The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-29 00:00:00

ELECTION COMMITTEES.
BELFAST.

The Cemmit:oe -for-Conducting the Belfast inquiry met I
yesterday at one °CIO& The. CoMMittee-room was I
not opened till two, when it appeared that it had been
decided to roimit the public, as in the case of the South-
ampton inquiry.
The Committee consists of Mr. Liddell, Mr. Cripps,
Mr. Pretheroe, - Sir B. Hall, Viscount Ebrington, Mr.
Shawe, Mr. East, and Mr. Dennison.
Mr. Emerson Tennent was present, and took notes of
the prdceedings:
The first Witness called was Mr.B. Gordon,- who stated
that he was. a , burgess of Belfast, but not a registered •
elector.. lle knew Mr. Dunbar intimately ; he did
not . stand as a candidate at the last . election.
Ile could not tell whether his reasons for not standing.
were connected with any pecuniary arrangement, pend-
ing the last. petition. He was in London by accident, and
was-present at an interview between Mr. Campbell and
Mr. ti Neil, but had no authority to act. It was on the
Wednesday morning that the Committee was to meet.
Ile had no communication with Mr. Bates its to his
(witness) taking any part in the compromise, but he glad
.good deal of conversation about the petition. The conver-
sation between Mr. M'Neil and Mr. Campbell, referred to
a t;nner one, at which witness was not present. It began -
by- Campbell stating that he must have a thousand
pounds ; Mr. Campbell was acting in behalf of the
Liberal and petitioning party. The reply of Mr. M'Neil
was, that if' the petition went on it would cost both par-
ties a great deal of money, and that it was a pity some.
;:arrangement had not been made. The thousand pounds
was demanded to cover the expenses, 'as he had been
600/. -out ot pocket, and was sure that he owed 600/.,
more. The 4001. more was required to defray
the expenses of the petition. Its• the matter was left to
arbitration whether a thousand pounds should be paid
or six hundred pounds, it was understood that Mr.
M'Neil and Mr. Campbell should do their utmost to
prevent a contest. .
Mr. M'Neil was called. Was a Direetor of the
Northern Banking Company. He was not aware that
the Conservative Fund was lodged in the Bank. Ile did
not know anything more of the Conservative Fund at the
last eleetion, except that he subscribed ino/. to it him-
He did not pay it into the Bank, but handed it
ever to Mr. S. Thompson. There were other subscrip-
tions. He believed Mr. Gordon, the last witness, was also
a subscriber. A Mr. Fenton also subscribed. He could not
recollect the particular sums and names ; the whole
-amount he hail heard was about 4,05)01.; he. did not
know whether through the medium of the Bank, they
could get at the amount of IIfiFEWS,' as he could not tell
-whether Mr. Thompson kept it in the - Bank
in his own name or not. He was in Lon-
don at the time the petition Was pending, on other
hnslries•-;, and interfered to make an: arrangement,
burr cot as compromise. He did not think that a coin-
promise where the petitioner had his prayer granted in
11,11, proposition or the arrangement passed from
to ale. Campbell. He first suggested that the
Conservatives should resign and go to a new election,
and that himself and Mr. Campbell should use their in-
fluence to prevent a contest, as they had had five in the last
ten years, and had spent ten thousand pounds on the
last petition, when they unseated Lord Belfast and Mr.
G ibson. Mr. Campbell regretted that such an arrange-
toent had not been proposed before they left Belfast.
He and Mr. Campbell came to no agreement that
day ' •
,he asked for money, -demanding a thousand
pounds. 114 did' not agree to that, and the next morn-
ing Mr. Campbell called at his rooms, and represented
that a great expense had been gone to in bringing wit-
nesses to London, and that it would cost as much more •'
to get them back again, which might have been avoided
had the, arrangement been concluded at Belfast. Wit-
ness thought that there was some justice in the
representation, especially as the presenting the peti-
tion would only obtain the petitioners a void elte-
tion He agreed to let it be a void election, and -
on condition that there should be no contest at the
ensuing election, he agreed to pay Mr. M'Neil 600/.
had not paid that sum, as he considered one of the
conditiona was that the election should be gone into. The
arrangement was made on the day the petition was tried.
lie had heard that there had been bribery on both sides,
butt did not know any instance of it. WO proof was to
be 'Offered on the petition of bribery or personation.
They got the opinion of Mr. Austin as to the validity
(eche election, and it was unfavourable, four of the
deputy returning-officers being under age, which
was of itself sufficient to vitiate the election.
Bribery was alleged in the petition, but no evi-
dence was taken on it, though AI:. Campbell
told him he was prepared with evidence on all the points
in the petition. There was no threat held out of start-
ing other candidates. He believed that Mr. I)unbar's
Motive for declining to stand was a personal, not a
pecuniary, one. Mr. Johnson subscribed, he be-
lieved, 1,000/. to the fund, but Mr. Emerson Ten-
neat did not give a farthing. He was not an elector,
and did not vote. He did not know that any
Conservative Committee was appointed ; he had attended
meetings of ten, twelve, or twenty persons at a time, but
he did not consider himself a member of the Committee.
He did not read the case submitted to Mr. Austin, but
~aw his opinion ; that opinion was given to the oppo-
site party, and they got a copy of it. Mr. Austin
was connsel for the opposite party. The opinion
applied to every allegation of bribery, personation,
and every sin under the sun usually put into an election
ne:tition. The pint which he thought they shouldnot
,to tight. against, and on which he acted, was
. . . .

d-ine Of :file Inoths, and the juniority ottlyi Re-
yht-, arrangement was never put
.••. Tito list, of 'deputies was mail„
I,Q be Nip. 'Vernon, the Returning-officer, and shown to
both partieS, by whom they wore approved. He was
intluels'eed by the state of the constituency, to propose
the arrioigetm,nt ; the ikt of voters contained 5,000
flaw s, but ho dlid not believe that the bona fide voters
were more than 2,000. The di&rence arose from a great
unrulier of persons within the last eight years having
removed ,two or three times, and appearing on the list
jero, flaw, or even wore times over. Under the Reform
also, a large number of low persons had been put
on. the , registry, who ought not to have been. put
there. The state of the town, during an elec-
tion, was extremely riotous and • disorderly, and
ttrisirand the state of the constituency, was what induced
him to propose the arrangement. He had not yet paid
coll.; but, Übe had done so, he was quite sure that his
party would pay him again. He considered the 600/.
was merely to reimburse the other party for the expense
they had been at in bringing witnesses from Belfast.
While the arrangement was pending between him and
Mr. Campbell, Mr. Gordon and Mr. Ross were the only
persons he communicated-with. He did not communicate
with them at all till after the petition was decided, and
then he did not state the particulars, but merely said he
had every reason to hope that there would be no contest
at, the next election. He believed there might be some
persons IA Belfast who were dissatisfied with the result
iif the arrangement, such as those who had cars to hire,
and those who were disappointed of what they might
have expected to get.