§ MR. SEYMERbrought up the report of the Select Committee appointed to inquire into the petition of F. H. Goldsmid and others, against the return of the hon. Arthur Lennox, commonly called Lord Arthur Lennox, and Octavius Edward Coope, Esq., for the borough of Great Yarmouth. The hon. Member said, he had to inform the House that the Committee had determined that Lord Arthur Lennox and Octavius Edward Coope, Esq., were not duly elected to sit in Parliament 542 for the borough of Great Yarmouth; that the late election for that borough was a void election; that Lord Arthur Lennox and Octavius Edward Coope, Esq., were, through their agents, guilty of bribery at the last election for the borough of Great Yarmouth; that it was proved before the Committee that various electors had been bribed, but that there was no evidence to show that those acts of bribery were committed with the knowledge and consent of either the said Lord Arthur Lennox or Octavius Edward Coope, Esq.; and that the Committee were of opinion, from the evidence given before them, that gross, systematic, and extensive bribery prevailed at the last election among the freemen of Great Yarmouth; and the Committee, therefore, considered it their duty to express to the House their unanimous opinion that the freemen of that borough should be disfranchised, and that no writ should be issued for the said borough till the necessary measures had been taken for the purpose of such disfranchisement.
§ Report ordered to lie on the table.
§ MR. SEYMERmoved that the report be printed; and that the issue of a new writ for the borough of Great Yarmouth be suspended till the House had taken into consideration the recommendations contained in the report of the Committee.
§ Agreed to.