/ J SELECT COMMITTEE ON FICTITIOUS VOTES, IRELAND. 17 ^ 155. Did you ever fill any office connected with the grand jury No 156. Mr. Beamish.] You have stated, that by order of the grand jury that valuation was made, in consequence of parties appearing upon the register whose names were not in the valuation. Was that the reason assio- ned by the grand jury ?— So I understood ; and it, seemed very likely, because it followed so immediately after. 157. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] Suppose that premises that had once been valued as of the value of 5 I. and upwards should be divided afterwards and let out into apartments to poor persons, do they become exempt ?— There is a clause in the Act of Parliament exempting houses let out in tenements to poor persons. 158. And although those tenements may have been valued at one time, and taxed in consequence of the valuation being over 5 I., the taxing ceases as'soon as it is ascertained to the satisfaction of the grand jury that they have been partitioned out and let to poor persons ?— Yes ; after each assizes, and before the treasurer issues his warrant, the parish constables and the churchwardens o- 0 through each parish, and they ascertain what houses are so circumstanced, what houses are let out in tenements to poor persons, or what houses or premises are waste, and they make a return to the treasurer before he issues his warrant, and he omits to attach any portion of the tax to those concerns. 159. Those that appear on the one hand as let out to poor tenants, and those that appear on the other as waste and unoccupied, are exempted from the list ? — Yes ; then there is another mode by which exemption is produced: there is a clause in the Act which refers to the possibility of concerns becoming waste after the warrant shall have been issued, but before the collector could get in the amount of money ordered to be levied by the warrants ; the collectors are empowered at the next assizes to make a list of those persons from whom they cannot collect the money in consequence of those circumstances, and the grand jury then, if they think fit to allow that list, make a presentment for the amount to be levied off the general body of rate- payers, to make good that deficiency. 160. At the ensuing assizes, then, the grand jury present again, so as to make up the amount deficient by reason of those insolvencies and defalcations arising in that way ?— Yes. 161. Mr. Beamish.] That is not the case as regards the liberties ?— No; there is nothing in the local Act of Parliament which authorizes it in the liberties at all. 162. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] According to the Reform Act, persons that come forward to register are required to have paid their rates and municipal taxes, except half a year ?— There is a difference between coming to register and coming to vote. I think the Reform Act runs, that they shall have paid all taxes which shall have become due, except one half year. 163. Is not the provision of the 7th section of the Reform Act as follows: " Provided always, that no such occupier shall be admitted to be registered under this Act unless he shall have occupied such premises as aforesaid for six calendar months next previous to the time of registry, nor unless such occupier shall have paid or discharged all such grand jury and municipal cesses, rates, and taxes, if any, as shall have become legally due and payable by him in respect of such premises, over and above and except one half year's amount of such cesses, rates, and taxes aforesaid" ?— Yes. 164. And that is the law under which you have been acting ?— Yes. 165. Is not this the form of the oath with reference to the payment of rates: " I swear that not more than one half year's grand jury or municipal _ cesses, rates, or taxes, are now due or payable by me in respect to the said premises, or any part thereof" ?—' Yes, that is the form of oath administered at elections. 166 Mr. Curry.] He swears that he has paid all his taxes ?— No. The oath is not that he has paid them, but that they are not due or owing by him. I know, in practice, that some of those whose taxes have been remitted by the grand jury, and paid by the public, still swear that they do not owe them, because they have been paid for them. . „ 167 Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] Then the provision of that 7th section is frus- trated by reason of the form of the oath, which only speaks of the taxes not beine due?— I know that persons whose taxes have been remitted by the grand jury come and swear that they do not owe them; that they are not due by thTel Mr. Lefroy.] So far as it is the object of the Reform Act to mak^ the 0.46. c Mr. J. C. Bcsnard. February 1838.