NORTHUMBERLAND ELECTION SONG - A New Song, Addressed to the Independent Freeholders of the County of Northumberland. Tune - "Highland Laddie." - Alnwick - 1826

Alnwick: J. Graham, printer, 23 February 1826. Rare and apparently unrecorded Georgian election song-sheet in support of Henry Thomas Liddell during the Northumberland election campaign of 1826. Single sheet, letterpress on paper, 27.3 × 22.1 cm. The song urges the "Freeholders of Northumbria" to "poll away" for Liddell and not give their votes to Matthew Bell, warning that Bell would "ring your Freedom's knell". It praises Liddell as the man who wears "the red and white cockade" and invokes "religious Freedom", a key issue in the county's election politics. The song was intended to be sung to the popular tune "Highland Laddie", reflecting the performative culture of Georgian electioneering. The verso bears a contemporary manuscript docket: "23 Feby 1826. An Election Song for Liddell." This places the sheet in the early Liddell-Bell by-election campaign, before the larger four-candidate Northumberland general election later in 1826. No copy traced institutionally or commercially. Apparently unrecorded. Single sheet. Old folds, light creasing, mild toning, minor handling marks and contemporary manuscript docketing to verso. Complete, clean and well preserved. Near fine condition overall. …