§ MR. COBBI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether complaints have reached him that some of the agents of one of the candidates, who were in attendance at the counting of the votes given in the poll taken upon the recent bye-election of a county councillor in the Husbands Bosworth Division of the County of Leicester, and made the statutory declaration of secrecy, have since communicated to outsiders the number of votes given for each candidate in each of the poling districts; whether he is aware that in some of the polling districts the number of county electors is small, being in one case only 43; and whether, in view of the fact that the disclosure of the number of votes given to each candidate tends to assist in-identifying for which candidate certain electors voted, and to infringe the secrecy of the ballot, and is punishable-under the 4th Section of "The Ballot Act, 1872," he will cause inquiries to be made with a view of taking some steps, to prevent a repetition of this practice?
§ MR. MATTHEWSYes, Sir, such a complaint has reached me, and I have communicated with the Returning Officer on the subject. He informs me that no complaint as to any one of the agents making any such communication as that referred to in the question has come to his notice. It is the fact that the number 567 of electors in some of the polling districts Is small. If anything has been done which amounts to an infringement of Section 4 of the Ballot Act, a prosecution in respect of such alleged offence as provided by the Act will be the best means of preventing a repetition of the practice.