1840 Birmingham by-election

UK election 1840 Birmingham by-election United Kingdom George Muntz Radicals (UK) Thomas Attwood MP 38.6% 917 Conservative Party (UK) Charles Wetherell x160px 1,458 Radicals (UK) George Muntz 61.4% Rad Constituency of Birmingham 1841 United Kingdom general election 23–25 January 1840 1837 1837 United Kingdom general election no parliamentary 1841 Radicals (UK) File:Birmingham - Reform Act Map 1831.png 4,619 51.4% ( 8.5%) Map of the constituency of Birmingham at the time of the by-electionApril 2022 A UK parliamentary by-election was held for one of the two seats in Birmingham on 23–25 January 1840. The Radical candidate George Muntz was returned, ahead of Conservative Charles Wetherell. Nominations The vacancy was caused by the 1839 resignation of Thomas Attwood, who was a Radical like the other sitting MP Joshua Scholefield.Smith Henry Stooks The Register of Parliamentary Contested Elections 1841 Simpkin, Marshall 12 https://books.google.com/books?id=D7BNAQAAMAAJ&q=pg London 24 July 2019 en The returning officer was Philip Henry Muntz, the mayor of Birmingham and brother of George Muntz. Nomination day was fixed as 23 January, and in the runup both George Muntz and another Radical, Joseph Sturge, canvassed and took part in hustings.Muntz v Sturge p. 304 Sturge said that if he lacked support he would withdraw, to avoid splitting the Radical vote.Muntz v Sturge p. 304; The British Friend June 1859 Deaths: Joseph Sturge 166 https://books.google.com/books?id=ZjMrAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA166 23 July 2019 en William & Robert Smeal Glasgow XVII VI "Mr. Allen, the Whig" withdrew from the hustings.https://books.google.com/books?id=zfAwAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA80 The Spectator 80–81 23 July 2019 The Provinces 25 January 1840 604 London Wetherell's supporters told the mayor that their candidate, as yet unnamed, intended to run.Muntz v Sturge pp. 303–304 The mayor consulted the three prospective candidates' representatives and on 22 January the municipal corporation contracted for erection of 15 polling booths. At the nomination meeting all three prospective candidates were proposed and seconded; only Muntz attended in person. There was a show of hands of those present, described by The Spectator: There was a large show of hands for Mr. Sturge, a much larger for Mr. Muntz, but for Sir Charles Wethereil scarcely a hand in the body of the Hall was held up. Mr. George Edmonds, who proposed Mr. Sturge, then stated, that as the decision of the meeting was against Mr. Sturge, he was authorized to withdraw that gentleman from the contest; and he hoped this proof of Mr. Sturge's magnanimity would have the effect of uniting all the Liberals against the common enemy. The show of hands being pronounced in favour of Muntz, a poll for Wetherell was demanded. Polling was the following day, 24 January, and the result was announced early on 25 January.Langford John Alfred A Century of Birmingham Life 1868 E.C. Osborne II 643 https://books.google.com/books?id=pQsNAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA643 24 July 2019 en Result 1840 Birmingham by-electionCraig Frederick Walter Scott British Parliamentary Election Results Birmingham 1977 Springer 9781349023493 47 https://books.google.com/books?id=PtewCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA47 23 July 2019 en; Stooks Smith Henry The Parliaments of England from 1st George I to the Present Time II: Oxfordshire to Wales Inclusive Warwickshire; Birmingham 1845 Simpkin Marshall London 97 https://books.google.com/books?id=HacQAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA97 Google Books 27 October 2018; The Supplement to the Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge I: Abati–Gyrosteus 1845 C. Knight 199 https://books.google.com/books?id=QwT3b-hcuhYC&pg=PA199 23 July 2019 en Birmingham The number of parliamentary electors in 1839–40 was 4619 Radicals (UK) George Muntz 1,458 61.4 -18.8 Conservative Party (UK) Charles Wetherell 917 38.6 +18.9 Radicals (UK) Joseph Sturge Withdrew — 541 22.8 +2.7 2,375 51.4 -8.5 4,619 Radicals (UK) -18.9 Muntz v. Sturge The corporation billed each of the three prospective candidates for one-third of the £360 expenses.Muntz v Sturge p. 302 Sturge paid only the £66 proportion which he judged accrued prior to the commencement of the poll.Muntz v Sturge pp. 302, 304 The mayor sued for the balance, and Nicholas Conyngham Tindal, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, agreed at the Warwickshire assizes, but this was overturned on appeal by James Scarlett, 1st Baron Abinger, the Chief Baron of the Exchequer, who ruled that Sturge was not a "candidate at a contested election" in the relevant section of the Reform Act 1832, and thus the other two candidates were liable for the expenses incurred during the poll.Muntz v Sturge pp. 309–310 References https://books.google.com/books?id=ksAaAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA495 302–311 VIII 9 May 1841 Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Courts of Exchequer 23 July 2019 Muntz v Sturge Meeson Roger Welsby William Newland Wallace Horace Binney Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Warwickshire constituencies Category:By-elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Birmingham, West Midlands constituencies Category:1840 in England Category:1840 elections in the United Kingdom Category:19th century in Birmingham, West Midlands Category:19th century in Warwickshire