SECOND READING. PETITION OF A. BIGNOLD. (Hansard, 24 May 1870)

§ LORD CAIRNS

presented a Petition from Arthur Bignold, praying that his name may be omitted from the list of scheduled voters, and gave Notice that when they got into Committee upon the measure he should call attention to the 1267 facts of Mr. Bignold's case, and propose a clause on the subject. Mr. Bignold stated that he was not, and never had been, a voter for the city of Norwich; but his name was included in the Schedule, and that he would then be prevented from, ever becoming a voter for the city. Mr. Bignold admitted that he was engaged in the transaction mentioned in the Report of the Commissioners, and which led to his name being put in the Schedule, together with those of Mr. Stracey and Mr. Allen. But when it became the duty of the Attorney General to institute prosecutions there was no evidence sufficient to proceed upon against Mr. Bignold. There was evidence against Mr. Stracey; he was put upon his trial and acquitted. In consequence of the acquittal a clause had been introduced into the Bill exempting Mr. Stracey from its operation; and Mr. Bignold felt that it was hard that Mr. Stracey, against whom there was a certain amount of evidence, should be exempted from the operation of the Bill, whereas, his (Mr. Bignold's) name was retained in the Schedule.

THE LORD CHANCELLOR

, in moving that the Bill be now read the second time, said, the facts on which the Bill was founded were simply these—In February, 1869, Mr. Baron Martin, after trying an Election Petition, reported pursuant to the Act, that bribery had extensively prevailed among certain persons at the Norwich election, though he acquitted the candidates of all complicity in it. A Commission was subsequently issued, which reported, last February, and they added to the Report a Schedule of three distinct classes of offenders—46 persons were reported as bribers, 119 as bribed, and 50 as guilty of treating. The Bill provided that these persons should not hereafter have a right to vote at any future election for Norwich; but a second clause enacted that any person against whom criminal proceedings had been instituted by the Attorney General should not be so disqualified, unless and until he were adjudged guilty. He would not, at present, enter into the question raised by his noble and learned Friend.