§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ Motion made, and Question proposed, "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."
§ MR. CRAVEN BERKELEY,in moving the Second Reading of this Bill, said, there was no objection to the principle; on the contrary, he had received every assurance of support on both sides of the House. He would appoint an early day for going into Committee; and if Gentlemen would do him the favour to express their opinions as to any alterations, he should be happy to consider them.
§ COLONEL SIBTHORPsaid, he felt it his duty to oppose the second reading of this Bill. He did not want to have any election in which he was concerned a sort of mourning or funeral party, with scarfs and hatbands, mortcloths and tapers. He wished to see more expense and more merriment at elections. He was not one of those scurvy candidates who, while they professed to have the deepest anxiety for the welfare of constituencies, conducted all their proceedings upon a cheap, dirty, mean, and nasty system. Some people were afraid to spend a sixpence at elections—they had not the heart to do it; but for his part he liked to see his constituents enjoy themselves; and he would never strive to curtail their innocent pleasures. It was an old and established maxim, In vino Veritas. Give a man some genial liquor to drink, and he will open his heart to you. What was the House asked to do? They were asked to sanction a mean and secret sort of proceeding, infinitively worse than the ballot, that indecent and disgusting importation from foreign parts. He would oppose the Bill in every way he could. Bill read 2°.