GENERAL iU S T O R Y. 



[49 



Weymouth elections, Mr. Wynn 

 made some objections to it ; on 

 whicli Mr. Bathurst observed, 

 thac the thing complained of was 

 a novel practice of splitting votes 

 by will. There was an act in ex- 

 istence against the splitting of 

 votes, but it did not anticipate the 

 possibility of doing it by will; ac- 

 cording, however, to the spirit of 

 that act, all devices for that pur- 

 pose ought to be null and void, in 

 the same manner as conveyances 

 were rendered. 



Sir John Newport said, he held 

 in his hand a petition from the in- 

 habitants of Weymouth, praying 

 that the House would not inter- 

 fere with the independence of the 

 borough. He was advised that the 

 real operation of the bill would 

 be, to lodge the power of returning 

 four members in 30 or 40 persons. 

 He was extremely anxious that the 

 House should do nothing which 

 might produce an impression on 

 the public, that such was the anti- 

 patliy of parliament to every princi- 

 ple of reform in the representation, 

 that although they had uniformly 

 resisted every extension of the 

 elective franchise, they had no ob- 

 jection to employ every plea of 

 convenience for narrowing it. 



Mr. Alderman Atkins said, that 

 it had appeared to the committee, 

 that the only remedy in this case, 

 without disfranchising the inhabi- 

 tants, wag, to designate the value 

 of tiie rents which in future should 

 be deemed a sufficient qualifica- 

 tion. There were now no votes 

 acquired by device which were of 

 a higher value than five shillings 

 annually, some of sixpence, 

 and one witness had been called 

 who enjoyed eigiit votes, altoge- 

 ther of the value of two-pence 



Vol. LV. 



rent. It was not designed that the 

 bill should deprive those of their 

 franchise who had previously ex- 

 ercised it without dispute, but 

 should provide against the abuse 

 in future. The bill was then read 

 a second time. 



On April 1, Lord ^. Hamilton 

 rose in pursuance of notice, to 

 move that the remainder of the 

 evidence taken before the Wey- 

 mouth committee be laid before 

 the House. Much of this evidence 

 applied to a point not hitherto 

 openly noticed, the improper and 

 illegal interference of his royal 

 highness the duke of Cumber- 

 land. If the House wished to pre- 

 serve its own purity, or to main- 

 tain the respect in which it waa 

 held by the people, it behoved it 

 verj' seriously to consider the pre- 

 sent case. Before he proceeded 

 further, he should desire the clerk 

 to read the part of the petition of 

 the burgesses of Weymouth com- 

 plaining of the interference ot 

 peers of parliament, and likewise 

 the two resolutions entered into by 

 the House at the commencement of 

 each session relative to the ille- 

 gality of such interference. This 

 being done, the noble lord said, he 

 should call upon the House to give 

 him documents to bring home the 

 fact to the persons charged with 

 the offence. If their resolutions 

 against the interference of peers in 

 elections were never to be acted 

 upon, he could only say that they 

 were calculated to form a snare to 

 himself and others bringing for- 

 ward similar measures, and to be 

 a subject of derision to the coiln- 

 try. He then read from a news- 

 paper a letter irom his royal 

 highness to J. F. A. Stewart, and 

 a part of the evidence, in which 



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