period he lent the Corporation £950, and it is not unreasonable to assume this was payment for services rendered. However, in 1789, the young Duke of Bedford managed to regain the corporation's loyalty, and had 350 of his own retainers made freemen. Even at other periods, the influence of the Dukes seems sometimes to have been more nominal than real. In the 1750s and 1760s, before Bernard's intervention, a frequent compromise was that the Duke nominated one MP and the corporation (representing the interests of the town) the other; but it seems that on occasion the Duke had to be flexible to retain the semblance of local deference towards him, and that his "nominee" had in reality been imposed upon him. Nor was the outcome invariably successfully predetermined: at the 1830 election the result swung on one individual's vote – the defeated candidate being Lord John Russell, who was not only one of the Whig leaders but The Duke of Bedford's son. In 1831, the population of the borough was 6,959, and contained 1,491 houses. This was sufficient for Bedford to retain both its MPs under the Great Reform Act, with its boundaries unaltered. The reformed franchise introduced in 1832 gave the borough 1,572 inhabitants qualified to vote. The town was growing, and Bedford retained its borough status until the 1918 general election, although under the Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, its representation was reduced to a single MP. On the eve of the First World War, its population was just under 40,000, of whom 6,500 people were eligible to vote. Under the Representation of the People Act 1918, the Parliamentary Borough was abolished; but the town gave its name to a new county constituency (formerly The Bedford division of Bedfordshire). As well as the town of Bedford, it covered the northern end of the county and included Kempston and Eaton Socon together with the surrounding rural area, which had previously been part of the abolished Biggleswade Division. Under the Representation of the People Act 1948, a boundary change which came into effect at the 1950 election reduced its size somewhat, with part of the Bedford Rural District, including Eaton Socon, being transferred to the Mid Bedfordshire constituency. Under the Third Review of Westminster Constituencies in 1983, the constituency was abolished and absorbed into the new County Constituency of North Bedfordshire, with the exception of Kempston, which was transferred to