NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION BROADSIDE – TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEWCASTLE COURANT – On Catholic Emancipation and the County Election – Alnwick, 3 May 1826

Alnwick: Printed by J. Graham, 1826.

Single folio broadside. Measuring approximately 29.9 x 18.3 cm.

Near fine condition.

Fold creases. Clean and well preserved with only light signs of age and handling.

Description

A rare and highly evocative Northumberland election broadside issued during the celebrated parliamentary election of 1826, comprising a political poem entitled The Triumph of Freedom, signed in print “Junius” and dated Alnwick, 19th April, 1826.

The broadside was produced in support of the reform-minded and increasingly influential political interests associated with Lord Howick, the future Prime Minister Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, whose family dominated Northumberland politics during the early nineteenth century.

Opening with a prose extract quoting Lord Howick’s speech delivered at Newcastle on 11 April 1826, the broadside then launches into an extended poetic celebration of liberty, constitutional independence and the virtues of the Grey family. The poem presents Freedom itself as a celestial visitor descending upon Howick Hall, where it discovers honour, benevolence and patriotism embodied in the house of Grey.

Throughout the text the author contrasts freedom, virtue and public service with the corruption and political manipulation alleged by reformers to characterise traditional electoral influence. The broadside therefore forms part of the wider ideological struggle taking place within Northumberland politics during the 1826 election, a contest that generated an extraordinary body of addresses, broadsides, squibs, songs, poems and polemical literature.

Particularly notable is the repeated invocation of Lord Grey, whose political standing by 1826 had made him one of the leading figures of the Whig opposition. Although still several years away from introducing the Great Reform Act of 1832, Grey was already widely identified with parliamentary reform, constitutional liberty and opposition to political corruption. The language employed in the broadside reflects the growing popular appeal of reformist ideas in the years immediately preceding the Reform crisis.

Historical Importance

The Northumberland election of 1826 was one of the most intensely fought county contests of the Georgian period. Candidates and their supporters distributed large quantities of printed election material designed to influence freeholders and shape public opinion.

Poetical election broadsides such as the present example are considerably scarcer than straightforward addresses and committee notices. Their survival rate is low, as they were intended for immediate circulation and generally discarded once the election had concluded.

The present broadside is therefore valuable not only as an example of Northumberland political ephemera but also as evidence of the popular literary and political culture that accompanied provincial elections during the final decades before parliamentary reform.

The attribution to “Junius” deliberately evokes the celebrated eighteenth-century political writer whose pseudonymous letters attacked governmental corruption and championed constitutional liberty. The choice of signature would have been immediately recognisable to contemporary readers.

Charles Grey and Reform

The figure celebrated in the poem is the future Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, one of the most important political reformers of nineteenth-century Britain.

Grey served as Prime Minister between 1830 and 1834 and is remembered principally for overseeing the passage of the Reform Act 1832, which transformed parliamentary representation and marked a major milestone in British constitutional history.

Material supporting Grey and the reform movement before 1832 is increasingly sought after because it documents the development of political opinion during one of the most significant periods of British parliamentary history.

Institutional Holdings

Northumberland election literature of this period is represented in collections including:

• British Library
• National Library of Scotland
• Newcastle University
• Northumberland Archives
• Bodleian Libraries

Individual election broadsides from the Northumberland contests of 1826 are, however, uncommon survivals and are infrequently encountered in commerce.

Significance

An attractive and scarce example of Northumberland election printing, combining political propaganda, reformist sentiment and contemporary verse in a single ephemeral publication.

An important survival from the electoral culture that preceded the Reform Act and a desirable item for collectors of parliamentary history, political ephemera, Northumberland history and Georgian printing.

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