§ SIR HARRY VERNEYsaid, he would beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether, seeing that Commissions have been issued to investigate the Reports of Committees to the effect that illegal practices prevailed in certain Boroughs at the last General Election, he will promise that if any Commission shall report that illegal practices have prevailed in a Borough extensively, and on many occasions, the Government will bring in a Bill to disfranchise such Borough?
§ SIR GEORGE GREYsaid, he thought it would be impossible to make such a promise. He had already expressed his opinion that if the result of any of those inquiries proved that corrupt practices prevailed in a borough the House ought to be more ready to apply the penalty of disfranchisement than hitherto it had shown itself to be. Till the Report of the Commission was in the hands of the Government it would be impossible for them to decide as to what steps should be taken on it, and the evidence upon which it was based.