The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-05-07 00:00:00

Did you offer any mau any money to vote at all?--I never did.
Did you ever give any man any thing to vote at the last elec-
tion ?—iNot a farthiny.
If any one has said any one of those things are they utterly
untrue ?—They are.
What other Clay's are there in the Toxteth-park district who
took any part in the election ?—Two sons of m►ne, Thomas
Weston Clay, the elder, and George Clay, the younger.
Do you know any other person of the name of Clay residing
in that district ?—I have other younger children at school, but
none that canvassed.

Cross-examined by Mr. Roscoe.
Do you know a person of the name of Rigby ?—I do not.
Do you know whether any person of that name resides within
the district which you canvassed ?—I never knew it till the day
that I came up here.
Have you found that such a person does reside there ?—Yes.
Have you ever seen that person since ?—\o; and I have not
spoken to him for the last twenty years.
Where you acquainted with him formerly ?—Perhaps 20 years
ago he was warehouseman to George Crossman and Company
and was in the habit of 'coining to me for any article they might
want above 20 years ago.
And you knew him at that time ?—Not much.
During your canvass who were you accompanied by ?—Mr.
Alexander Smith and my sons and a Mr. Blower Smith ; in fact
we had the care of the Toxteth-park district.
You say that you knew this man twenty years ago, do you re-
member his person ?—Yes.
1 understood you at first to say that you did not know a voter
of the name of ltigby ?—I did know him by name before the
election.
Do you know whether in fact Rigby is a voter or not ?—I do
not indeed. . _ _

Do you know Rigby's christian name ?—I do not.
Do you know whether there is a voter of the name of James
Bentley Rigby ?—I do not.
You sav that two of your sons canvassed ?—They did.
Did they canvass the same district with yourself ?—Yes.
In whose company were you accustomed to canvass ?—Gene-
rally with my own son ; I never canvassed till the morning of
the election,
Did he canvass both the first and second day ?—Yes, both of
them.
Did they canvass both of them in your company ?—The first
day of the election I was in the Park booth from nine o'clock
in the morning till four o'clock in the evening.
Are your sons here ?—They are both of them.

llow many men do you employ?—About thirty-four.
Of those how many are there are burgesses ?—Not above
three. _ _

Did you canvass those men at the last election ?—I believe
not; they knew which way I was going to vote.
Had you anv conversation with them upon that subject?—l
do not think Chad ; I was in the booth all day.
Before the election did you make any application to them as
to the party, or for whom they should vote ?—I believe I did
uot. _ _ _

Cannot you say whether you did or did not ?—I left it more
to my sons.
Do you know which way they voted ?—Yes ; for Lord San-
don and Sir Howard Douglas.
Were they absent from their work any portion of the days of
the election ?—I was in the booth and I cannot say.
Do you not know from the men themselves?—'l hey were not
absent above three quarters of an hour either day ; they were
at work the second day, the whole of the day; they voted the
first afternoon.
Was there any drink given to them ?—Not any to my know-
ledge.
Had they any thing for lost time ?—Not till a fortnight after;
my men generally work piece work, and I had nothing to do
with them except the foremen, and there was one of the men
who was fined by his foreman half-a-crown for his being away
half an hour or tliree quarters of an hour which was paid. The
foreman having fined him this half crown, I gave the man the
half crown that he was out of pocket, but that was about a fort-
night after; he never asked me for any thing, and did not look
for any thing.
Committee.—Do you know any man of the name of Rigby be-
sides the one that has been mentioned ?—No, I do not.

The witness withdrew

MR. Tuosias W ESTON CLAY was called in and examined by
Mr. Robinson as follows :
Are you a son of Mr. Ralph Clay ?—I am.
Were you one of Lord Sandon's canvassers in the Toxteth
park district ?—Yes.
Did you canvass during the two election days ?—Yes.
In what street did you canvass ?—ln different streets in the
Toxteth-park district.
Was it,hetween Great George-street booth and the Graving
docks?—Nu, I never was between Great George-street booth
and the Graving dOcks during the two days. I was in a coach
between them during the election, but never on foot.
Do you know a person of the name of James Bentley Rigby ?
—No.
• Or James Rigby?—No.
Or any other person of the name of Rigby?—No.
Did you go to the house of any person of that name during
the election ?—No.
Did you offer the wife of any person on the first night of the
election the sum of £5 or any other sum for her husband's vote?
—No.
Did you ever give a child in the house of any person that
night half-a-sovereign ?—I never did.
Did you ever give any man upon the second day of the elec-
tion two sovereigns and 'a half to vote ?—No.
Did you ever offer any man any money to vote ?—No.
Did you give anything at all at the election ?—No.
Cross-examined by Mr. Roscoe.
With whom did you canvass, were you in company with your
father at any time ?—No.
With whom then ?—With my brother and Mr. Blower Smith.
Did yon canvass iu company with Mr. Alexander Smith.—
No.
You say you do not know a person of the name of Rigby;
I suppose you were acquainted with the names of the house-
holders and persons resident in that district ?—Not all of them.
had you a list of them ?—Yes, we had a list.
Did you find the name of Rigby on that list ?—No.
Is there any such person living within that district ?—I be-
lieve there is, I have heard so. .
Do you know the Christian name of that person ?—I never
knew it before last Wednesday.
In the course of your canvas had you any application made
to you for money ? I had one application uy a wife of a new
elector, not an old freeman.
Who was that ?—Davis.
Had you any applications made for drink ?—Certainly, they
made the observation that it was a dry shot.
Was that a frequent observation ?—Not at all, I do not think
I met with it more than twice or three times.
Where did you usually go to find the voters when you were
canvassing?—We went to their houses.
Are you speaking now of the period of your canvas before
the election or during it ?—I was only out one day before the
election.
On the days of the election where did you go to look for the
voters ?—We went to their houses.
Did you find them there ?—No, they were most of them at
work the first day, geue'rally the second day, they came up
pretty freely.
• Did you ever go to any public-house to look for them ?—No.
You were very little on foot I think you said'.-1 was a great
deal on foot in Toxteth-park, but not in the town.
What was the reason of your not being on foot ?—The Tox-
teth-park district was the district I was in, and sometimes we
had to take the meu down to the other booths, and then we took
them in a coach.
Were all those men you took in coaches sober I—fes.
Quite sober ?—l'es.
You venture to state that you never had a drunken man in
any of your coaches during the election ?-1-es.
You feel certain on that point, do you ?--Yes.
Was your brother with you in the course of your canvass?—
Yes
Did you canvass together always ?—Those two days we did.
You stated that you never gave such sums as have been men-
tioned to you. Dia you give any other sums of money ?—No. •
Did you give any thing else, not money?—We gave a ribbon
now and then, but not to the freemen, to the wives, they wanted
a cap ribbon.
Any thing else ?—Nothing.
Was there any understanding between you and any of the free-
men you took up, as to any recompense?—No money whatever.
Was any thing said about day wages.—No, nut at all.
Did you never hear them say that they should lose a portion
of their day's wages if they went up?—No; but we all knew
that they would not come up without losing &ie.
You mean to say that they made no application to you to be
remunerated for that loss ?—No, none.
Was there any understanding between you that they should
be?—No.
And no observations was made upon it ?—No.
Were your brother and you together during the whole time?
—Not during the whole time but the greater part of the day.
From whom did you receive the ribbons that you gave away ?
—They lay in a cupboard, and we took them just as we wanted
them:
In what shape were they ?—Just a heap of them lying.
Were any of them folded up or in a length ?—ln a length.