Mr. William Spurrier, on the motion of colonel Wood, was brought to the bar, where he received the following reprimand from the Speaker, and was ordered to be discharged out of custody paying his fees:
"William Spurrier; Complaint having been made, that the execution of the last writ of election for the town and county of the town of Poole had been unduly delayed, several persons have been examined at the bar of this house touching that transaction, and by their evidence the writ has been traced into your hands. Upon your own examination it has appeared, although not without many endeavours at concealment on your part, that you procured the writ and detained it for a long period of time, from motives of undue favour and par- 1017 tiality, to the hindrance of that election, and in breach of the privileges of this house. That such misconduct might not go altogether unpunished, you were thereupon committed to the custody of the serjeant at arms; and if this house has forborne, upon this occasion, to press upon you with any greater severity, it has not been because it deemed your offence to be light or venial; but because, having in its contemplation to prevent the like offence in future by other measures, it has thought that any further severity of punishment in your instance, for the purpose of example, was become unnecessary. And now, your petition having shewn that you entertain a proper sense of your own misconduct, this house has, in compliance with its prayer, directed that you be discharged; and you are discharged accordingly."—The above reprimand was ordered, nem. con., to be entered in the journals.