The Express.
London, England, 1866-04-16 00:00:00

NOTrINGHAM,

The committee appointed by the Howe of Com-
mons to inquire into the merits of the petitions against
the return for Nottingham, reassembled this morning ; Hr.
H. K Adair in the chair. _

The counsel were :—For the petition against Sir R.
Clifton—Mr. Mundell and Mr. Cave ; for Sir R. Clifton—
Mr. Rodwell, Q.C., and Mr. Price, Q.C. ; for the petition
against Mr. Morley—Mr. O'Malley, Q.C., Mr. Cooke, Q.C.,
and Mr. Russell ; for Mr. Morley—Mr. Herding Gifford,
Q.C., Mr. Fitzjames Stephen, Mr. Mundell, and Mr. Cave.
Mr. Cave said an intimation had been thrown out by the
committee on Saturday, that they intended to proceed
next with the petition against Mr. Morley. He thought
that would be an inconvenient course, and he therefore
applied to the committee to dispose of the petition against
Sir R. Clifton before that against Mr. Morley was pro-
ceeded with. He stated that if the committee decided
upon going into the case against Mr. Morley first,
Mr. Paget would be put to the inconvenience and ex-
peruse of attending and watching a case in which he was
personally uninterested. He cited various cases to show
that the ordinary practice of election committees had been
to dispose of one case before entering into another, where
allegations against different members for the same borough
were treated as separate petitions.
Mr. Rodwell said it was a matter of indifference to him
what course the committee took so long as they came
to a decision either seating or unseating Sir R. Clifton on
the question of bribery, intimidation, and undue influence,
before proceeding with a scrutiny. He apprehended that
it was absolutely necessary to give such decision before
entering upon a scrutiny, and whether it was given now
or after the case against Mr. Morley was heard was not
very material.

Mr. Cave briefly replied,
The committee retired, and on their return,
The Chairman said the committee had decided upon
withholding their decision upon the petition against Sir
R. Clifton, and now celled upon the counsel for the peti-
tion against Mr. Morley to open his case.
Mr. O'Malley, Q.C., then addressed the committee on
behalf of the petitioners. He said he appeared for Mr.
Marten, the defeated conservative candidate.
The Chairman remarked that Mr. Marten was not one of
the petitioners.
Mr. O'Malley said he did not know who the petitioners
were, but at any rate he was right in saying that he ap-
neared as counsel for the petition against Mr. Morley.
In order to avoid an unnecessary waste of time, an ar-
rangement had been come to that the evidence, as far as
it went in the recriminatory case against Mr. Paget, should
be considered as evidence in the case against Mr. Morley.
His learned friends, however, would have the right
of calling for the production of any of the witnesses who
had alre my been examined, and several of them would be
recalled in order to establish new cases.
The Chairman —Your petition, I believe, alleges treat-
ing, which that against Sir R. Clifton did not.
Mr. O'Malley said he did not propose to go into the
question of treating further than it related to the
treating of voters who were employed as paid
canvassers. Indeed he might state that the
main ground upon which he relied for unseating
Mr. Morley was that a large portion of the constituency
were bribed to vote for him by the colourable employment
of paid canvassers. Having cited various cases in which
the question had already been dealt with by election com-
mittees, the learned counsel proceeded to state that the
number of names on the register was 6,706, but leaving
out duplicates the total available number was 5,536.
and by the evidence it would be shown that about 3/. a
head was paid by Messrs. Paget and Morley for their can-
vasser,.
Mr. Lefevre asked if that was for canvassing only.
Mr. O'Malley said it was, and it would be proved that
the lowest sum paid was 305., and the highest 4/. 10s.
Altogether 2,0001. was paid by the two candidates for can-
vassers; and, at 3f. a head, it would appear that about
666 which, in biblical lore, was the number of the beast,

were employed.
Mr. Lefevre thought it had not been proved that the
whole of the sum mentioned by the learned counsel had
been paid for canvassing.
Mr. O'Malley said that 999/. was put down in the ac-
counts of each candidate for canvassers, and Mr. Paget
bad himself admitted that he did not consider that
en unreasonable sum. The result of an analysis
of the votes showed that making allowance for voters
who would not require canvassing at all, there was one
canvasser paid for every two electors who polled for Paget
and Morley. He believed he should be able to prove that
the sick, the old, and infirm were employed as canvassers,
and that decrepid old men were taken from the hospital
to the committee rooni,there engaged, and then sent back
to the hospital from which they never stirred until they
went up to the poll.
[Left sitting.]

The petition of the Civil Service of the Crown
employed in the revenue departments against the eon-
Unclean:a of the law ander which they are disfranchised
has been numerously and influentially signed, and will be
presented thin week by Mr. Charles Buxton.