§ Evidence was again taken and counsel heard, on the Warwick Borough Bill.
The Lord Chancellorsaid, that he could not avoid making a few observations upon this Bill. He was ready to declare that he was a great enemy to corruption, and a great friend to all those principles which promoted purity of election, but great a friend as he was to those principles, and admitting, as he readily did, that the petitioners had laboured under great difficulties, still he was bound to say, that they had not proved their case. There had been evidence enough, he admitted, to raise a strong suspicion against this borough, but their Lordships could not legislate merely upon suspicion. His Lordship recapitulated the history of the case, and gave a rapid sketch of the evidence adduced. That evidence, he would admit, abundantly proved that some individual electors had acted in a very corrupt manner, but the acts of some individuals not proved to have been very generally adopted by the inhabitants of the borough would not justify their Lordships in either partially or totally disfranchising a whole borough. If their Lordships once admitted the principle that the miscon- 939 duct of a few could be followed by such a result, they would give away the staff which ought to be kept in their hands alone, and would put it into the hands of any disappointed candidate. For if one candidate had only forty votes, and his antagonist had 1,200 votes, the former might say to himself that it was very true he could not obtain the seat, but that his opponent should never have it, for that he could show that thirty or forty out of the 1,200 men had been guilty of corruption, and so he could prevent the borough from exercising its franchise. If their Lordships were upon the evidence adduced, to proceed against the Borough of Warwick, they would, in his opinion, establish a most dangerous precedent. Under these circumstances, whatever might be his suspicions, he could not legally advise their Lordships to agree to this Bill. His Lordship put the question that this Bill be read a second time this day six months.
The Earl of RadnorThough he had moved the second reading of the Bill, he had no more to do with it than any of their Lordships. He agreed in many of the propositions laid down by his noble friend, but he thought the case was one of much stronger suspicion than his noble friend, and he considered that the petitioners had failed in consequence of the difficulties thrown in their way. He was bound, however, to add, after considering the evidence which had been given, that he could not in conscience say, that it was such as to justify him in calling on their Lordships to pass this Bill.
§ The Bill to be read a second time in six months.