SOLID VOTING.
[To THZ EDITOR OF THZ "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—There was a General Election in the year 1841, and the County of Salop returned twelve Conservative Members, who were locally called the Twelve Apostles, Disraeli being one. A grand banquet was given in Shrewsbury to the twelve in November, and the excitement of the evening was considerably heightened by the receipt of the news, while Disraeli was speaking, of the birth of the Prince of Wales. In honour of the whole county having gone Tory, the Lord Powis of the day had a silver medal struck, and a twelve-pointed card was also issued, the name of a Member being printed on each point, an illustration of the Wrekin occupying the centre of the card. I am fortunate in possessing one of these cards, for they are now very rare. It was in the same year, if I mistake not, that Essex went solidly Tory, her Members being known as the Essex Ten. Bedfordshire voted solid for Home-rule in 1886, and has gone similarly this year. Kent and Essex were as one man for the 'Union in '86, and this year no fewer than ten counties have thus voted, to wit,—Salop, Sussex, Kent, Dorset, Hertford, Huntingdon, Middlesex, Rutland, Surrey, and
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