HC Deb 12 November 1852 vol 123 c128
SIR ALEXANDER COCKBURN

presented a petition from certain electors of Derby, all of them persons of great respectability, complaining that at the last election for that borough systematic bribery was resorted to for the purpose of procuring the election of Thomas Berry Horsfall, Esq., as a Member for that borough; and that the Right Hon. Major Beresford, a Privy Councillor, a Member of Her Majesty's Government, Secretary at War, and a Member of that House, was himself a party to such bribery, through one John Frail, who had conducted it. He (Sir A. Cockburn) also begged to give notice that, on Monday next, he should move that that petition be printed with the Votes, and that on Friday, the 19th, he should move for the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into and report upon the allegations contained in the petition, or otherwise, as the House might think fit.