§ MR. FRESHFIELDsaid, he would now move that a new writ be issued for the election of two Members for Liverpool, in the room of Mr. Turner and Mr. Forbes Mackenzie, who had been unseated on petition. He did not think it necessary to enter into the transactions of the last election. They underwent a most searching investigation before the Committee, and it would be sufficient for him to state the results to which the Committee bad arrived. The Committee found that refreshments were provided on the poll day at numerous public-houses where the voters had been directed to assemble for the purpose of being conveyed to the poll, but it did not appear that the treating that took place was of an extravagant character—that a number of the voters were bribed by the payment of 5s. and 4s. each, which was given them under the name of the day's pay as a compensation for the time that they lost, but the booths were so situated that they could have voted without loss of time; and the Committee recommended that the issue of the writ should not be suspended, and that it was not necessary that any further inquiry should take place. He was not only authorised, but requested, to state, on behalf of the hon. Member for South Shields (Mr. Ingham), the Chairman of the Committee, that he regretted his absence on this occasion, or he would have brought forward the Motion himself; but he was under the necessity of discharging a judicial duty at Newcastle. He might fairly have expected that the Motion would have been adopted without opposition; but he found two notices applicable to this day, and one applicable to a future day. The noble Lord the Member for Marylebone (Lord D. Stuart) first proposed that the elections at Liverpool shall in future take place by way of ballot. That, he took it, was no Amendment at all on his Motion, which was that the writ should be issued. His next Amendment was, that the issue of the writ should be suspended till the 20th of July, and he had also given notice of his intention to move for leave to bring in a Bill that in future all the elections at Liverpool should be by ballot. He (Mr. Freshfield), however, did not think that the House would disregard the recommendation of the Committee, that there should be no suspension of the writ; and if they were to put it off till the noble Lord could move for leave to bring in his Bill, that would be an indefinite postponement, as 941 that would, in effect, be postponing it till the Bill passed through all its stages, supposing it were agreed to by the House.
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSseconded the Motion.
§
Motion made, and Question proposed—
That Mr. Speaker do issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown, to make out a New Writ for the electing of two Burgesses to serve in this present Parliament for the Borough of Liverpool, in the room of Charles Turner and William Forbes Mackenzie, esquires, whose Elections had been determined to be void.
§ LORD DUDLEY STUARTsaid, his first Amendment had remained on the paper by mistake. He had intended to make a Motion of that description, but being informed by Mr. Speaker that he could not make such a Motion consistently with the forms of the House, he abandoned it, and he now proposed that the writ should be suspended till the 20th of July. He was desirous, at the earliest possible period, of bringing forward a Motion for leave to bring in a Bill that all elections at Liverpool should be taken by ballot, and the earliest day he could make that Motion was the 19th of July, and he was desirous that the writ should be suspended till the House had had an opportunity of discussing that Motion. He was desirous of the elections being taken by ballot in Liverpool, not with a view of punishing that borough for corrupt practices, but that they might have experience of the ballot in a large constituency. He thought that would be a boon to the electors of Liverpool, and he believed there was throughout the country a wish that the ballot should be tried. Reference had been made in the recent debate on the ballot to the fact that at parochial contests in Marylebone the votes had lately been taken by ballot, and it was said that that did not prevent influence being exercised—
§ LORD JOHN MANNERSrose to order. The noble Lord was referring to a debate on another subject.
§ MR. SPEAKERsaid, the noble Lord (Lord Dudley Stuart) was clearly irregular in his reference to what was said in that debate.
§ LORD DUDLEY STUARTsaid, he bowed to the decision of Mr. Speaker; but he must say that the course he was pursuing was one of constant occurrence.
And it being Six of the clock Mr. Speaker adjourned the House till To-morrow, without putting the Question.