Autograph Letter Signed ('Walpole') to unnamed male correspondent.

4to: 3 pp. A bifolium, mounted onto a larger piece of paper by a strip along the inner margin of the verso of the second leaf. Separated horizontally into two parts by a central tear which has been neatly repaired with archival tape, but with the 39 lines of text clear and entire. A signficant letter regarding the political climate in the County of Norfolk in the period preceding the general parliamentary election of 1768. Walpole begins by apologising for troubling his correspondent (who has given him 'so many proofs of [his] friendship & attachment') 'upon the present occasion of confusion in consequence of the nomination of four persons as candidates to represent this county at the ensuing election'. He reassures his correspondent that his 'principles of government in this country [...] are such as perfectly agree with your own'. He entreats his correspondent's support 'in favor of those with whom I have mostly disagreed in publick matters', considering that 'opposition to these persons' would be 'founded upon private pique'. Explains that 'till Thursday last people were doubtful as to the number of candidates that intended to offer themselves'. Names the three candidates who it was 'rather imagined [...] would appear' ('I am inclined to think the favorers of Sr. Edward & Mr Coke were very undetermined among themselves as to this matter'). '[A]bout an hour before the nomination a message was sent to [one of the candidates] requesting him to joyn [another]', and 'had he agreed to this measure we might probably have two representatives of the same family interest, a proposition which I can by no means approve of'. Walpole considers that the offer was made 'by a detachment of tories with the addition of some Whigs has in my idea more the appearance of pique than any real regard to the good of the county'. Names a candidate who 'has to my knowledge beenn the great object of their hatred because he was countenanced by the two families whose interest you have always espoused at Yarmouth' [Sir Edward Walpole was Member of Parliament for Great Yarmouth from 1756 to 1768]. 'As this is the true state of the case' hopes for his correspondent's 'concurrence in support of the present sitting members'. Docketed on reverse of second leaf 'Lord Walpole Oct 1767 and my Answer | Letters to & From | Roger Townshend | Lord Townshend | Lord Walpole | And Bez Gooch'.