Sitting of 4 December 1812

GALWAY ELECTION—PETITION OF MR. BLAKE.
A Petition of Valentine Blake, of Menlo, in the county of the town of Galway, esq. was delivered in and read; getting forth,
"That, at the last election for a member to serve for the town and county of the town of Galway in the present parliament, the petitioner and the hon. Frederick Ponsonby were candidates to represent the said town and county in parliament; and that, by virtue of divers charters, there exists a corporation by the name of the mayor, sheriffs, free burgesses and commonalty of the town and county of the town of Galway; and the right of election of members to serve in parliament for the said town and county of the town of Galway is vested in the freeholders thereof, and also in the resident freemen of the corporation of the said town; and that, at such election, Francis Eagar and Thomas Browne esquires, were the then sheriffs and returning officer for the said town, James O'Hara, esq., was recorder of the said town, and the right hon. Dennis Bowes Daly mayor of the said town and corporation; and that the said James O'Hara was counsel at the said election to the said returning officer, and at the same time assistant adviser and director of the proceedings of the said D. B. Daly, mayor as aforesaid; and that the said D. B. Daly, at and during the said election, was the partizan and agent of the said F. Ponsonby; and that, at and during, or a day or two before the said election, the said D. B. Daly, then and still mayor of the said town of Galway, did, for the purposes
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of the said election, and in order to insure the return of the said F. Ponsonby, administer to divers persons, being his own tenants, peasantry, and dependants, the oaths called the freeman's oaths, in a private and separate room to which the agents of the petitioner were denied access, and no persons admitted but the friends of the said F. Ponsonby; and that such persons were admitted by the said D. B. Daly, mayor as aforesaid, by great numbers at a time, for the purpose of becoming occasional voters, and in order to carry the election against the petitioner, contrary to the law of parliament and the rights of the petitioner; and that several freemen would have qualified under the act 4th Geo. 1, c. 15, and would have voted for the petitioner at the election aforesaid, if the said D. B. Daly had not refused to administer the oaths of qualification to such persons, although the same were duly demanded to be administered by the said D. B. Daly; and that the sheriffs received the votes of many persons against the petitioner who were disqualified from voting, and of many persons who voted as freemen of the said corporation, and freeholders of the town and county of the town of Galway aforesaid, who had no right or title of voting whatsoever either as freemen or claiming to be freemen, or as having freeholds within the county of the said town; and that several persons voted for the hon. F. Ponsonby as freemen, who were non-resident, and not even freemen de facto, and without evidence by the proper officers of their admissions according to law; and that many persons were permitted to vote for the said F. Ponsonby, although there was no legal evidence of the admissions of such persons entered on stamps, as required by the Irish act passed in the 13th and 14th year of his present Majesty, or by other stamp acts, some or one of them; and that many persons were permitted to vote for the said F. Ponsonby whose admissions had never been entered on stamps; and that divers voters who, at the said election, voted for the hon. F. Ponsonby, were Roman Catholics; and that the certificates of their qualification, and their qualification itself, was irregular and defective, the same not having been made or granted by or before magistrates or persons duly authorised to act in granting or allowing the same; and that the oaths required by law to be taken, in order to qualify such persons to vote at an election

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for a member to serve in parliament, were not duly administered by or in the presence of the proper magistrates, officer or officers, appointed to administer the same; and that, after the teste of the writ of summons to parliament, and at and during the election aforesaid, the said F. Ponsonby, by himself, friends, agents, and others on his behalf, and particularly by the said right hon. D. B. Daly, then and still mayor of the said town of Galway, did present and allow, and promise to present and allow, to divers persons having votes at such election, money, meat, drink, entertainment, gift, and reward, in order that the said hon. F. Ponsonby might be elected to serve in parliament for the town and county of the town of Galway aforesaid; and that, by the said several and other undue means, the said F. Ponsonby obtained an apparent majority of votes over the petitioner at the said election, and has been returned as duly elected, although the petitioner had a legal majority of votes in his favour, and ought to have been returned to serve in parliament for the said town and county of the town of Galway; and praying the House to declare the election of the said F. Ponsonby for the said town and county of the town of Galway void; and that the said return may be amended or altered, by striking thereout the name of the said F. Ponsonby and inserting in the place thereof the name of the petitioner, and that the petitioner may be declared "July elected and returned to represent the town and county of the town of Galway in this present parliament, or to make such other order for the petitioner's relief in the premises as the House, in its wisdom, shall think fit."
Ordered to be taken into consideration upon the 11th of February.

THE PRINCE REGENT'S MESSAGE RESPECTING THE MARQUIS OF WELLINGTON.
Lord Castlereaghpresented the following Message from the Prince Regent:
"GEORGE, P. R.
"The Prince Regent, acting in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, having taken into his consideration the eminent and signal services performed by general the marquis of Wellington on so many occasions, and particularly in the glorious battle of Salamanca, is desirous of bestowing such a mark of national munificence on general the marquis of Wellington as may enable him to sustain the high honours which his Royal Highness has
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thought proper to confer on him and his descendants.
The Prince Regent recommends, therefore, to the House of Commons the adoption of such measures as may be necessary for the accomplishment of this most important object. G. P. R."
Ordered to be taken into consideration on Monday.