| Description | In the opinion of Sir Richard Williams Bulkeley, who pledged his vote for Hughes in despite of the latter's politics, the "parading" of Davies by the Caernarvon liberals marked "the introduction ointo Wales of a direct religious warfare". "Mr Davies or Davis is started not because he is a fit and proper man, not because he is conversant with trade and is a large ship owner, not for any qualification of any sort or kind, but simply because he is a Dissenter" (414). To Dr O.O. Roberts, on the other hand, and the more enlightened non-conformist element in the boroughs, here was the apostle of a new spirit in Welsh politics - a man, so Roberts described him at his nomination, "who is from the ranks of the long-maligned common people in Wales". As for the attitude of Plas Newydd in this contest, a report had reached the Liberal Headquarters that the Marquess had beered to Hughes' side - this much to the consternation of Dr Roberts and his friends, who wrote to his Lordship on June 2nd anxiously requesting a denial of what was surely nothing less than a "calumnious fabrication" (410). A formal denial was issued on the Marquess' behalf two dyas later (413), but it is fairly obvious that whatever support for Davies was forthcoming from the Plas Newydd camp was at best lukewrm (412), and Hughes managed to retain his seat with a comfortable majority of 120. In the history of the development of Welsh political Nonconformity, the election of 1852 is of immense significance, marking as it does a decisive turning point in the attitude of the Calvinistic Methodists to politics, and also the emergence of a new conception on the part of the electorate of the kind of men who would best serve the interests of Wales at Westminster. These points were fully brought out in the excellent article entitled "Lecsiwn 1852" whic Mr Owen Parry contributed at "Er Clod" |
| AdminHistory | William Bulkeley Hughes, who had already twice succesfully contested the boroughs, and had gone in unopposed in 1847, was in this election opposed by Richard Davies of Treborth, a man whom the gentry quite obviously regarded as an interloper, and what was even worse in their eyes, a Dissenter - and a Methodist at that ! |