Excerpt from Lady Felicia: A Novel IN the celebrated borough of Sudbury, some years before the patriotic struggles Of the enlightened freemen had won for it that political repose and parliamentary independence by which it is now so peculiarly distinguished, there was a glorious electioneering contest between Lord Charles Jocelyn and Captain Coleraine. The immediate cause of this contest was not at the time held to be extraordinary: it was indeed simply this, that Sir William Wardle, whom the freemen had previously elected, had lost his seat merely in consequence of its having been proved before a Committee of the House of Commons that he had performed divers acts of generosity which, by virtue of a singular political fiction then in existence, were designated acts of bribery and corruption. It may to some appear to be strange that a man's generosity should have involved the loss of that which it cost him forty thousand pounds to gain; but such, notwithstanding, was the fact, and the only consolation Sir William had was that of strongly recommending his friend Lord Charles to those by whom that generosity had been experienced. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.