A HISTORY OF RUTLAND necting it with which is the imprisonment, after his second trial in March 1840 at Oakham, of the Chartist Henry Vincent, who while there addressed a letter to the Chartists recommending them all to become teetotallers."' The county, in which down to 183 1 there had been no contest for twenty years,'"* showed its sympathy with the Reform movement by returning Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Liberal, in conjunction with Sir G. N. Noel, Con- servative, in 1832, and continued to be represented by a member of each party until 1867. The election of 1841 gave rise to one of the few political contests of the last century in Rutland, and the result of the poll was : — Mr. G. J. Heathcote, Liberal, 767 ; Hon. W. H. Dawnay, Conservative, 676; Hon. C. G. Noel, Liberal, 664.'°° In 1846, however, the county showed its distrust of Free Trade by returning Mr. George Finch as a Protectionist in succession to Mr, Dawnay, who had resigned his seat, and in the election of the following year both Sir G. J. Heathcote and the Hon. G. J. Noel, who replaced Mr. George Finch, were returned as Protec- tionists. When Free Trade became an accomplished fact the members for Rutland returned to their respective original political ideas, and from 1852 the Hon. G. J. Noel, who was appointed First Commissioner of Works in 1876, continued to represent the constituency till his retirement in 1883, in conjunction, first with Sir G. J. Heathcote, who was raised to the peerage as Lord Aveland in 1867, and afterwards with Mr. George H. Finch of Burley, Conservative, elected in the room of the former."" In 1883 the retirement of the Hon. G. J. Noel brought to a close for the present the representation of the county by the Noel family, which since 1727 had held one seat continuously, except between 1841 and 1847. Mr. J. W. Lowther was returned at the by-election as a Conservative, the Liberal candidate, Mr. J. W. Davenport Handley, receiving only 194 votes on a poll of 1,054.'" Rutland lost one of its members by the Redistribution Act of 1885,'°' and at the election in the same year Mr. G. H. Finch retained his seat against the Liberal candidate, Mr. M. C. Buszard, Q.C., by a majority of 1,256. Since then Rutland has always remained Conservative. Until 1907 it was continuously represented by Mr. G. H. Finch, whose parliamentary career from his first election for the county in 1867 thus extends over forty years, and who after his return in 1885 was unopposed until 1906, when he defeated the Liberal candidate, Mr. H. Weetman Pearson, by 483 votes.""' He was made a Privy Councillor in 1902, and in his later years was 'Father of the House.' On his death in 1907 he was succeeded by the sitting member, Mr. John Gretton, of Stapleton Park, Melton Mowbray, Unionist, who represented South Derbyshire in the Conservative interest from 1895 to 1906.'^" The return of the latter, together with that of Hon. W. H. Dawnay in 1841, and of Mr. J. W. Lowther in 1883, makes a break for the third time since "" Gammage, Hist, of Chartist Movement, 196. '"Spencer Walpole, Hist, of Engl, i, 119. There had, however, been no contest for 100 years in Cheshire, Nottinghamshire, and Cambridgeshire, and none for nearly 50 in Anglesea, and Derby, Gloucester, Hertford, and other counties were in the same position as Rutland. "' F. H. McCalmont, Pari. Poll Bk. (6th ed.). '"" Ibid. •" Pari. Poll. Bk. «» G. Barnett Smith, Hist, of Engl. Park 581. "' Pari Poll Bk. "" Dod, Parliamentary Companion. 206
