§ MR. LEAasked Mr. Attorney General, If his attention has been drawn to the Report of the Bewdley Election Petition, in which Mr. Justice Denman and Mr. Justice Lopes have unseated Mr. Charles Harrison because a friend's bailiff had lent a voter a drill without charge for hire, and because two working men had made an arrangement about one land club share; both so-called bribers having contradicted the statements made, also all the charges of bribery and treating having completely failed, and the ground of agency being that these two persons were members of the Liberal Association; and, if he will consider in what way the Law may be speedily amended?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES),in reply, said, the evidence taken on the trial of the Bewdley Election Petition had not yet been printed and presented to the House, and, therefore, his attention had not yet been called to the case to which his hon. Friend referred. He imagined, however, from the wording of the Question, that it was sought to gain from him an opinion as to the justice of the decision of the learned Judges who tried the Petition. His hon. Friend and the House would, perhaps, excuse him if he declined to go into a question put in that shape. It often happened that there would be apparent hardship in a strict interpretation of the law of agency; but he could only answer the Question put to him as to an alteration of the law categorically by saying that he saw no opportunity of speedily amending the law in this respect.