NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION BROADSIDE – “FREEHOLDERS!” SIGNED “SICCIUS” – 1826

Rare Northumberland election broadside issued during the celebrated 1826 county election, one of the most bitterly contested and expensive parliamentary elections of the Georgian period.

Printed at Alnwick by Smith and dated 23 June 1826, the broadside is addressed to the “Freeholders!” and written in support of Lord Howick, then standing third in the poll. It attacks the tactics used against him, dismisses rumours concerning his resignation, and urges voters to rally to his standard. The text denounces “the unworthy and ungentlemanly Artifices” allegedly employed to detain him in third place and presents Howick as a man of “clear” hands and “pure” principles.

The broadside is signed “SICCIUS”, almost certainly invoking Lucius Siccius Dentatus, the Roman soldier and tribune traditionally celebrated as a champion of the common people against patrician oppression. The classical pseudonym is highly characteristic of Georgian political rhetoric and gives the piece additional literary and ideological interest.

The notice relates directly to the famous four-cornered Northumberland election involving Lord Howick, Matthew Bell, Henry Thomas Liddell, and Thomas Wentworth Beaumont. The contest became notorious for intense canvassing, accusations of coalition, vast expenditure, and a flood of printed political propaganda. The wider campaign also culminated in the well-known duel fought on Bamburgh Sands between Beaumont and John Lambton, later Earl of Durham.

This broadside is especially interesting as a late campaign appeal, issued while Howick remained in the poll and before the final resolution of the contest. Its rhetoric captures the urgency, personal hostility, and theatrical political language of the election at its height.

No institutional copy of this precise broadside has been traced in the British Library, Library Hub Discover, or WorldCat databases, and it therefore appears to be apparently unrecorded institutionally.

Single printed broadside. Sheet size approximately 28 x 22 cm.

Condition: Fold lines as issued, light creasing, minor age toning and handling wear consistent with original political use. Overall a near fine survival of Georgian election ephemera.

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