forbearance." This was accordingly reported to the House (a).

2. When further inquiry recommended.] By the 2nd section of the same statute it is provided, that if any committee nominated to try an election petition, shall recommend that further inquiry and investigation should be made regarding bribery at the election, the Speaker is to nominate an agent to prosecute the investigation. The committee is to reassemble within fourteen days, to inquire whether bribery was practised at the election, and to what extent; the committee are then to report to the House all the matters relating to the bribery, together with the names of the parties implicated (b).

The seat, or return of any member, would not be affected by such a report, nor is the issuing, or restraining the issue of any writ for a new election, to be affected by such a report. The meaning of which must be, that of itself the report is not to operate to restrain a writ from issuing, for there can be little doubt that the House would resolve that no fresh writ should issue, if extensive bribery was disclosed upon such an inquiry, supposing the seat to be then

vacant.

The committee, which re-assembles under this provision, has power to examine members, candidates, agents and other persons, and to call for the production.

(a) The circumstances connected with the abandonment of the charges of bribery in the 1st Horsham Petition, are disclosed in the 2nd Horsham, 1848, Minutes, 222.

(b) Rye, 1853, 2 P. R. & D. 119; Plymouth, 2 P. R. & D.

241.

of papers and writings, in the same manner as if they were trying an election petition.

The words in the second section are quite general; any committee nominated to try an election petition may recommend the further inquiry, whether the petition contained charges of bribery or not. Therefore, if, in a case of scrutiny it appeared, that a number of voters had been bribed, it would be open to the committee to recommend that a further inquiry should take place into the circumstances attending such bribery, although there were no charges of bribery in the petition. If the petitioning candidate were seated on the scrutiny, his seat could not afterwards be endangered by the report of the committee. See sect. 13.

Provision is made by section 14, for defraying the expenses of the prosecution of such an inquiry by the agent appointed by the Speaker. The money is to be advanced by the Commissioners of the Treasury, upon receiving the certificate of the agent.

3. Petitions alleging general Bribery.] By the fourth section of the same act it is provided, that petitions complaining of general bribery at an election, not only at the last election, but also at previous elections, may be presented to the House, after the time limited for presenting election petitions which attack the seat.

A petition of this kind must be presented within three calendar months next after some one or more of the acts of bribery charged therein shall have been committed. If this time shall expire during an adjournment

of the House, then the petition must be presented within two days after the end of the adjournment. If the time expires during the prorogation of Parliament, then within thirty days after the beginning of the next session.

Such petition, alleging general bribery, must be subscribed like an election petition, either by a person who had a right to vote at the election, or by some person who was a candidate at the election.

Before any proceedings are taken with regard to such a petition, a recognizance must be entered into, in the same manner, and before the same persons, and with the like affidavit of sufficiency, as a recognizance of sureties in the case of an election petition (sect. 9), vide ante, p. 283.

This recognizance must be entered into, some time before three o'clock in the afternoon of the seventh day, after the day on which the petition has been presented, and may be by one person for the sum of 5001. or by two persons, for 250l. each. The condition being, that the recognizance will be forfeited unless such persons shall establish and prove to the satisfaction of the committee to which the petition should be referred, that there was reasonable and probable ground for the allegations contained in the petition. (Sect.7).

The recognizance when entered into, is to be reported by the examiner to the Speaker, and thereupon the Speaker is to communicate the report to the House, and to send notice to the returning officer of the place, at which the bribery is said to have taken place. The returning officer is to affix a copy of the notice on or near the door of the town hall, or parish church nearest to the place for which the election was

held. The notice is also to be inserted, by order of the Speaker, in one of the next two London Gazettes.

Recognizance may be objected to.] The recognizance may be objected to, on the same grounds as those on which sureties entering into recognizances in the case of election petitions may be objected to. The grounds of objection must be stated in writing under the hand of the objecting party, or their agent, and must be delivered to the examiner within ten days after the insertion of the notice in the Gazette, if the party objected to resides in England, or within fourteen days, if the party reside in Scotland or Ireland. Ante, p. 287.

The persons who are entitled to object to the recog nizance are, 1st, any candidate at the election to which the petition relates; 2nd, any person complained of in the petition; 3rd, any person who voted, or had a right to vote at such election. (Sect. 11).

In order to ascertain the validity of the objections, the examiner has the same powers for inquiring into them as he has in the case of election petitions, presented under the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 98. His report, upon the sufficiency of the recognizances, is to be made in the same manner. Ante, p. 290.

Petition referred to General Committee.] The petition is referred in the same manner as election petitions are, to the general committee of elections. If the examiner of recognizances reports that the recog nizance is sufficient, the general committee proceed to appoint a select committee to try the allegations in the petition, in the same manner as election committees are appointed. This select committee has all the same powers of enforcing the attendance of witnesses, and taking evidence that are conferred by the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 98, on election committees.

Select Committee to Report.] The select committee are to ascertain, in the first instance, whether any of the acts of bribery charged in the petition, have been committed within three months before the time of presenting the petition, unless one or more of the acts of bribery have been committed within that period, the committee can proceed no further with the matter of the petition. (Sect. 5).

As such a petition may be presented at a later period than the expiration of the three months, if that should occur during the prorogation of the House, this fifth section would probably be read as embracing that extension of the time.

When the committee have ascertained that some of the acts of bribery have been committed within the time limited, they are then to proceed with the matters of the petition, and inquire and ascertain whether bribery was or was not practised at the election; and they are to report to the House, as may seem expedient to them, all the matters relating to the bribery, together with the parties implicated and concerned therein. (Sect. 4).

If the committee shall report that there was reasonable and probable ground for the allegations in the petition, they may order that the costs of the petitioners shall be defrayed, as in the costs of parties before public committees. (Sect. 4).

Such committee has no power or authority in any way to affect the seat or return of any member, nor can they restrain the issuing of any new writ. (Sect. 13).

If the charges are not made out, and there appears to have been no reasonable ground for making them,