[f. BOROUGH + MONGER.] One who trades in parliamentary seats for boroughs. (A sarcastic designation coined about the end of the 18th c., and very frequently used in the discussions on electoral reform up to 1832.) Hence Boroughmonger v. rare; Boroughmongering vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; Boroughmongery, the arts and practices of a boroughmonger.
1794. Mathias, Purs. Lit. (1798), 309. An impudent, unqualified intrusion of Borough mongering Mercers.
1809. Sir Frantic the Reformer, 9.
| He swears eternal detestation | |
| To borough-mongers of the nation. |
1820. Blackw. Mag., VII. 677. Worse even than base boroughmongry.
1831. Syd. Smith, Wks. (1867), II. 215. The awful danger of extinguishing Borough-mongers.
1836. Hor. Smith, Tin Trump. (1876), 68. Boroughmongers—an extinct race of beasts of prey.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, IV. iv. 126. The boroughmongering of our own times.
1846. Ht. Martineau, Hist. Peace, II. IV. iii. 417. By this [Reform] bill, the practice of boroughmongery was cut up by the roots.
1847. L. Hunt, Men, Women, & Bks., I. xiii. 215. ‘Never borough-mongered with it,’ says the peer.
1865. Bright, Sp. Reform, 18 Jan. (1876), 335. The Reform Bill … disturbed the boroughmongers to a remarkable degree.
1879. Edin. Rev., April 497. They represented either Downing Street or a score of boroughmongering peers.
