The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-18 00:00:00

House to bring in a Bill to set aside the recent election of the
corporate body in that borough, and to give the inhabitants
the opportunity of another election. His present motion
might therefore be considered merely as a preliminary propo-
sition to ulterior measures. He trusted that if, in the opinion
of almost every Member of the House, a case could be made
out either of gross errors, or rather frauds, that had been
committed in the municipal election in this borough, that
steps would be taken to have them nullified. He might pro-
bably be told that the proceedings which had been adopted
in a court of law were sufficient for that purpose; but he
trusted that he should be able to show to the House that a
court of law would not afford a satisfactory remedy. He need
not detain the House with any preliminary Observations, but
would at once proceed to state the facts of the case. The
borough of Poole was divided into two wards, namely—the
north-east and the south-east wards. The two wards were to
elect eighteen councillors—nine for each—and these were to
elect the six aldermen. The borough of Poole, as many other
places, was divided into two parties the one the sup-
porters of the old system of the Corporation, and the other
who thought that great benefit would be produced to the in-
habitants of the town by introducing a change of system and
persons. Under these circumstances, it was not surprising
that the inhabitants of the place were full of excitement to
support the several interests in which they were engaged.
Those who were anxious for a change suspected that those
who were supporters of the old system, and who were in office,
and who consequently had the management of the election,
would pursue some unfair course towards them ; they, there-
fore, determined to adopt certain precautions, and, among
other things, they had their election papers of the list of
councillors printed in blue letters, and in a particular manner.
A few days afterwards they found that the supporters of the
old Corporation had issued papers exactly similar, with the
exception of the names, to those they had adopted. T. o
obviate any unfair proceedings which they supposed were in-
tended, they gave notice to all their partisans, or persons
entitled to vote, and who were supposed to be favourable
to their interest, to go to a particular place in the town
when they had voted, and for each to give in a duplicate of
the voting paper he had used. Until the morning of the elec-
tion, they thought that the papers they had put forth, and the
other steps which they had taken, would have been sufficient
to have prevented any frauds; but it turned out by the con-
trivance of the mayor that all their precautions were rendered
null and useless. He presided in one ward himself, and ano-
ther person sat for him in the other, and each of them chose
to have the voting carried on in a small room. The mayor,
as well as the person who presided in the other ward, had
each of them a box before him, which was locked, arid there
was a slit at the top, through which the election papers were
dropped ; there was a constable placed at the door of each
election-room, and immediately an elector had given his elec-
tion paper to the mayor, he was turned out of the room by
the constable. Some of the electors objected to the election
being carried on in such small rooms ; but their objections
were overruled. There could be no doubt that it was the
decided intention of that House that the elections should be
open—( Hear, hear, hear) ; but the mayor of this borough
took care that they should be as little so as possible, and his
excuse for not allowing the electors to remain was, that the
room in which he chose to carry on the election was extremely
small. By the Act of Parliament it was not incumbent on the
person presiding at the elections to put any questions to the
persons tendering their voting papers unless he was required to
do so by two of the burgesses present ; lie then had merely to
ask whether the party presenting himself to vote was the person
represented in the voting papers,
and also whether he had
voted before. On these questions being answered in the affirma-
tive, the voting paper was
taken. Tlll6 burgesses were not at
liberty, however, to do so in this case, in consequence of not
more than one being allowed to be in the room at the time.
At length they pressed the Mayor on the point; and, on their
urging him to put the questions to :persons presenting them-
selves before him to vote, he refused to do so, on the ground
that it was then too late in the election, that it had gone on
far, and was then greatly against their party, and, without
looking whether the papers presented to him were signed or
not, he put all into the box before him. When the election
was over it became the duty of the Mayor to see who were tha
successful candidates. The election took place on the Satur-
day, and he stated at the close of the poll that he would give
the result on the Monday. He was then pressed to agree,
that when the boxes were opened, that certain of thebur-
gesses should be allowed to see the papers, so as to form a just
estimate as to the state of the votes. He jobjected, however,
to this, no doubt because he supposed that it would destroy the
scheme that he had in view. On the Monday, also, instead of
declaring the numbers that had voted for each candidate, he
merely declared that certain persons, whose names he read,
had been duly elected by a majority of votes. In one of the
wards, that in which he presided, he stated that nine persons
had been elected councillors, all of whom belonged to the party
to which he was attached ; and in the other ward, two out of
the nine declared to be elected were of the same party. The
consequence of this was, that eleven councillors were
elected favourable to the old Corporation, and seven of the
opposite party, and the former of course had the preponde-
rance in the election of the aldermen, and they thus added
six more to their party. The mayor admitted that he had
found several papers in the boxes having the same names at-
tached to them, and apparently voting for both lists of candi-
dates, and he stated that in such cases he had always chosen
that list which suited him b2st, and supported the party to
which he belonged. It appeared, from strict inquiry, that
had been made, that the two councillors of the old corpora-
tion party that had been returned for one of the wards, had
not been voted for by the majority of the electors. If those
two persons, therefore, had not been returned, there would
have been an equality of voters, and much of what he had to
complain would not have followed, as there would have been
an equality of parties. If those two had not been returned
as elected, he should not have been called upon to ask for
Parliamentary interference ; but as the body as returned as
duly elected had the right to elect the aldermen, and also to
expend all the funds of the Corporation, he thought that
he was justified in calling upon the House to institute an
inquiry, with a view ultimately to set aside the election.—
( Hear, hear, hear.) What were the consequences of the steps
taken in this election ? The councillors had the election of
all the officers of the Corporation, and proceeded at once to
choose those who were favourable to their party. This, how-
ever, was not the case in one remarkable instance. Although
the town-clerk was one of the strongest friends of that party,
they turned him out and appointed another of their partisans
in his stead ; and this they did that they might enable the
former to obtain compensation for his office.—(Loud cries
of " Hear, hear.") According to the general rule (when
compensation was to be granted under the Municipal Cor-
poration Bill), one-third of the Council might object to
the amount proposed to be given, and might appeal to the
Lords of the Treasury ; but in this borough things had
been so managed, that just somethirg more than two-
thirds of the voters in the Town-council were friends of
the old Corporation. Supposing the pay of the town-clerk
was about 201. a-year—and he believed that it was not much
more than that in the present case—but then there was a large
addition by the fees which were paid to that officer—what
would the House say if the sum of 7,0001. was proposed to be
granted to' him as a compensation ? and this he understood
was the amount claimed.—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") The
income of the Corporation of Poole was 8001. a-year, and
if the amount he had stated was given as a compensation
in
this instance, and a similar scale of expenditure was adopted in
other cases, nothing whatever would be left to carry on the
business of the Corporation. From the register that had been
kept, it appeared that in the ward in which the mayor pre-
sided 189 burgesses had voted, and the persons who had
signed the petition which he had to present to the House,
stated that 100 of these burgesses declared that they had voted
against the candidates of the old Corporation party. In the
other ward 160 burgesses had voted, and 90 of those who had
signed the petition declared that they gave their votes also
against the candidates on that side. Now, although he did not
mean to say that some of the petitioners might not have voted
for the mayor's party, still all of them were so fully aware of
the evil consequences likely to ensue to the town from the
present state of things, that they had petitioned the House
to set aside the election, and give them the benefit of the
Corporation Reform Bill. The House was aware that pro-
ceedings had been adopted in the Court of King's Bench
against two persons in the latter ward, calling upon them to
show by what right they held the office of councillors. But
even if this was successful he did not think it was sufficient ;
but he thought they ought to vacate the election altogether.
He now, having shortly stated the facts of the case, trusted
lie had said sufficient to induce the House to consent to his
motion.

Sir. F. POLLOCK was not sufficiently acquainted with
the business of the House of Commons to say whether a Hon.
Gentleman was justified or not in making a motion for a
Committee of Inquiry, because he might have heard some-
thing that had taken place at an election which appeared
to him to be irregular. The House was not even aware of
the contents of the petition, unless from the description of
the lion. and Learned Gentleman. He ( Sir F. Pollock)
took it for granted that the petition would have been
pre-
sented to the House and printed, that Hon. Members mightbe aware of the facts of the case before being called upen to
vote for a Committee of Inquiry. He did not intend to take
any part in the discussion himself, or to vote on this question,
as he had been professionally consulted by one of the parties'
who had been called upon to appear in the Court of Kin's
Bench, and he had made the observation with which ho had
troubled the House rather on a point of form than anything
else. He might add, that it was a general rule that he had
laid down for the governance of his conduct since he had en-
tered Parliament, never to take any part in the discussion of,
or voting on, any question on which he had been professionally
engaged: In this case an application was made on the last
day of the last term, by his Learned Friend the Attorney-Ge-
neral, for a criminal information for conspiracy against the
parties alluded to by the Honourable and Learned Gentle-
man. As it was TM usual for the Court to entertain motions
for criminal informations on the last day of term, his Learned
Friend postponed his application ; but stated that-be should
renew it on the first day of next term. He trusted that the
House would not interfere in a way which might prejudice
the parties against whom the criminal information was in-
tended to be applied for.--( Hear ,hear.) He was not, how
ever, prepared to say whether he would resist inquiry or not.
He felt bound to say what he had, and he should now leave
the 110uza,
os the
ii&ohu i
sin e ' t
waso renew
not
aw his e
of the
i
Mr. nom presemed, ae a plater of' course, that his Hon.
and Learned Friend might present the petition have it
contents of the pvtitpn, !le thought the non, and Learned
Gentleman opposite printed;hadfor
ir
y ando u liea future would
saying he would not as a Member of Parliament, give a free
d arye, e a mme n
opinion, because be had been retained as counsel in the case.
If such a princip • le were to obtain, how easy would it be for a
cra might be adopted against him in
this House, to retain 4yo or si
party who feared propee—Pe,-
of ;
sictiw most erni49,4 199 4