§ SIR R. ASSHETON CROSSasked Mr. Attorney General, Whether it is the intention of the Government to move an Address for a Royal Commission with regard to the last election for the Borough of Wigan?
§ THE ATTORNEY GENERAL (Sir HENRY JAMES)Sir, upon the whole, it has been thought advisable not to issue a Commission. In the first place, I think 1527 that when the House has rejected a Motion for an Address to the Grown, to renew it upon precisely the same state of facts would be a proceeding for which a precedent could scarcely be found. There is also a second and practical consideration. The object of a Commission of Inquiry would be to disclose the names of persons guilty of corrupt practices, in order that they might be punished. But the time that has elapsed since the election is so long that the renewal of the Motion this Session would not produce that result; for hon. Members are probably aware that every prosecution for bribery must be instituted within one year of the commission of the offence. It would be an unsatisfactory termination of the Inquiry that persons should be found guilty of corrupt practices, and that no punishment should be awarded. On the whole, therefore, it is better that a Commission should not sit.