48] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1S15. 



CHAPTER VI. 



Bill on the_ Weymouth and Melcombe Regis Election. — Bill for the better 

 Provision of Stipendiary Curates. — Bill for the better Regulation of 

 Ecclesiastical Courts in England. — Bill for the Relief of Persons im- 

 pugning the Doctrine of the Trinity. 



AMONG the more interesting 

 of the parliamentary proceed- 

 ings of this year, were those re- 

 specting the election of represen- 

 tatives for the united boroughs of 

 Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, 

 together returning four members. 

 A select committee of the House 

 of Commons having been appoint- 

 ed to try the merits of a petition 

 complaining of an undre election 

 for these boroughs, Mr. Alderman 

 Atkins, on Feb. 26, informed the 

 House, that only one of the candi- 

 dates was duly elected, and that 

 the committee had passed the fol- 

 lowing resolution : '• That the 

 right of voting in the said town 

 and borough appears to be, among 

 others, in persons seised of free- 

 holds in the said borough ; that 

 gross abuses have of late been 

 practised within the said borough 

 by persons claiming and exercising 

 a right to vote upon nominal re- 

 served rents, arising out of free- 

 holds split and divided into the 

 most minute fractional parts, un- 

 der wills either real or fictitious; 

 and that it farther appears to the 

 committee, that such evils can only 

 be effectually remedied by the in- 

 terposition of the legislature." He 

 then moved, that the whole of the 

 minutes of the evidence be laid 

 before the House. 



The Speaker suggested, that for 

 the sake of dispatch, only so much 

 of the minutes of the evidence as 

 referred to the above resolution, 

 should be lai^l before the House ; 

 and the motion was modified ac- 

 cordingly. 



A conversation ensued, in which 

 some members considered it as a 

 suspicious circumstance that much 

 anxiety was manifested to keep 

 back a part of the evidence ; and 

 strongly objected to leaving the 

 minutes of evidence to be selected 

 and garbled by a clerk ; and it was 

 hinted, that the cause was, that ve- 

 ry improper interference has been 

 exercised by an illustrious per- 

 sonage. Alter a long discussion 

 on the subject, the Speaker ob- 

 served, that there were two ways 

 of meeting the apparent wishes of 

 the House : either to get the en- 

 tire of the minutes and deliver 

 them immediately to the commit- 

 tee, to enable them to amend their 

 report ; or to refer the report back 

 to the committee, which should 

 be constituted a committee for that 

 purpose, with power of sending for 

 persons, papers, &c. The lat- 

 ter mode, on a division, was a- 

 dopted. 



On March 30th, Mr. Alderman 

 Atkins having moved the second 

 reading of a bill for regulating the 



