To the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County of

GENTLEMEN,

Montgomery.

Though in the course of my canvass you have been generously pleased to honour me with the most flattering hopes of success, I little expected, that Mr. Williams himself would have the great goodness to promote my interest, or that in a circular letter, particularly intended to defeat my wish, he should advance circumstances, which to lovers of truth and supporters of liberty must give you substantial reason to oppose his own election. Mr. Williams is pleased to charge the Earl and Countess of Powis, in express terms, with "disturbing the peace of the county by a private and public canvass," but, gentlemen, you will receive the assertions of a candidate with great caution, who, in a public advertisement, engages to regulate his conduct by the sense of a general meeting, yet in his circular letter not only solicits, but seems to demand your votes, before a general meeting has been assembled.

Mr. Williams indeed labours to justify the inconsistency of his conduct on the ground of necessity; yet let me ask, if it is either very polite or very manly to extenuate the disregard of his own promise, thus solemnly plighted, by taxing a noble lady in the face of the world with an absolute violation of her word. He tells you, gentlemen, that he thought himself the more secure of your favour, as even her ladyship in the most obliging manner voluntarily assured him, that she would make no opposition to him at the general election, unless provoked.

Gentlemen, give me leave to appeal to your judgment, whether it is probable, that a lady of acknowledged good understanding could thus voluntarily, at so great a distance of time as upwards of two years previous to the general election, tie herself down not to exert her interest in opposition to a gentleman to whom she was indebted for neither favour, compliment, or particular civility. But not to let this matter rest on even the strongest probability or conjecture, I am authorised to affirm that her ladyship gave no assurance of any kind to Mr. Williams on the subject of the general election; nor was the Earl of Powis or the Countess the first disturber of the peace of Montgomeryshire. When he asks with an air of triumph whether it can seriously be made a doubt which is the disturber of the county, the sitting member on an old family interest or a new candidate," I am compelled to request your most serious consideration of the question, because in my comprehension it strikes at the immediate existence of election. If giving the freeholders of this county an opportunity of choosing a representative at all

is to be deemed a disturber of your peace; and if to preserve tranquillity, you must necessarily return the same man during his life, whom you have once honoured with a seat in Parliament, you may as well give up the right of election for ever; your representative is no longer your servant, but your master; you no longer choose, but are forced to receive a member; and this member may tell you, as Mr. Williams does, that it will disturb the peace of the county to remove the right of representing you out of his family. If you must confer a second favour, because you have generously bestowed a first, you must grant a third, on account of the second, and so descend into the despicable slaves of the very man, whom you originally selected from all others to be the guardian of your independency. Mr. Williams, in the latter part of his letter, tells you "that though I may be made the object of your choice, he hopes, however, I shall not be the object chosen;" does not this evidently imply, that he hopes you are not to have the appointment of your own representative?

I entreat your pardon, gentlemen, for expressing myself with so much warmth, and I trust that the honest indignation, which cannot but fire your own free-born bosoms at this avowed design to schedule you (like so many miserable peasants of Poland) into the property of Mr. Williams's family, will readily plead my

excuse.

Mr. Williams affects to feel deeply for the rights of the English Commons; and his idea, that the wish of a peer or peeress, with respect to the fate of an election, is an evasion of these rights, must appear peculiarly whimsical, after what he has himself told you of his conversation with Lady Powis. While her ladyship seemed inclined to countenance his views, she acted "in a most obliging manner," and the constitution was perfectly secure; the case, however, is widely changed; she ceases to appear propitious, and he shudders with a thousand alarms for the unfortunate Commons of England.

Many apologies, gentlemen, are requisite for the great length of this letter, yet when you remember that a charge, contained in a single line, may demand a page of refutation, I shall hope for your excuse. My cause is now in your hands, and it cannot possibly be lodged in better. Let the election fall where it may, my wishes will be in the end crowned, if your independency is promoted; though to be myself the instrument of that independency would beyond measure gratify the ambition of

Gentlemen,

Your most humble, most devoted, and most obliged,

WM. OWEN.

(Bryngwyn.)

To the Gentlemen, Clergy and Freeholders of the County of Montgomery.

GENTLEMEN,

Llwydiarth, Sept. 24, 1774.

That the electioneering and epistolary warfare in your county was begun by the Countess of Powis, is a matter of such public notoriety, that I should commit an insult on your understanding, were I to take up your time in the further proof of it.

For the precise expressions, in which I solicited your favour, I must refer to my printed advertisement, disclaiming those which my antagonist is pleased to use for me, and I flatter myself that, what is therein advanced, will be found to carry the fullest proof of those sentiments of respect, gratitude, and submission, with which my heart is deeply impressed towards you, and that the idea of a general meeting was absolutely defeated by the premature declarations of a determined opposition and canvass against me.

My late worthy friend is, it seems, authorised by somebody to affirm "that her ladyship gave no assurance of any kind to Mr. Williams on the subject of the general election." I do still, notwithstanding, continue to affirm in the most solemn manner, on the faith and honour of a gentleman, that she did, without my ever soliciting her, declare to me "that she would make no opposition to me at the next general election, unless provoked," which declaration I repeated to several persons, before I had the least apprehension of an opposition. Her ladyship did also express herself to the same effect to another gentleman of great honour and distinction, as well as to myself. She further added to me as a reason "that her son, having neither brother nor any near relation, in support of whom she could wish him to spend money, she would rather he should lay it out in improving Powis Castle."

Mr. Owen seems to think the Montgomeryshire freeholders so very dull of comprehension, as not to be able to distinguish between the private assurances of a peeress to a gentleman, that she will not stir up an opposition against him, and the public affront put upon them by presuming in her son's name and her own, in a circular letter signed by herself, to dictate to them in their choice of their representative.

In the next place, animated by an eloquence equal to his zeal, he finds himself "compelled to request your most serious consideration of the question, because it strikes at the immediate existence of election, viz., "which is the disturber of a

county, the sitting member on an old family interest, or a new candidate?" this very alarming question he treats with so ludicrous and turgid solemnity, as to justify a smile at least at my old friend's mock heroic.

I did not expect that Mr. Owen would have been so conformable to every electioneering purpose, as to publish a false quotation out of my letter; my words were that "Mr. Owen was by the Powis family made the object of your choice. I hoped, however, he would not be the object chosen." I desire, gentlemen, you will compare this with that part of his letter, and then form your judgment accordingly.

I agree indeed with him, that when one line of sober truth is to be refuted, or disguised by specious glosses, a whole page may be required; as I have no such purpose I shall hasten to a conclusion, leaving him possessed of all the triumph which he is likely to derive "from my great goodness in promoting his interest" with so much success as it will be found I have done, adding only that if your independency will be promoted by becoming the abject tools of the Powis family, called forth as you are to wreak their resentment upon me who hath served you faithfully, Mr. Owen's "wishes will be crowned" as he expresses it. For my own part, whatever may be the event, I shall at all times retain the most grateful remembrance of your past favours, and I think you safely may, as I trust you will, continue them to me, your fellow-commoner, without sinking into the "miserable state of a Polish peasant," under the dominion of a peer, and I am sure, without becoming "the despicable slaves of," or being " scheduled over to," any family whatever.

I am, Gentlemen,

Your most obliged representative and obedient humble servant, WATKIN WILLIAMS.

The Powis influence prevailed in this contest over the rival interest of the Wynn family.

George Edward Henry Arthur was Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Montgomeryshire, and Recorder of Ludlow. He died unmarried in 1801, when all his honours became extinct, whilst his estates passed to his only surviving sister, Lady Henrietta Antonia Herbert, who had married, in 1784, Edward, second Lord Clive.

His lordship's remains lay in state in Powis Castle,

and the public were admitted to view them at midnight before the funeral. An old lady who died in 1869, in her eighty-fourth year, was present, and well remembered, and used to relate, the particulars of the whole scene, which had left, after a lapse of sixty-eight years, a most vivid impression on her mind. A professional man, resident in Welshpool, possesses a gold memorial ring,' which was presented to his grandfather, on his being present at the earl's funeral, which took place by torchlight (tradition says) under the chancel of Welshpool Church. The ring bears the following inscription" George Edward Henry Arthur Herbert, Earl of Powis, ob. 17 January, 1801, æt. 46."

EDWARD, THE FIRST EARL OF POWIS OF THE PRESENT CREATION.

Edward, the first Earl of Powis of the present creation, is entitled to a place in our memoirs in consequence of his marriage with Lady Henrietta Antonia, the heiress of the Herberts, May 7, 1784. He was born March 7th, 1754, and succeeded to the title of Lord Clive, Baron of Plassey, in the Irish peerage, by the death of his father, the great Lord Clive, Nov. 22nd, 1774. He represented Ludlow in Parliament before he attained his majority, and continued member of that borough until he obtained an English peerage.

He supported Fox's East India Bill in November, 1783, and in 1788 divided in favour of the claims of the Prince of Wales.

He was created Baron Clive of Walcot, in the English peerage, August 13th, 1794, and added another leaf to the laurels already gathered by his father in the peninsula of India. As Governor of Madras he revived the glory of the name of Clive, and in the Mysorean war with Tippoo Sahib he vigorously co-operated with the measures of the Governor-General, the Marquess Wel

1 It was exhibited at the Third Annual Meeting of the Powysland Club. (See Mont. Coll., vol. iii, p. 31.