Probably on that account
Liskeard returned two members to Parliament, the first members being
returned in 1294; amongst the M.P.'s who had represented the town were
two famous men--Sir Edward Coke, elected in 1620, and Edward Gibbon, in
1774.
Sir Edward Coke was a great lawyer and author of the legal classic _Coke
upon Littleton_. He became Speaker of the House of Commons,
Attorney-General, and afterwards Chief Justice, and was the merciless
prosecutor of Sir Walter Raleigh, and also of the persons concerned in
the Gunpowder Plot; while his great speech against Buckingham towards
the close of the career of that ill-fated royal favourite is famous.
Edward Gibbon was the celebrated historian and author of that great work
_The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_. The history of his
Parliamentary connection with Liskeard was rather curious. One morning
in 1774, when in London, he was asked if he would like to enter the
House of Commons, and when he consented, the "free and independent
electors" of Liskeard were duly "instructed" to return him. But it was
very doubtful whether he ever saw any of the electors, or had any
dealings with the Constituency whatever, although he acted as one of
their members for about eight years.
Pages:
1129
1130
1131
1132
1133
1134
1135
1136
1137
1138
1139
1140
1141
1142
1143
1144
1145
1146
1147
1148
1149
1150
1151
1152
1153