By Isle of Wight Observer
We have some IW Council elections coming up on May 1st, and this entry published in the Isle of Wight Observer of March 28th, 1857 made us smile. In case you are wondering (we did) what tergiversation means – The Cambridge Dictionary online says it is either “the act of making statements that are different from each other, so that they cannot both be true” or “the fact of not being loyal to someone or something”.
Let’s hope the elections to be held on May 1st are a much more straightforward affair.
RYDE, SATURDAY, MARCH 28, 1857.
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ELECTION MOVEMENTS.
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The day of reckoning is at hand; the Nomination of Candidates for the County of the Isle of Wight is fixed for a Tuesday next, at Newport; and, in the event of a Poll being demanded, a day will intervene to allow the necessary arrangements to be made.
During the past week there have been some very curious electioneering episodes, denoting that the Conservative party are sadly in want of principles. On the retirement of Colonel Harcourt, the field was left vacant for several days, when the Conservatives induced Mr. Wynne Williams to come forward. On Friday last his address was issued, in which he professed strong Liberal principles! On Saturday, a change came over the spirit of the dream of these new-born Radicals, and they began to manifest back-slidings; for the bills announced the whereabouts of “Mr. Williams’s Committee Rooms,” shared the same fate, in Ryde, as the Colonel’s – they were blotted out of existence; while, in Newport, Mr. Fleming commenced an active canvass on his own behalf. On Monday, Mr. Fleming issued his address, and in it he professes to be a convert to the Liberal faith! If the strength of a Cause is to be estimated by the number of its converts (a mode used towards Catholicism) then indeed is Liberalism mighty! We are, however, inclined to view it otherwise, as
“A convert’s but a fly, that turns about,
After his head’s pulled off, to find out.”
No wonder, then, Mr. Fleming apologises for his rotary motion; but will he find his head?
An advertisement in to-day’s impression announces the retirement of Mr. Williams, in consequence of Mr. Fleming having appeared (contrary to his word) as a Candidate; and, further, because he does not wish to divide the Liberal interest; – but with whom? Mr. Fleming? or Mr. Clifford? Verily, this political tergiversation involves such contradictions and anomalies, that Common Sense and Common Honesty are beginning to be numbered with the things that were!