§ THE DUKE OF RICHMONDrose to bring under their Lordships' notice a case of contempt of their Lordships' House. It had been proved, before the Select Committee on the East Gloucestershire Railway Bill, that two persons, named Isaacs and Preston, had obtained a great number of signatures to a Petition against the proposed railway by telling the individuals, whose signatures they sought, that the Petition was in favour of the railway. Those two persons were placed in the witness-box and examined, when their conduct was such as to leave little doubt on the minds of the Committee that neither of them was speaking the truth, and that they had procured signatures by the false pretence which he had described. The evidence taken by the Committee had been printed, in order to be laid before their Lordships, and he would therefore now move that the two persons whom he had named be ordered to attend at the Bar of their Lordships' House on Thursday next.
§
Ordered,
That William Isaacs, Clerk to Mr. Boodle, Solicitor at Cheltenham, and John Preston, Town Crier at Cheltenham, do attend at the Bar of this House on Thursday next, at Four o'Clock, in reference to their Conduct with regard to the Signatures to the Petition of Barbara Robinson and others, of Cheltenham, presented on the 22nd of May last, praying to be heard by Counsel against the "East Gloucestershire Railway Bill.
§ House adjourned at Eight o'clock, to Thursday next, half-past Ten o'clock.