Author: [CHARLES LEE] AN HONEST WORKING MAN.
Title: Driven From Home. [Address to] Fellow Working Men.
Description: Bilston, Wolverhampton, [1871] Broadside printed in blue, 510 x 385 mm. central horizontal split, but the whole laid down. Unusually, the incumbency of St. Leonard's, Bilston is decided by a vote of the parish members, rather than the patronage of the Bishop or local landowner. Here the contest was hard fought, between Mr. Ward, a ritualist and current curate, the candidate supported by the Bishop and Charles Lee, a former Minister of the parish. "The Rev. Charles Lee... elected Vicar of St. Leonard's the contested parish in Bilston, by a vote of 2,195 to 756. Mr. Lee seems to have been the least objectionable of the candidates, a moderate evangelical, apparently not addicted to self praise> but the elevation was quite as bad as any for Parliament or the municipality. Supporters of Mr. Lee were taken from their carriages and "drubbed," probably an unpleasant process> a drunken woman in the favourite colours was driven about the town> and gangs of Irish girls wearing Mr. Ward's colours set upon respectable people wearing Mr. Lee's, and but for the interference of the police would have "lynched" them in earnest. Voters found it necessary to get extremely drunk with gin as well as enthusiasm, and the day ended in a charge made by the police upon a riotous crowd of 2,000 people. It is a pity that soldiers were not called out, just to make the irony of the affair perfect> but enough occurred to show that the Church may be subjected to evils a good deal worse than private patronage." The Spectator, 10 June 1871.

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