HC Deb 14 June 1880 vol 252 cc1891-2

The Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868, and The Parliamentary Elections and Corrupt Practices Act, 1879.

Election for the Borough of Dungannon, holden on the 2nd day of April 1880.

The matter of the Petition relating to the above-named Election, wherein Robert Newton and Armitage Lennox Nicholson are Petitioners, and Thomas Alexander Dickson is Respondent, was tried before us, Francis Alexander Fitzgerald, one of the Barons of the Exchequer Division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland, and Charles Robert Barry, one of the Justices of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in Ireland, being two of the Judges on the rota for the time being for the trial of Election Petitions in Ireland at Armagh on the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th days of June in the year 1880, and We, at the conclusion of the trial on the last mentioned day, determined and do hereby certify to the Right Honorable The Speaker of the House of Commons that the said Election was void.

Further, we report that no corrupt practice was proved to have been committed by Colonel the Honorable William Stuart Knox, one of the candidates at the said Election, or with his knowledge and consent, but that corrupt practice was proved to have been committed by the said Thomas Alexander Dickson, the other of the candidates at the said Election, through his Agent, but without his knowledge and consent, that is to say, the giving and paying of money for a voter in order to induce such voter to refrain from voting at the said Election.

Further, we report that Robert Donovan, Richardson McGuffen, and John Anderson, were proved at the said trial to have been respectively guilty of the said corrupt practice of bribery, but that each of the said persons having been examined before us as Witnesses on the said trial, we deemed them respectively to be entitled to certificates under the 33rd section of The Parliamentary Election Act, 1868.

Further, we report that we have no reason to believe that corrupt practices extensively prevailed at the Election to which the Petition relates.

Dated this 11th day of June 1880.

J. D. FITZGERALD, Baron of the Exchequer Division of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in Ireland,

C. R. BARRY, Justice of the Queen's Bench Division of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice in Ireland,

Judges for the time being on the rota for the trial of Election Petitions in Ireland.