The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-04 00:00:00

In pursuing the inquiry committed to their charge,
your Committee have found it their first duty to go into
the matterof the several petitions referred to them, corn-
plaining of abuses in the way of objecting to country
voters alleged to have been vexatiously raised by the
Anti-Corn-law League ; and for this purpose they have
examined, besides several gentlemen who have acted as
revising banisters, parties connected, on the one band,
with the counties from which the petitions emanated, to
substantiate the alleged grievance, and, on the other
hand, with the Anti- Corn-law League, to explain the pro •
ceedings complained of, their object, and the results.
They have also gone, though with less fullness, into
the other branch of the inquiry committed to them ;
viz. the facilities for making fraudulent claims, which
the present system of registration may be supposed to
afford ; and on this head, perhaps, it will be convenient
at once to bring forward the few observations which your
Committee have to offer.
There is no doubt that, according to the law as it now
stands, facilities do exist for creating votes, by a system
of granting rent charges to the amount of 405., and of
splitting up property into small freeholds of that value ;
and such facilities have been taken advantage of by dif-
ferent parties, at different times, and in different degt ees,
for the purpose of increasing electoral influence through
the means of individuals so put upon the register. In
many cast s, these new electors are in no other way con-
nected with the. respective counties, and in some in-
stances, as in the case of rent-charges, they bear no
share in the county burdens.
It is held by the Courts that such divisions of pro-
perty, although made for the express purpose of multi-
pl) ing voices in elections, are nut within the meaning of
the 7th and Bth William 111., c. 25, commonly called the
Splitting Act ; but that a " conve) mice made in comple-
tion of a bona fide contract of sale, where the money
passes from the buyer to the seller, arid the possession
also from the seller to the buyer, and where there is no
secret reservation on trust on the part of the seller, is
not avoided by reason of the object or motive of the pur-
chaser and selhr being to multiply voices at an election."
In consequence of this decision, it has been suggested
to your Committee, that it would be desirable to check the
practice of splitting up tenements into many qualifica-
tions, which has, during the last two years, acquired a
mew extension, either by bringing it within the provisions
of the Act of 11, illiam 111., or by raising the qualification
out of rent charges and freeholds, where the holder is not
resident within the county or division of the county of
which he claims to vote, from 40s. to 101. On this latter
suggestion, being rather a question of general policy
than properly belonging to the province of your Com
mittee, they forbear from offering an opinion ; on the
former a recommendation will be found in No. 2 of the
Seggestions at the end of the report. Before, however,
they quit this subject, they feel called upon to state,
after a full investigation of the facts, that in the case of
the numerous small freeholds of this nature which have
been recently created under the influence-of the Anti-
Corn-law League, they have no reason to believe
(although the freeholds were acquired avowedly for the
purpose of obtaining votes for a particular object) that
they have been paid for otherwise than out of the funds
of the purchasers themselves. The League have, ho w-
ever, contributed to this object, by affording, in many
cases, the assistance of their agents to facilitate the ne-
gotiations and purchases ; for which purpose, also, the
sums paid bp persons desiring qualifications in various
counties have been-colleCted into accounts with certain
bankers to the credit of certain agents of the Anti-
Corn-law League.
With regard to the power of making objections, which
has mainly occupied the attention of your Committee,
they think it will be convenient first to state the change
which has been made in the law upon that subject by
the recent Act for " Amending the Registration of
Voters." Under the Reform Act the objector was to
give notice of his objection to the person objected to, or
he was to leave it at his place of abode, as described in
the list, or he was to deliver it p'rsonally to the tenant
in occupation of the premises. Under the present Act
(6 and 7 Vict. c. 12.) the objector is to give the notice
of objection to the person objected to, or he is to leave it
at his place of abode, as described by the list ; and when-
ever his place of abode is not in the parish or township
to which such list relates, he is also to give or leave a
duplicate notice at the residence of the occupying tenant.
The most material alteration, however, made by the re•
cent Act is, that the production of a duplicate, stamped
by the postmaster, of the notice of any of these objec-
tions, is made conclusive evidence of the service of the
notice.

An alleged abuse arising out of this new facility of
proving the service of objections, is one of the principal
grounds of complaint. It is alleged that, taking ad-
vantage of this provision, the agents of the Anti, Corn-
law League posted at Manchester on the 22d, 23d,
and 24th of August last, but mostly on the 24th, the
last day permitted by the law, many thousand notices of
objection (the Postmaster at Manchester states them,
including duplicate notices to overseers and occupying
tenants, at upwards of 23,000), principally directed
against voters for North Warwickshire, North and South
Cheshire, North Staffordshire, South Lancaster, East
Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire ; so late, and
in such numbers, that the Postmaster was not
able to dispatch them for several days suc-
cessively ; and that a very large proportion of
such notices consequently did not reach their desti-
nation till long after the time contemplated by the
law—in some cases after the day appointed by the Act
for the overseers to notify publicly the objections made.
It is alleged that these notices were in a very large pro-
portion, directed against persons of undoubted qualifica-
tion, men of large property in houses and land within
the respective districts, tenants of large farms, and other
persons of that description, on the chance, as they ima-
gine, of such parties, or some of them, not appearing
to defend, and thus losing their votes ; that in fact a
large number of unquestionable votes was thus struck
off for want of such appearance, the parties objected
to being in many cases prevented from attending by
remoteness of residence, illness, business, unwillingness
to lose their time, or, as in some cases, on the conviction
that the notices which had been delivered be-
yond the time appointed by the law were informal ;
and it is also stated that a very small proportion
of such objections proved on examination to be valid ;
while the redress intended to be provided for such cases
by the late Registration Act, in the power conferred on
revising barristers to award costs, was withheld or re-
fused, except in a few instances; either because the ob-
jector having failed to sustain one obkction, declined to
attempt to sustain any more, and was thus enabled, Sc.
cording to the interpfetation put upon the Act, to with-
draw himself altogether from liabitity to costs, or else
because some trifling amendment in the description was
required in the opinion of the revising barrister; and
that by reason of a rule generally laid down by revising
barristers, that no costs shall ever be allowed when an
amendment, however trifling, is admitted in the descrip-
tion, the claimant was in such cases precluded from ob-
taining compensation for his loss of time or the trouble
imposed on him in sustaining his vote.
Complaint is further made, that the agents of the
League, in most cases, did not even attempt to sustain a
serious objection, but confined themselves to raising some
trifling objection as to the description, to shield them-
selves from costs, and it is also stated that, in the cases
of South Cheshire and North Warwickshire, persons
were selected as objectors, who, having notices so
numerous to sign in so short a time that they could not
get through them themselves, delegated that task, to a
great extent, to others, who signed their names for them,
and thus created many invalid notices ; the invalidity of
which, when established, was held to be a reason for
not giving costs to the voter who appeared to answer
them, though, if he had not appeared, he world have lost
his vote for non-appearance.
Now, on this statement, the main points, which appear
to be disputed by the other party, are not as to the
number of objections served, nor that a large proportion
of them were served on parties of undoubted qualifica-
tions. The numbers stated by the chairman of the
League, when analysed, will be found to vary in no
material degree from those of the complainants. The
main difference is in the proportion claimed as suc-
cessful, and in the inference to be consequently drawn
from such proportion, as to the vexatious of justifiable
use which shall be held to have been made by the League
of the opportunities of objection offered by the law.
On this point the conclusions drawn by the respective
parties do materially differ ; and on neither side is
such evidence adduced as can lead to a very accurate
conclusion. The details of what takes place in the
revising barristers' courts are not matter of official
record, and the best information to be gained re-
specting them is, in most cases, derived from im-
perfect recollection, or from the notes of the contending
parties taken hastily on the spot, and communicated,
possibly with some exaggl ration, to the party papers in
the respective counties. Besides which, a different esti-
mate of success will always be taken as an evidence of
justification by different contending parties.
The Chairman of the League claims on his side as suc-
cessful all ojections which terminated either in amending
the description of a vote or in expunging a name ;
whether, in the latter case, the name was expunged
upon an investigation of the qualifications, or by reason
of the non-appearance of the voter ; whether the name
had been already struck out, or the description
amended, at the instance of the overseer, or whether
the alteration was solely due to the interposition of the
League.

WI the other hand, the complainants admit to the
credit of the League only those cases in which a really
bad vote was struck off upon the hearing of the case, and
where, but for the interference of the agent of the
League, the vote would not have been struck off.
Ow party 'co,;coirvos itself =Weed to servo Lotico