Middlesex

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This article has not been researched and written yet

This article has not been researched and written yet

The city and liberty of Westminster presented a significant contrast: a prestigious constituency with a plebeian, often violent, electorate. Encompassing the seat of both monarch and Parliament, the borough was frequently contested by ministers, who recognized its potential impact on elections throughout the country, and took advantage of the Court’s influence over local tradesmen and victuallers. The propinquity of the palaces of Whitehall and St.

Westminster was the largest urban constituency in the kingdom, and invariably returned men of the highest social standing: of its fourteen representatives between 1754 and 1790, nine were sons of peers, one was an Irish peer, and four were baronets. Indeed, in 1762 Newcastle was uncertain whether Edwin Sandys, whose father had been ennobled only in 1743, was ‘of dignity enough’ to represent Westminster.Add. 32936, f.

The Westminster electorate numbered about 16,000 in theory, but about 12,000 in practice. A significant proportion were members of the leisured classes and included many of the political and social elite. Below them in the social scale ranked a wide assortment of professional men, a numerically dominant mass of tradesmen, shopkeepers, craftsmen and skilled artisans and a relatively small number of poor artisans, menials and labourers. The violent potential of the unenfranchised mob made it a factor to be reckoned with.

Westminster, wrote the 2nd Lord Egmont, who sat for it as Lord Perceval,

consists of the greatest number of votes in the whole kingdom, excepting only the county of York; for it contains above 16,000 houses, which are of such a rent as to be charged to the church and poor, and consequently to entitle the possessors to vote. It is true, that many of these being untenanted, inhabited by women, or by persons not qualified, or able, the number is reduced to about 9,000, who may be presumed to vote at any contested election.