| Disgrifiad | Correspondence mainly between John Sanderson and Richard Anthony Poole, Lord Anglesey's solicitor and election agent, regarding the expenses of the contests of 1831 and 1832 in the boroughs. Pools'e conduct in the latter election involved him in a protracted dispute with chief agent, and it is to this that the bulk of the letter refer. According to sanderson, poole received express instructions to cut down expenses to the barest minimum in accordance with Sir Charles Paget's avowed policy; in actual fact, however, he appears to have given cart blanche to his sub-agents in the boroughs, and in face of the veritabl avalanche of bills which subsequently descends on Sanderson and Plas Newydd, persists in disclaiming all knowledge of any "limitations" with "the impudence that no lawyer ever lacked." Pressing demeands from Sanderson for a detailed statement of account, are only met in June, 1834, almost two years after the election; in the meantine, to judge by some of the heart-rending petitions posted to Plas Newydd, half the publicans of Caernarvon and Bangor were facing ruin. One Henry Ellis of Bangor had alone expanded 815 gallons of ale at the cost of £108.14.8; while the landlord of Uxbridge Arms in Caernarvon presented his account for £900. From Pwllheli, too, poured bills amounting ro close on £400 including one for £146 spent on ribbons alone. "Such a consumption of edibles and drinkables" writes Sanderson to Sir Charles Paget "as never has been heard of. I really believe that of the number of voters who polled for you in the six boroughs, almost everyman had a public house to himself where the taps must have been kept running increasingly post ante meridan every day." the total expenses amounted to the astounding figure of £15,000, which led Sanderson to believe, quite understandably, that the working of the Reform Bill in the Caernarvon Boroughs had "no parallel for excess and profligacy in any district of the Representative System of Great Britain." |