§ MR. P. SMYTHasked the Chief Secretary of State for Ireland, When the shorthand writers' notes of the evidence taken at the trial of the Galway Election Petition and of the judgment of Mr. Justice Keogh will be in the hands of Members?
THE MARQUESS OF HARTINGTONsaid, in reply, that as the subject was one which did not officially come within his control, he had no power whatever over the time when the notes of the evidence taken at the trial of the Galway Election Petition and the Judgment of Mr. Justice Keogh would be in the hands of Members. He had, however, made inquiry of the printer, and he was informed that the Judgment would probably be printed and ready for distribution on Thursday next; but that the notes of evidence, which were extremely voluminous, might not be ready for three weeks or a month.
MR. O'CONORasked the First Lord of the Treasury, If his attention has been called to the late decision of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, which introduces into Parliamentary Election Law the principle that a candidate at a contested Election may obtain a seat without having polled a majority of votes in a constituency; whether the introduction of such a principle was not disapproved by the Government and rejected by the House when proposed in a modified form by the hon. Baronet the Member for Reading on the 25th April last; and, what steps the Government are prepared to take to give effect to the wishes of the House, as expressed on that occasion?
MR. GLADSTONESir, my attention has certainly been called, in common with that of most hon. Members of the House, to the late decision of the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland. I am very sensible of the great importance and even the urgent character of some of the considerations involved in that Judgment; but I do not see that any advantage would arise—and I hope my hon. Friend will be inclined to agree with me—from any fragmentary announcement with respect to a matter of so much importance. I think we should approach the question as a whole.
MR. O'CONORasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether his attention has been drawn to the judgment lately delivered by Mr. Justice Lawson, in the Court of Common Pleas in Ireland, in which that learned judge is reported to have stated that the Parliamentary Elections Act of 1868 required amendment; if so, whether he still proposes to re-enact and make permanent that Act in a single Clause of the Corrupt Practices Bill, which by its form precludes the possibility of any amendment to it being placed on the Paper?
THE ATTORNEY GENERALsaid, that he had nothing to add to the intimation which had been given the other evening on this subject by his right hon. Friend at the head of the Government, in answer to his right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Clare (Sir Colman O'Loghlen).