

[vs., largely Coventry]. [vs.], [1830].
Folio.. 85 separately printed broadsides, flyers and hand-bills; one printed pamphlet (Speech of Mr Ellice, for a select committee of of enquiry on the state of the silk trade. [s.i., Coventry?]. [s.n., s.d., likely 1830]. 16pp); and several clippings from contemporary newspaper accounts. Contemporary marbled paper covered wrappers. Worn, with splitting to spine, loss to surfaces. In spite of the exterior, the album has preserved the contents rather well; apart from some occasional marking, browning and creasing, the printed material contained within is largely clean and fresh, pasted to the album leaves.
A remarkable assembly of material relating to the election of members of Parliament for the two seats of the City of Coventry, on Saturday July 31st, during the 1830 general election, which had been triggered by the death of King George IV.

In addition to the relatively official and perfunctory handbills and posters - including items promoting both the previous Whig MP, British merchant, Director of the Hudson's Bay Company and reforming politician Edward Ellice the Elder (1783-1863), and that of his Tory opponent Thomas Bilcliffe Fyler (1788-1838), which necessarily accompanied electioneering in this era, this volume also highlights the cut and thrust of campaigning. The majority of the ephemeral contents of this volume - many of which are unsurprisingly unrecorded in the usual databases - are either satirical or outright attacks on opponents. These include a mock wanted notice 'Wanted immediately...two Candidates For the next Election...Political Sentiments, or Moral Character, of no consequence', elaborate squibs including numerous 'Chronicles of the Indigoes', and 'Chronicles of the Yellows' - many relating to the significant local silk trade - songsters (To tunes including' Merrily 'O ' and 'The Boyne Water'), and verses.

The proliferation of election material represented by this album is all the more remarkable given that the election of both Whig and Tory was, for the majority of the campaign, looking likely to occur without contest. Bruised by the 1826 general election campaign (when the chagrin of the city's weaving industry over import costs industry led to an immensely costly and violent campaign, and the ejection of the sitting Whig, Edward Ellice), and economically buffeted by the 1827 Elections Expenses Act ban on the use of ribbons, a compromise was tentatively agreed to allow for representation of both Whig and Tory factions. Much of the campaign's white heat was thus focused on securing the election of one candidate of either faction, and excluding any 'Third candidate'.

Whilst a third candidate did eventually appear, in the shape of the political radical Richard Spooner of Birmingham, this was not until the very eve of the poll. His part in the election is therefore represented by a single piece in this album, apologising for failing to make 'the necessary arrangements for a Contested Election', but begging to assure that he would 'not be found wanting' in representing his prospective constituents in Parliament. Rather charmingly, pasted to the final leaf of the album is a short printed flyer featuring the 'Final state of the Poll'; perhaps unsurprisingly, Spooner received just four votes, meaning that both Ellice and Flyer were elected to the two member constituency.

A full list of the contents oft his volume, the vast majority of which was printed in Coventry and unrecorded in either COPAC or OCLC, is available on request.
£ 3,750.00 Antiquates Ref: 27279