CAPTAIN JERVISasked the hon. and learned Attorney General, Whether he had understood correctly that the prosecutions in connection with the Wakefield Election, would be founded, not on the common, but on statute law, he should withdraw the Motion on this subject which he had placed on the paper.
THE ATTORNEY GENERALPreviously to the Motion of the hon. and gallant Member, I had determined that if, contrary to my opinion, the lapse of one year was an objection to the prosecutions that I had instituted under statute, there should be no attempt to support those prosecutions by a resort to common law. If, therefore, I and those who have advised 202 me, are wrong in supposing that they are not affected by time, and if it should turn out that they are so affected, those prosecutions fail, and will be given up, and they shall not be supported by any resort to the common law.