Sir John Newport rose, pursuant to notice, to move for leave to bring in a bill for amending the act of the 42d of his present majesty, for regulating the trial of contested elections in Ireland. The right hon. baronet observed, that there were several provisions in this act which he proposed to alter, and which were of such a nature as the house must feel admitted of no delay that could be consistently avoided in passing the bill which he had felt it his duty to bring forward. There were some points in the act he proposed to amend, which he thought it right to mention to the house, as proofs of the necessity that existed for such amendment. In the act referred to, there was a provision for swearing the commissioners appointed in Ireland to examine evidence, &c upon the subject of election petitions; but strange as it might seem, there was no provision for swearing the clerks who acted 437 under such commission. This omission, which he meant to supply, was the more extraordinary, as the whole of the proceedings depended on the accuracy of these clerks, upon whose written statement of the evidence taken before them, the committees of that house were to ground their decisions; therefore such clerks might have it in their power, by the suppression, or substitution of a single word, to defeat the whole proceedings upon an election petition. Another point in the act he proposed to amend was this: according to that act, no man could be a member of a commission to enquire into the merits of any election at which he had voted. But this prohibition he proposed to extend to those also who were entitled to vote at such election: and that he thought necessary to answer the object of the former provision; for, as the law stood, a man entitled to vote had only to decline voting, in order to qualify himself to become a commissioner, as was often the case in consequence of compromise with some of the candidates. Thus the spirit of the law was evaded. But this evasion was not confined to the commissioners; it extended also to the clerks, and therefore to them also he should extend the proposed prohibition. There was another new provision which he thought it necessary to introduce into the bill he should have the honour of submitting to the house, the object of which would be to remove doubts existing as to the power of a committee of that house to call for the production of any books or other documents which might have been laid before the commission in Ireland. Another amendment he had to propose, would relate to the expence of clerks. At present they were allowed at the rate of sixpence for every 72 words, which gave them an interest in protracting the enquiry; and it had happened that such protraction had extended so far, that although the receipt of the commissioners, who were barristers, did not exceed 200l., that of the clerks amounted to no less than 800l. But it was his intention to reduce the allowance to the clerks from 6d. to 3d. for every 72 words, which would of course reduce their interest in the protraction of the proceedings. The last point of the proposed change the right hon. baronet stated to be the natural result of a case which had occurred in Ireland, where between 3 and 400 voters, forming almost the whole of those who had polled at the election, had 438 been objected to, and of course taken to attend the commission at a considerable expence to the party interested, although not more than 50 or 60 of those votes had ever been enquired into at all. The remedy he should propose for this evil would be, that when a party objected to any voters, the specific grounds of the objection shall be stated, and unless such objection be sustained by evidence, it shall be declared frivolous and vexatious by the commission, and the party advancing such frivolous and vexatious objection obliged to pay the expence incurred in consequence by his opponent. This provision, he believed, would serve to diminish, if not to remove, an evil too often practised, and which the spirit of litigation only could prompt men to inflict upon their adversaries.—Leave was given to bring in the bill.