The Sun.
London, England, 1831-09-03 00:00:00

REFORM BILL.

The House having gone into Committee on the Bill,
Colonel WOOD gave notice that he should take the
sense of the Committee with regard to his views of
registration upon the 29th Clause being proposed.
The 25th clause was then put and agreed to without
discussion. The clause is as follows :

" And he it enacted, that one of his Majesty's Principal
Secretaries of State:hall forthwith caner biopics of such re-
ports to be laid before both Houses of Parliament, if then
bitting, or if not sitting, then within ten days after their
sitting; and in case both Houses of Parliament shall vote
ad Tresses to his Majesty, praying his Itlajesty to issue his
royal proclima_ti.ms for making known the reports of
the said Commissioners, it shall be lawful for his
Maleaiy to issue such his royal proclamations ac-
s.'ordingly, from the date of which respective proda-•
motion, every county enumerated in the said schedule
(G) shall, for the purposes of this Act, be and remain di-
vided into two divisions, aecording to the determination of
the said Commissioners ; and each division shall returri
two Knights of the Shire to serve for the same in all fu-
ture Par)iatnents ; and every vounty or division of a ciailty
for the purposes of this Act, include any porticos of
any other county that may have been incorporated 6%lE_
with by the deterraination of the said Commissionera ;'and
every suck city and borough as afareesiil shall, ioi;3tlv with
the wholeor any part or parts of any parish, township, er
!CAA*, parishes, towushiß4 br places, that 'way have been.
incorporated with swls city or borough, or with any peace
sharing in the tlection for such city or borough, by the de-
termini:4Al, of the said Commisaioners, be a city or bo-
ro.u&-b for tae purpose of electieig•a Member or Meinhere
serve in- all future Parliaments ; and the limits and
boundaries of every In.rough mentioned in the said tithe-
duleb (C end L) shall be and remain as ascertained and
decleTed Ly the said Commisslook-rs; provided always, that
iM ease either House of Par4arnent shall, instead of voting
an address to his lkiajekty in any of the cases bereimbeforv*
mentioned, roe that both or either of the said report&
of the tekid Commissioners shall be referred back to the
said commissioners, to be them revised and amended, in
suoh ease the said Corot4saioners, or any 16 of them, shall
be, and they are lektby, authorized and required to revise
and amend tke report or reports so referred hick to them,
and i4rovneciiately after the revision and amendment thereof,
, • •
cause the same so revised and amended to be laid before
both Houses of rebrkament, if then sitting, or if not sitting,
then withi.a ten days after their sitting; and in care both
Houses of Parliament shalt vote an address to his Majesty,
praying, his Majemy to 'tune his royal proclamation or pro-
clamations, f••:,r making known the report or reports so re-
vised and amended, it shall be lawful for Is;. Majesty to
issue such his royal proclamation or proclamations accord-
ingly ; from, tke date of which 'proclamation or pzitueoen, ••.
Lions the divisions,
niso
ra
:specrively determined in the report ef
reports
force."
" -
and amended, shall take, effect art 4 be m .
On the 26th clause,being ea!,
conse u art h
that in q ;net. •
Lord ALTHOLIP
..;01,, be wished to make an amendment in this
pabsed last- •. • • - bad never been I,ateratton to give the Cow.
hmorporatiowso and "ilkitr
c!, ;fig?, lc

im.siutiers power to call for charters and title deeds, and
he should therefore propose to add, after the words " of a
public nature," the following words—" except charters or
it liniments of title."
Mr. JOHN CAMPBELL said, that it was very proper
to exclude muniments of title, but he did 'not' see why
charters should be excluded. Charters were doduments
altogether of a public nartiri; they mod be sourw here
enrolled, and would be very'uteful, be should conceive,
in
ascertaining the limits of boroughs.
Lord ALTHORP thought that the production of char-
ters would sot be essential- to the Commissioners ; for it
would not be any part of their business to define the old
limits of a borough.
Mr. JOHN CAMPBELL thought, that in defining
new limits to a borough, it would be very convenient to
know what the old limits were.
The amendment was then agreed to, and the clause
amended as follows, ordered to stand part of the Bill :
" And be it enacted, tliat for the purpose of collecting
such information as may be useful or necessary forenablin
the said CommissiOners to execute the several'-powe•s
vested in them by this -Act, any one or more of the
said Commissioners is and are hereby authorized to
issue precepts under his or their hand or hands, re-
quiring any persons to attend before him or them. for
the purpose of giving evidence, and to bring before him
or them any books, papers, or other documents what-
soaver of a public nature, except charters or muniments
of title, in the custody or under the controul of such per-
sons, which in the judment of such Commissioner• or
Commissioners, may contain information useful or neces-
sary to the due execution of the powers vested by this Art
in the said Commissioners ; and any such Commissioner
or Commissioners is and are hereby authorized to admini-
ster an oath (or, in the case of a Quaker or Moravian, an
affirmation) to all persons attending as witnesses-before
him or them, and to examine such persons touching all
matters which such Commissioner or Commissioners may
judge to he useful or necessary to the due execution of the
powers vested by this Act in the said Commissioners."
The CUAIRI/AN was about to put the 27th clause; when

Lord ALTHORP said, that the 27th clause had been
amended, but that the only object of the amendment was
to place Shoreham, Cricklade, East Retford, and -Ayles-
bury, upon the same footing as other boroughs, and to
render the regulations in the Bill fur other boroughe equally
applicable to them.
An HON. MEMBER said, that of all the anomalies in
the Bill, the manner of dealing with these four places wee
the greatest.
Mr. R. GORDON had not had time to consult his
constituents on the subject of this clause. If, therefore.
he let the clause pass now, he must not, for that reason,
be suppose to approve of it.
Sir C. WETHERELL had heard no reason assigned
fir changing the constituent body of these places.
Mr. G. H. VERNON said, that the reason with regard
to East Retford was this—Nottinghamshire acquired an
increase of Members, but if the hundred of Baesetlaw
were to be excluded from the county, the county would
have no claim for such increase. Personally, he should
rather the constituency remained as it was, but he had no
right to oppose his private feelings to a public improvement.
Lord ALTHORP said, that when this arrangement was
called an anomaly, the gentlemen opposite should consider
what were the anomalies of the present system of repre-
sentation. He lied never proposed to alter a thing, merely.
because it was an anomaly, but because it worked practiced
evil. It had been thought desirable to place these places
upon the same footing with other boroughs of the like die
scription, and to prevent the freeholders of the districts
mentioned from having a double franchise. He thought
this a very beneficial arrangement, and was certain that no
human being had any right to complain of it.
Sir E. SUGDEN thought the alteration required great
consideration. The town of Worthing would secure the
return fur the ripe of Member, now that Horsham wits -
excluded ; and thus would be added another to the num.
her of watering-places, of which the Ministers seemed so
fond. Ile eoula not conceive that. any beneficial effects
would follow from this clause, but quite the reverse. It
would throw a great power into a small quarter of a large
district, and it would deprive numbers there of the
right of voting who hal hitherto possessed the
franchise. In truth, the clauses of this Bill had
been so altered, acid so amended, and so modified, front
those in tie original Bill, and there were such amendments
upon amendments proposed by the Noble Lord opposite,
that Members, after giving the printed clauses in the Bill
every consideration in their power, found, on their entwine
down to the House, that tot illy new ones were substituted
in their stead. At all events, whenever this Bill should
pass, it was quite clear that no one would again dare to
talk of " the Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the
Bill." He trusted that when the was passed, the ola
Bill and the new Bill would he .printed together as a na-
tural curiosity to hand down to posterity. They would'
have only to print the original clauses of the Bill on one
side, and to give those which had been finally carried, on
the other, and the document would he. worthy of the•ad-
miretion of after ages. He would venture to say that
scarcely a comma, not to mention a period, would be
round, that bad not been altered front the draught :of
the original Bill. One good effect of the preservation
of a document of that kind would be, that the people
would never again be deluded by such a cry as "-the
Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." His
complaint against this clause was, that it went to deprive
the poor man in those boroughs of that franchise which he
had hitherto enjoyed, and that, in the instance of some o
them at least, it would throw into a small quarter that
influence and power which ought to he extended over the
whole district. In the case of Shoreham, for example, -
the ten-pound clause would completely disqualify the
soot-and-lot voters there. They generally possessed very
poor houses, and the operation of the Bill would he to
disfranchise nine-tenths of them there. One wond as to
exceptions which lia4 been made by the 13111 in favour of
existing rights. Those exeeptionsehad been so elaborately
framed, and so artfully drawn tip, that he would venture
to assert that their real effect would be to destroy those
rights, the preservation of which was their ostensible object.
Mr. G. H. VERNON said, that he did not, think that
the clause weeld have those bad effects amongst the rural
population in the neighbourlioed of those boroughs which
the Learned Gentleman and othere seemed to anticipate
front it. He was of opinion that the effect of it would
be to induce the landlords to give the cottager, their small
pieces of land on which they would be enabled to keep a
cow. The cottager who could thus keep a cow would no
doubt be also entitled to receive the franchise. Ile was
sure, therefore, that there would be very few of those who
were possessed of forty-shilling freeholds who would not
have votes under this 13.11.
_ . .

Sir E. SUGDEN said, that this would constitute a re-
gular manufacture of votes, and the proprietor who should
adopt such a plan might reckon the number of votes by
the number of cows on his property.
Mr. B. GORDON said, that if he thought that the
operation of this Bill would be to lead to the manufacture
of fictitious voters in the way mentioned, by the allotment
of small portions of land in the neighbourhood of Crick-
lade or lLssetlaw, he should most strongly object to
He hoped that his Majesty's Ministers, :when they came to
the rtgistratiou clause, would constitute ;East Retford,
Crieklade, Shoreham, and Aylesbury, not boroughs, hut
district counties, as regarded the taking of the votes. The
ti uth was, that the representatives for those places would
much rather that they had been left so they were. They
had waited on Ministers, and had earnestly requested that
they might be let alone.,
Lord J RUSSELL said, it was quite true that the
ataini.ars for those places had waited on his Majesty's Mi-
nisters. On that occasion they made three propositions to
Alinisters—ei;,her to leave those places as they were, or to
snake them entirely boroughs, or entirely counties, After
a good deal of consideration, it appeared to his Majesty's
Ministers, that the best course was to make them boroughs,
as they were constituted under thi? clause. As it was ne-
cessary to interfere in the cases of those places, the giving
the right of voting to the ten-pound householders appeared
to be the best plan, and it was in strict conformity with
the general principles of the Bill.
Mr. GRESSE C PELHANI did not see why exceptions,
might not have been made in the instance of those places, as
there had been in the instance of the two Universities, where
the existing rights of voting remained tintonehed.
Mr. F. LEWIS thought that this alteratioq was both
unwise and unnecessary.
A desultory conversational discussion took place between
Sir C. Wetherell, Sir T. Fremantle, Sir E. ugden, Mr.
Croker, Lord Newark; Mr. Carter, Mr. C. P. Thomson,
Lord Althorp, and Lord J. Bussell, the four former gentle-
men contending that the clause was merely following the
precedent of Bassetlaw, which Ministers had formerly con-
demned, whilst the latter Members maintained that the
clause was consistent with' the kineiples of the whole Bill.
Sir T. FREMANTLE then proposed, that instead of
agreeing to the amended clause, the Committee should
adopt the clause as it stood in the original dr Aught of the
On this proposition the Committee divided, when there

appeared .........
For the amendment .....................
Against it .................... ... . 10.2
Majority in favour,of Ministers, —
The clause, as amended by 111inigters, was then agreed to.
Clause 29 is to be totally omitted from the fill.
On the 29th clause being proposed, which provides for
registration of votes, .
Colonel WOOD rose, and adcireesedtie Committee. T ey

had now come to that clause of the Bill by which a re-
eistry for the voters of counties and boroughs was ap-
pointed. It was stated that this clause was intended to
limirish the expence of election. So far from producing
• that effect, he was convinced that it would increase the
expellee, not only to counties and boroughs, but also to the
r candidates and to the sitting Members. This plan of re-
, eistration was exactly the same with a plan which had
teen submitted to the consideration of a Committee in
1827: 'After much inquiry aud examination into its de-
tail's, a gentleman of as great sagacity as any man who
• ever sat in Parliament, the late Mr. Tierney, designated
the plan in his homely English style, as impracticable as
[twee moonshine ; and yet, strange to say, all the regi-
stration clauses in this Bill were copied word for word,
is any Member might see by going to the library, from
the 27 clauses of the Bill of 1827. New the first
clause in the present Bill directed the overseers of the
poor in every parish to make out, at the expense of the
parish, a list of all persons liable to be registered as
voters for the county or borough, in which the palish
was locally situate. How, in the name of common
sense, were the overseers to ascertain who 'were the
persons liable to be registered ? Having got that list,
the overseers were to get it printed, at the expense
of the parish no doubt, and were then to post it for two
succeeding Sundays in the month of September on the
Church door. All persons not in that list could claim, by
e document inserted in one of the schedules of the Bill, to
he put on that list by the succeeding Sunday. But how
was a freeholder, who was not resident in the parish, to
know whether his name was on the list or not ? Was he
to write for the list, or was he to employ an attorney to
eeel that his rights were not neelected or overlooked ? In
either case this would entail a considerable expence, upon
him, as well as upon the parish in which his property lie.
lite lists thus made out were to be sent to the High Ceti-
stable of the hundred, and were to be transmitted by him
to the Clerk of the Peace. The Clerk of the Peace was to
set them printed, he supposed at the expence of the county,
and was then to transmit them to the barrister who was
appointed to act as assessor by the Judge of Assize, liable
to the approbation of the Lord Chancellor. This (Anise did
not say how these assessors were to be paid, but paid he
suppused they would be, and perhaps out of the county purse.
Lord ALTHORP—No, by the State.--( Hear. )
Colonel WOOD hoped that the country was aware, or
if not aware, would not forget, that it was to pay for the
assessors who were appointed for every borough and county
in the kingdom. After these lists were verified by the
assessors, they were to be sent back once more to the Clerk
of the Peace. He was to print them, and to arrange the
voters alphabetically, and by numbers. Now how could
the Clerk of the Peace do this? How, from the various
lists sent to him from the different parishes, would he be
ibis, to ascertain the identity of individuals having different
estates in different parishes ? When all the regulations of
the clause were complied with, it was further provided,
that no question should be put to the voter at the poll as
to his identity, if he would take his oath of it. This
would lead to numberless false oaths, and would often
eause the rights of substantial freeholders to be defeated.
Now by the 55th clause of this Bill it was provided, that
if the Sheriff, or any of his assessors, should misconduct
hemselvee in the reception or registration of the voters,
they should be punishable by an-action at law. Now that
disuse, in his opinion, •did away with the power which
this House had often exercised in punishing the miscon-
duct of re.urning officers. After all this, there was to be
in appeal to a Committee ef the House of Commons, which
was- the oddest way in the world of avoiding expence.
The Gallant Colonel then proceeded to contend that
if the regulations of this claese were established,
every County Member must have an agent in every
eundred to take care that his friends were put
aeon the list, and to prevent improper persons from
being inserted in it. And it must be recollected, that
is the list was made out annually, these agents must be
Annually retained. Let the Committee next look at the
(node in which the elections were to be conducted under
this Bill. He supposed that, in the first instance, the
election was to be decided by a show of hands at the county
town. If a poll were ()emended, the freeholders would
'epee to get bsck from the county town to their respective
circles, and therefore the polling was not to commence
the districts the next day. There was to be a blink day,
which, he believed, would not be without expence to the
candidates. Then there were to be two polling days, and
then another blank (lay, after which the return was to he
made ; so that, if an election began upon a Monday, the
eandidate might think himself lucky if he was in his chair
by the succeeding Saturday. He thought that it would
out save expence to make it imperative that an election
should last a week. He was not called upon to provide a
•uhstitute for these registration clauses, but lie would state
',hat he thought would.be an improvement upon them.
He thought, that if the party claiming to vote would take
the freeholders' oath, and would appeal to the rate-book
for his qualification, there would be in that a sufficient
proof of his title to vote. By adopting such a plan, the
Committee would get rid of the thirty remaining clauses
of the Bill, which would be a great recommendation, as
the Committee had only just got through that number at
present. He would negative at once all the clauses relat-
ing to the registration ; fur by so doing, the principle of
the Bill would not be affected. The Gallant Officer con-
cluded by stating that he would take the sense of the Com-
mittee upon this clause.
Lord ALTHORP was glad that the lion. Member,
when he alluded to the labours of the Committee of 1827,
had not proved there was any abandonment of the opinions
he (Althorp) then entertained. He recollected Mr.
Tierney was a Member of the Committee, but he did not
'member the expressions attributed to that Hon. Member.
He knew, however, that the Committee adopted the plan,
ind that a Bill was drawn up in compliance with their
recommendation. The Hon. Member had objected to the
sxpruce the plan would entail on parishes, front the over-
seers being compelled to make out lists of the voters. Now
it should he borne in mind that the overseers were, at the
present moment, compelled to make out much mote ex-
perifive lists than those. They had to prepare the Jury
Lists and the Population Returns ; and it had come to
his knowledge lately that in a parish of 4,000 inhabitants
the whole of the expence of one of these lists was only
seven pounds. With respect to the second objection, that
the lnon. residents could not have an opportunity of at-
tending die days of registration, on learning the time they
wet 4 to take place, it must he recollected that their
tenantry' would have full opportunity to apprize them of
the time, and that the overseers, front the nature of their
office, were generally well acquainted with the residence of
ail iwcsuns of property in their parishes. The Hon.
Member had made some observations on the subject of the
intention of the Government, that the assessors should be
paid' by the State. As the whole kingdom was to receive
the benefit of the measure, it was fair that the whole king-
dem should bear the expence, and that it should not lee
levied on districts. As to that part of the mere machinery
of the Bill which they were then considering, it was by
no means uelikely that practice might point out means of
improving it. lie could not agree with his Hon. Friend,
that 'there would be any necessity for candidates to keep
(aid agents all over the country. Every candidate would
have'plenty of intelligent friends, who would look at the
lists for hint, and give hint the necessary information.
Uudoubtedly, where these were contests, there
.would be
some expence, but not otherwise, when the machinery was
fairly at wink. His Hon. Friend said that the elections
would set be the less expensive, because tire polling was
to occupy only two days. That he (Lord Althorp) •
was at a loss to comprehend. The great expence of
county elections at pressnt was the conveyance of voters,
and their waiting while the polloclerks determined upon
the various qualifications. The appointment of several
places fur taking the poll must diminish die expence of the
:caner, and the short duration of the poll must diminish
the expence of the latter. As to the day of nomination,
he could not agree with his Hon. Friend that that would
be expensive ; for the electors need not COLlt•e on that day
unless they liked it. There would be no expellee in the
interval before taking the poll, and after the poll the ex-
pence would, of course, wholly cease. As to the supposi-
tion that the Clerk of the Peace would feel any difficulty
in ascertainitag the identity of any voter, it must be recol-
lected, that as his residence was to be annexed to his name,
that difficulty would not he great. The legistratiora he
had given up as being subsidiary to the important regula-
tion of taking the poll in different parts of the county,
Sir E. B. SUGI)E strongly objected to the mode of
tain:og the list of voters ; the effect of which would be to
let three hetedred bat ristets loose every yeer on the people
of England, in order to excite general litigation. The Bill
had been called a Landioed's Bill. It might certainly be
called a Lawyer's 13111. it ought to rejoice the hearts of
the profession. There was not a barrister who travelled
the circuit that might not eepect to be eeeployed. Tracing
the whole course of the proceeding, he maintained that the
complicated inquiries into the various rights of voting
would necessarily pccasion great expence. Many difficult
cases would occur whi44 could not be foreseen. Yet the
• bareieter, who might be only ef one day's standing, and
therefore quite incompetent to determiae opon them, was
to be called upon to do so, without any assistance from
the Counsel for the several parties. Such a proposition
was, in his opinion, calculated to assail the honour aud
I dignity of the bar. Although he admitted that there
would be a check in the regulation that a Judge was to
nominate the barrister, and that the Chancellor Wag to ap-
prove the nomination, yet !,Le was petaualed that the pro-

ression would not furnish as many individuals competent to
the task as the Act would require. The pit:posed ma-
chinery would entail on the country every year all the
evils which now attended a general election. It was int.
possible to suppose that a great body of constituents could
keep their names on the lists year after year without assist-
ance ; and there would be a contest every year by whom
that assistance should he rendered. The mind of all Eng-
land would be unceasingly directed to this agitating subject.
The lists would also furnish the means for many candidates
to come anti farther disturb the counties. The limitation
,expense
the polling to two days would greatly increase the
lexpence to the candidates. Not being able to ascertain the
'state of the poll at the various places in a comity in wh:cii
it was to be taken, few elections would occur in which
every elector would not be polled out. The candidates
must have every body ready to poll. Supposing the various
places in which the poll was to be taken were fifteen miles
from one another, every horse, every machine, must be in
progress on the same day, and at the same hour, to carry
the whole population. But where were sufficient means
of conveyance to come from? it was well known that in
contested elections under the present system, which lasted
for several days, that was frequently a matter of difficulty.
How much more so, when the election was to last only
two days? The whole arrangement was calculated to
produce the most pleasant state of confusion possible. A
more admirable scheme for embarrassing a whole county,
a more admirable scheme fur embarrassing a whole king-
dom, he never heard of. And what added to the absur-
dity of it was, that it was entirely unnecessary.—(Hear.)
.Mr. Serjeant WILI)E was at a loss to understand how
limiting the continuance of the poll to two der, and pro-
viding that it should be taken at several places in the county,
could increase the expence. As to the votes, they must he
investigated somewhere. They must be investigated either
at the poll, as at present, or elsewhere. lie did not see why
greater objections would arise in the mode of investigation
provided by the Bill, thin in the existing mode. His Hon.
and Learned Friend thought that there would not he com-
petent barristers enough for the purpose. lie could not
concur in that opinion. Having some acquaintance with the
circuits, lie did not conceive there could be any difficulty
in the case. When it was recollected that the Judge was
to make the appointment in public, that would be a secu-
rity against the appointment of a briefless barrister,
wholly unlearned in his profession. His Bon. and
Learned Friend had taken two objections inconsistent with
each other : the one, that the expense would fall on the
voter; the other, that it would fall on the candidate. In
his opinion therewas much less iiifficulty in examining the
rights of voters, for the purpose of registering them, than
in examining them, as at present, at the poll-booths. In
the latter case, the baste and confusion induced many un-
qualified persons to offer themselves to vote, is the hope
that they might nevertheless be received, who would not
Venture to go before a barrister to have their claims deli-
berately examined. The simplicity of the arrangement,
and the clearness of the various forms, would, in his opi-
nion, preclude all the embarrassment which his Hon. and
Learned Friend seemed to apprehend.
Sir C. WETHERELL contended, that the district
mode of polling would increase the expence of county elec-
tions. He thought, too, that if the election for counties or
half counties were not to be reduced to a mere mockery,
the candidate should meet the , constituency at some given
place ; and he maintained that it would be utt, rly ridicu-
lous, that after this rendezvous the voters should be dis-
persed in squadrons all over the county to vote in half-a-
dnzen different places. Ile spoke disinterestedly on this
occasion, for he was never likely to be engaged in a contest
for a county. The very act of imposing on the constitu-
ency the necessity of registering their freeholds, was, in his
opinion a gross invasion of their rights. He should op-
poise the clause.
'Mr. LITTLETON said there never had been any mea-
sure so much discussed as this measure of Parliamentary
Reform, and there never had been any which hail received
from the country such universal support. He considered
it very extraordinary, that a country, in other respects
so well regulated in all that related to the mode of trans-
acting all kinds of business, should have been hitherto de-
ficient in regulations respecting registrations of votes.
He was glad that this clause had been introduced to supply
that deficiency, and beshould give it his mostcordialsuppor t.
Mr. CROKER was convinced that, though this clause
might diminish the actual expences at an election, it would
in the end much increase the whole amount of expence,
for it would occasion a perpetual canvass that would he
constantly requiring the attention of the candidate. Al-
though, therefore, he was a friend to the principle of re-
gistration, which he had seen work well in other countries,
he objected to this mode of carrying that principle into effect.
Mr. GORE LANGTON should support this clause,
because the only one in the Bill to which he objected was
that relating to the division of the counties. Nothing but
his anxiety for the success of this great measure of Parlia-
mentary Reform should have induced him to enter again
into the bustle of public life.
Mr. NORTH thought that the mode in which the
clause was framed would interfere with the mode of regis-
tration adopted in another part of the empire ; he should
therefore object to the clause. He thought the Irish
system of registration better than that proposed in this
clause, which seemed to him likely to occasion much in-
convenience.

Lord ALTHORP did not think that this clause would
produce the perpetual trouble and expense which had been
anticipated by the Hon. and Learned Gentleman opposite.
With respect to what had been said regarding the Irish
system of registration, he must observe that had such a
system been in existence in England at this time, he
should perhaps have thought it imprudent to make any
alteration, but as he had now to devise a system of regis-
tration for the first time in this country, he thought he
could devise one which would be free from those objec-
tions that experience had pointed out in the Irish system.
He was perfectly satisfied that the adoption of this mode
of registration, together with the plan for the division of
counties, would be found to produce a considerable dimi-
nution of expense at the county elections.
Colonel WOOD said that, observing many County
Members absent, he should not then press the question to
a division.—Clause agreed to.
Clause 30 was next moved, the object of which Was to
regulate the formation of lists of voters according to the
laud tax assessments.

Sir C. WETHERELL observed, that if a man Were
from home, or ill, his name might be omitted, and he
might lose his vote.

Lord ALTIIORP said, that if the parties interested did
not attend to the due registration of their names, they could
have no one but themselves to blame. Inconvenience such
as that which had been spoken of was much less likely to
at ise under the new system than it had been under the old.
Mr. WILKS suggested that any person demanding a
copy of the lists should be entitled to it on the payment of
a certain fee, and moved an amendment to that effect.

Lord ALTHORP said, that as the amendment of the
lion. Member referred equally to clauses 29 and 30, the
discussion of it had better be postponed till the bringing up
of the report. At that late hour he thought it better that
they should report progress, the more especially, as the
House would sit at twelve o'clock this day (Saturday).
The House then resumed, the Chairman reported pro-
gress, and obtained leave to sit again this day.