The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-16 00:00:00

READING.

The Committee met at eleven o'clock, and again proceeded with tho
scrutiny. Nothing of interest had taken place up to the time of our
paper going to press.

CARLOW COUNTY.
The Committee has been occupied the whole day in hearing argu.
ments on the question of opening the registry.

DUBLIN (CITY.)

The Committee met this morning at eleven o'clock. Lord SnYmoun
in the Chair.

Mr. KBATINGE said that it had been the intention of Counsel for peti.
tioners to have commenced their case to.day by going into the votes ob.
jected to, on the ground of the voters being in arrear for the paving and
lighting taxes. He had, however, now to inform the Committee that
they were not prepared to go en now with that class of objections, and
for this reason. In order to establish their objections to those votes, it
was necessary to produce before the Committee certain documents,
which were in the offices of the Paving Board, and, accordingly,
so far back as the Bth of the present month, the Speaker's
warrant was served on the officers of the Paving Board to
produce these documents before the Committee, but although the
officers were in town, he understood the documents had not yet arrived.
Whether this omission was the result of design or not he would not
take upon himself to say; he was prepared, however, to satisfy the
Committee that every exertion had been made on the part
of the petitioners to produce these documents, and if
necessary he would call in the officers and examine them as to the facts.
If, however, the Committee were satisfied to take them on his state..
ment, he would proceed without further delay to another part of the case.
The CIIAIRMAN asked if there were any objections to this course of
proceeding on the other side.

Mr. llocaucx replied in the negative.
Mr. KRATINGE then said, he would proceed at once to the class of
obj ections, No. 1, for insufficiency in the householders affidavits, or in
other words, where persons claiming to vote had not been legally and
duly registered, and had not verified the registry according to law.
The Act required the voter to swear that " the premises were
and are of the clear yearly value of 101." Now, the class of
cases which he proposed to go on with, was that of persons whose
affidavits were defective in this respect. He would proceed first
with the case of Michael Brougham, which stood second on the list, and
79n0 on the registry.

The Learned Gentleman first proposed to put in the affidavit of
registry.
Mr. EvaNs—Was the voter objected to at the time of registry?

Mr. KBATINGE—I am not aware whether he was or not.
An HoN. Mem:rut—Was the affidavit made subsequent to the re-
gistry ?
Mr. KEATING—Yes ; but from the substantial defect in the affidavit
itself in this instance, we contend that it is no affidavit at all.
An Hox. MEMBER said, that before they entertained the question as
to whether the affidavit was defective or not, this preliminary question
ought to be maturely considered, whether, if they admitted the objection
to the affidavit, it would not amount to an opening of the registry.
This gave rise to a long discussion as to whether such would be the
effect of admitting the affidavit or not. The intricacies of the forms
of the Irish registry were minutely gone into and discussed ; and at
length the Chairman ordered the room to be cleared, and on the read-
mission of strangers, stated that the Committee had decided that Counsel
for petitions should proceed with his case.
Mr. Archer, one of the town-clerks of Dublin, was then called, and
produced the affidavit of Michael Brougham, 99, Townshend-street, and
also the poll books.

The affidavit was then read. The objection was the omission of the
word " yearly" in the statement of the value. It appeared on the face
of the poll books, that an objection was taken to the voter at the time.
Mr. AUSTIN-Mr. Archer, have you the copy of the notice of ob.
jection ?

Witness—No it has not yet arrived.
Mr. AUSTIN—That is unfortunate, for the Committee must be aware
that the Assessor in Ireland always writes on the objection the grounds
of his decision.

Witness—The objection that was raised to the vote at the time was
overruled by the assessor. The agents on both sides had access to these
documents in my presence.

To Mr. AUSTIN—I do not preserve the notices of application to
register.
This closed the evidence against the vote. To save the time of the
Committee it was agreed between Counsel that Mr. Keatinge should
first address himself to the question, as to whether the defect in the af..
fidavit was substantial or not.
Mr. KEATINGE then proceeded to argue that question. The form of
the affidavit was set out in the Schedule annexed to the Irish Reform
Act, and expressly required that the words " bona fide of the clear
yearly value" should be introduced. He then went into a recital of the
different Registration Acts, beginning with Henry VI., to show that
a principle tantamount to this prevailed through all. It was quite true
the Irish Reform Act did not permit the affidavit to be objected to in
form, from which it was clear that it did mean to admit of objections
in substance, and his was a substantial objection.

Mr. AUSTIN said if his Learned Friend had, as was the usual prac-
tice, put forward his best class of cases, the attention of the Committee
would not be so long engaged with the case as had been anticipated.
By the 20th section of the Irish Reform Act, the Legislature explicitly
declared that no objection should or could be taken to the form of
the affidavit, the preparation of which was thrown upon the revising
Barrister.

The Committee interrupted the Learned Gentleman, and said they
would not trouble him further, as they were unanimously of opinion
that the objection to the vote of Michael Brougham could not be sustained.
Mr. AUSTIN said such was the decision he had expected. It disposed
of 208 objections i❑ class No. 1. There were 408 in class No. 2, which
must share the same fate.

Mr. KELTINGE said, the 2d class of objections fell within the deci
sio❑ of the Committee, and they gave them up. They had
now got rid of (iGG objections which was getting on pretty well ;
he, therefore, thought he had a right to apply for the favour of an ad-
journment at that early hour.

Mr. AUSTIN had no objection, provided it could be positively arranged
with what part of the case they would go on tomorrow.

. .. .
After some private arrangement it was agreed that both parties
should come to-morrow prepared to argue the important question of the
Freemen.

The Committee then adjourned till eleven o'clock tomorrow.

A specimen of an antediluvian monster of the
Icthyosaurus tribe has this week been discovered in a quarry at
Twerton, the property of C. Wilkins, Esq. It is a petrified
skeleton crnbe.dded in the bas, of which the huge jaws, teeth
vertebrae, and ribs are perfect.—Bath Journal.