It had been objected to Bung that he had only five children ('Hear, hear!' from the opposition).

Well; he had yet to learn that the legislature had affixed any precise amount of infantine qualification to the office of beadle; but taking it for granted that an extensive family were a great requisite, he entreated them to look to facts, and compare _data_, about which there could be no mistake.

Bung was 35 years of age.
Spruggins--of whom he wished to speak with all possible respect--was 50.
Was it not more than possible--was it not very probable--that by the time Bung attained the latter age, he might see around him a family, even exceeding in number and extent, that to which Spruggins at present laid claim (deafening cheers and waving of handkerchiefs)?
The captain concluded, amidst loud applause, by calling upon the parishioners to sound the tocsin, rush to the poll, free themselves from dictation, or be slaves for ever.
On the following day the polling began, and we never have had such a bustle in our parish since we got up our famous anti-slavery petition, which was such an important one, that the House of Commons ordered it to be printed, on the motion of the member for the district.

The captain engaged two hackney-coaches and a cab for Bung's people--the cab for the drunken voters, and the two coaches for the old ladies, the greater portion of whom, owing to the captain's impetuosity, were driven up to the poll and home again, before they recovered from their flurry sufficiently to know, with any degree of clearness, what they had been doing.

The opposite party wholly neglected these precautions, and the consequence was, that a great many ladies who were walking leisurely up to the church--for it was a very hot day--to vote for Spruggins, were artfully decoyed into the coaches, and voted for Bung.