The Great Reform Act of
1832 abolished what were called the Rotten and Pocket Boroughs which had so few
voters that they could easily be bought and also created new constituencies;
but it did not abolish election corruption in Britan and Ireland, not least because the
secret ballot was not introduced until 1872.
This brief letter of 1833
was sent to Quintin Dick, an Irish barrister possessed of great inherited East India wealth and currently one of two Members of Parliament for Maldon in Essex, a borough which
had retained two seats in the Reform Act. The recent election had cost the Tory Quintin Dick a great deal of money. The online History of Parliament has this to say, "
The interest of the short letter transcribed below is the suggestion that the purchaser of the Kilmorey estate “could command” the
parliamentary seat of Newry. This was an
entirely realistic assessment: members of the Kilmorey family provided the MPs
for Newry intermittently in the nineteenth century though it was a member of
the Downshire family who won in 1832 – that family appears in the footnote to
the letter. The house and estate remained in Kilmorey hands until 2008.
Transcription
Addressed to: Quintin Dick Esqr MP Curzon Street London
Datelined: Newry 22d Feby 1833
Postmarked: Despatch mark NEWRY 22 FE 1833; regular
FREE frank mark applied in London FE 25 1833.
My
dear Dick
You
used to speak of purchasing in this country but very likely you may have
changed your views and particularly under the present circumstances, however that
may be I think it right to mention to you that the present Lord Kilmorey has
determined to sell this Estate as well as the Mourne [Mourne Park House] which
appears to me amongst the most desirable in Ireland. The Newry estate is about
9,000 Irish acres and produces about 10,500 £ a year with this Boro’ [Parliamentary
borough of Newry] which the Landlord could command. The sum asked I hear is
£350,000 which is I suppose a good deal more than will be got for it. Mr
Appleyard of Lincolns Inn is his man of business.