Page:The Marquess Cornwallis and the Consolidation of British Rule.djvu/184

 CHAPTER X

Return to India. Policy. Death

On his return from Amiens Cornwallis found something to interest him in the elections, and his letters are amusingly illustrative of the way in which such political events were managed in those times. There was an election for the county of Suffolk, in which there 'was reason to expect the most perfect unanimity.' This election had to give way to the claims of the races at Newmarket, and was postponed for three days in consequence. But there was rather more excitement about the return of two members for the borough of Eye. Cornwallis is careful to state that his party neither bribed nor treated in what was practically a pocket borough, and that a majority had been secured of four to one incontestable voters, after deducting paupers and those who had purchased meal at a reduced price during the scarcity. The elections ended satisfactorily by the return of two members of the Cornwallis family who each polled 114 votes, their opponents obtaining fifteen apiece.

In November, 1802, Cornwallis writes: 'I am still