1848 Poll Book

The Poll
for
a Knight of the Shire
for the
West Riding of Yorkshire
in the room of Lord Morpeth, (succeeded to the peerage as Earl of Carlisle)
On Thursday and Friday, Dec. 14th and 15th, 1848.

Candidates:
Edmund Denison, Esquire.
Sir Culling Eardley Eardley, Baronet.

This Election took place in consequence of the removal of Lord Morpeth to the House of Lords on the demise of his father, the Earl of Carlisle, who died on the 7th Oct., 1848.

The Right Hon. Charles Wentworth Fitzwilliam, youngest son of Earl Fitzwilliam, presented himself as candidate on the 24th Oct, but when he commenced his cavassing tour in Leeds his reception was so unfavourable that he withdrew next day.

The Liberal party then invited Sir Culling Eardley Eardley Bart. to be their candidate.
His introductory address to the electors included the following points:

"The principle of Entire Freedom of Commerce carried out to its fullest development, including a change of our Navigation Laws............ Economy in the Public Finances, not so much by petty reductions in subordinate offices, as a bold and manly review of the whole principle and details of our present expenditure. I will not presume to say in what exact particulars of our Military, Naval or Civil Services, reductions ought to be effected, but of this I am certain, that a searching investigation of the whole of these departments is a duty which the distressed condition of the country demands........ I am grateful for the Reform Act as far as it goes, but I desire to see the principles of the Reform Bill carried out. I wish to see elections the real expression of honest public opinion; and I have witnessed so much corruption and intimidation in elections, that I feel we shall never have real representation without the Ballot. I have a strong conviction that the wider that can be made the basis on which our Franchise is founded, the safer will be the superstructure of our Constitution........... I protest against all new Religious Endowments involving, as they do, putting truth and error on the same level and erecting a provision for Romanist Priests - the offspring of an insidious and unworthy expediency - by the side of Protestant institutions. To any provision, of any sort or kind, for the Romish Priests, to any transfer of the property of the Irish Establishment, under any plea, however plausible, to the adherents of Rome, I am conscientiously, firmly, irrevocably, opposed."

The Conservative party candidate was Mr Edmund Beckett Denison who had broadly similar points to make:

"With respect to Free Trade, with the exception of the Duties upon Corn, I had voted for every Reduction of Duty proposed by the Minister of the day, and I am quite prepared to follow out that course.......... All Duties on Corn will expire in the course of the next Spring, and I think that it would be most impolitic to attempt a revival of them........... The trade and Finances of the country are in anything but a satisfactory condition - it is the imperative duty of Parliament to insist upon the utmost possible Reduction of Expenses in every Department of the State......... another subject that deeply engages the attention of the Public- the Endowment of the Roman Catholic priesthood- I shall give it my decided opposition.......... in my opinion the Education of the Poor ought to be vigorously promoted- nothing can be of greater consequence to the personal welfare of the people, and the permanent wellbeing of the state, than that elevation of character which Religious education promotes."

On the day fixed for making the Official Declaration of the Poll. (Monday, Dec., 18th,) the under sherrif again presided, and announced the final state of the Poll to be as follows:

Edmund Beckett Denison (1816-1905), QC and chairman of the Great Northern Railway Company, was later re-elected in 1852 and 1857, serving as an MP for the West Riding from 1848-1859, later becoming Sir Edmund Beckett, 5th Bt. on the death of his father in 1874, and then the First Lord Grimthorpe in 1886.

The votes for the respective candidates are indicated by the numerals 1 (Denison), and 2 (Eardley). The omission of these numerals indicates that the elector did not vote. Many names which appear in the register of particular townships, are altogether omitted from the Poll Book. In all these cases, the same name will be found recorded in some other township, the elector having two or more qualifications.

1848 WRY Election - Malhamdale Entries

Who could Vote?
The Representation of the People Act 1832, commonly known as the Reform Act 1832 or the First Reform Act, increased the number of individuals entitled to vote, enlarging the size of electorate by 50–80%, and allowing a total of 653,000 adult males (around one in five) to vote, in a population of some 14 million. Even so, voting in the boroughs was restricted to men who occupied homes with an annual value of £10 and there were also property qualifications for people living in rural areas, the result being that only one in seven adult males had the vote at this time. The Act also specifically disenfranchised women, sparking the British suffrage movement.

See also our 1741 Poll Book, 1807 Poll Book, the Register of Electors registered to vote in 1834 and our information page about the Right to Vote 1430-1969.