No abstract Provided. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

Large urban parliamentary constituencies and rural (county) constituencies have received much attention in recent years from historical psephologists: the smaller borough constituencies have received comparatively little yet in important ways these were the 'typical' constituencies. This study is an attempt to remedy that hiatus, and is somewhat novel in examining electoral behaviour over a number of elections spanning the period of the first Reform Act. That voting was open is crucial to an understanding of voting behaviour in this period, for in general the smaller the constituency the greater the opportunities for influencing the vote casting of electors. The existence within small boroughs of a large body of independent electors freely expressing their will in the polls may be an image conveyed by campaign literature, yet it was in large measure a fiction. This study emphasises the pervasiveness and significance of 'influence', both legitimate and otherwise, and suggests that political inclination, social class, and even bribery were relatively unimportant when set against the widely spread tentacles of influence as mediated. through property. Family influences too were significant, and it is clear that electors were calculating individuals. A detailed longitudinal study has been made possible by the nature of the available data (pollbooks, directories, corporation records, and a singular collection of letters and election material) and some considerable evidence on spatial distribution of partisan votes has emerged. It has also become clear that voting in parliamentary elections resembled closely that in local elections, and was subject to the same influences and directed by the same organisational machine, however informal that may have been. Finally, the Reform Act of 1832, interpreted by Whig historians as a landmark on the road to democracy, had a quite different impact locally. Formal changes in Grimsby made for a less representative electorate, a regression rather than advance of democracy. The Act left the influences on voters largely unchanged.

<p> Examination of subsurface cores of the Middle-Lower Silurian Thorold Sandstone from Consumers' Gas Silver Creek 004 Grimsby Pool indicate the presence of a single laminated sandstone facies deposited in a lower shoreface environment. Subsurface thin sections show greater development of quartz cement in the form of quartz overgrowths when compared to thin sections from surface outcrop leading to a porosity decrease of 20%. Petrographic and cathodoluminescence studies reveal that concavo-convex and sutured grain contacts, responsible for 80% of the grain contacts within the Thorold Sandstone, are generally between authigenic overgrowths and not detrital grains indicating that pressure solution is not the major source of silica within the Thorold Sandstone. Studies of detrital and authigenic clays utilizing a combination of thin section, scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction techniques show that illite (both detrital and authigenic) is the dominant clay mineral within the Thorold Sandstone in the 004 Pool, followed by approximately one half as much detrital kaolinite and minor authigenic chlorite. Shallow maximum depth of burial ( 786 to 1160m) and low diagenetic temperatures (30°c) suggest that clay minerals are unlikely to have undergone extensive diagenetic transformation. Consequently, detrital minerals represent the clay minerals present at the time of deposition while authigenic clays form by direct precipitation from pore fluids. During eodiagenesis mechanical compaction has reduced sandstone porosity from 40% to 28 to 29% while during mesodiagenesis the progressive paragenetic assemblage of authigenic quartz overgrowths, authigenic chlorite and authigenic illite have reduced porosity to its present value of 4 to 10%.</p> / Thesis / Bachelor of Science (BSc)