Historians have rarely considered the political views of electorates in small constituencies with strong proprietorial interests, or ‘pocket’ boroughs. However, through a detailed case study of the Cornish borough of Mitchell, this article reveals a rural settlement with a multifaceted and divided community, which experienced a high degree of partisan conflict during the later Stuart period as its inhabitants engaged in an ongoing struggle over the nature of the franchise. A group of often‐disenfranchised inhabitants launched a sustained and independent assault on the lord of the borough's limited franchise, in favour of an inhabitant‐based vote; they were opposed by a group which oscillated between loyalty to the borough's patron and attempts to secure its own influence. Party allegiances and political ideologies can occasionally be identified on both sides, but the franchise dispute did not always align with these divisions. The article argues that while partisan conflict occurred in ‘pocket’ boroughs, it took extraordinary circumstances for this to boil over and facilitate change – in Mitchell's case, these circumstances were the frequent elections to the Exclusion Parliaments, and the patron's self‐imposed exile in France. Yet even once a popular inhabitant‐based vote was established, the widened electorate still found it difficult to determine the outcome of elections, as the borough's patron and local gentry families soon reasserted their authority. Therefore, while the electorates of boroughs such as Mitchell were not supine or monolithic, their ability to actively participate in the electoral process was ultimately fragile.

中文翻译：

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1660-1714 年康沃尔“袖珍”自治市镇的党派偏见和流行政治†

历史学家很少考虑具有强烈所有权利益的小选区或“口袋”行政区的选民的政治观点。然而，通过对米切尔康沃尔自治市镇的详细案例研究，本文揭示了一个具有多方面和分裂社区的农村定居点，在斯图亚特后期，该社区经历了高度的党派冲突，因为其居民正在进行持续的斗争。特许经营的性质。一群经常被剥夺公民权的居民对自治市镇有限特许权的领主发起了持续和独立的攻击，支持以居民为基础的投票；他们遭到一群在忠诚于自治市镇的赞助人和试图确保自己的影响力之间摇摆不定的团体的反对。双方有时会认同党派和政治意识形态，但特许权纠纷并不总是与这些分歧一致。文章认为，虽然党派冲突发生在“袖珍”自治市镇，但需要特殊情况才能沸腾并促进变革——在米切尔的案例中，这些情况是排除议会的频繁选举，以及赞助人的自我流放法国。然而，即使建立了以居民为基础的民众投票，扩大的选民仍然发现难以决定选举的结果，因为自治市镇的赞助人和当地绅士家庭很快重新确立了他们的权威。因此，虽然像米切尔这样的自治市镇的选民不是仰卧或整体，