Sixty Years in Upper Canada Author:Charles Clarke Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. AN OLD-TIME ENGLISH ELECTION. The Sibthorpian interest—Mr. Lytton Bulwer—A reform candidate—His personal appearance—" Split votes " and a reform... more » winner—Street scenes—Election row—Pinks and blues — R'val roosters — Blazing tar barrels — Babies and beer—Torn flags—Broken windows—More of Bulwer— Another sketch—His pluck—Wright and Cobden. The city of Lincoln, one of the strongholds of Feudalism, had, for the larger part of the century previous to the passage of the Reform Bill, been represented by some member of the Sibthorpe family, resident at Canwick, about a mile from Lincoln, and two Conservatives were regularly returned as a matter of course. But the end was near. The chain was snapped at last through the efforts of a strong Reform candidate in the person of Mr. Lytton Bulwer, afterwards to become a leading novelist of the day and a statesman of no small renown. Although the eccentric Colonel Sibthorpe, whose introduction of the moustache upon the face of the ordinary citizen was his chief claim to notoriety, fought a strong fight and headed the poll by a small majority, he was in no respect a match for his opponent, and but for the freemen who " plumped " in self-defence, and many of whom were brought long distances for the purpose, the whilom champion of this special class would have been beaten, as were so many of those who had sat with him in the unreformed Parliament, and, as it was, his coadjutor,the other Conservative candidate, was hopelessly distanced. Mr. Bulwer, who, as Lord Lytton, has a world-wide reputation, had some of the qualities of the popular candidate. Of little more than medium height, and with a frame of average proportions, ungainly in manner as an orator, and in a somewhat labored fashion making points which told with an audience ...« less