SELECT COMMITTEE ON FICTITIOUS VOTES, IRELAND. SJ7' ' 7 Mr. J. C. Bernard on both sides ought to be very glad to have the matter put upon a better foot- ing, for it seems to me to occasion great vexation and expense to them all 221. In point of fact, as persons remain upon the registry for upwards of seven 7 February 1838. years, must there not in so large a constituency as that of the city of Cork, be a number of names of dead persons ?- Yes; a great number of persons not qua- lified to vote; and the names of persons are repeated as often as they register • if a person quits a house and goes to another house, his name is repeated, and the old one stands. 222. They appear, then, in the general list of the constituency?— Yes. 223. Then there must be a number of booths for the purposes of the election, proportionate to the number of names appearing upon the registry ?— Yes. 224. The effect of that is to load the candidates with considerable additional expense ?— Yes. 225. And the effect of it is to throw upon the candidates considerable addi- tional difficulty in discriminating those who ought to vote, and those who ought not?— I think so. 226. How many booths were there at the last election for the city of Cork?— Ten, I think. 227. Mr. O'Connell.] At the former election the voters were not run out when the time closed ?— I believe there was only one booth in which there were voters remaining unpolled. I do not think there were any unpolled at the last election. 228. When was the last election ?— In August last. 229. When was the one before that?— In the beginning of 1835. 230. Mr. Serjeant Ball.] Do you recollect what was the initial letter at that one booth, where the voters were not all polled out ?— Letter M. 231. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] Is not that letter, in Ireland, always the fullest letter ?— It is the fullest letter, certainly, in Cork. 232. Mr. Serjeant Ball.] Upon which side do you think that that grievance operated most in that case ?—- The Liberals, as they are called. They have the majority in the letter M, I am quite convinced. 233. Mr. Beamish.] Is it not the fact, that in the city of Cork the letter M is the letter in which the candidate finds the greatest difficulty in getting the men polled out in the number of days ?— I never attended any election but those two. It is a sort of business I always avoided. 234. Mr. Serjeant Ball.] What number of persons may have remained un- polled upon the last day ?— A very limited number, I believe. At the last elec- tion, I do not think that there were any unpolled. 235. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] You have stated that the expense is very consi- derably increased to the candidates by that arrangement. The arrangement in the 10 booths is alphabetical?— The arrangement at the elections has just the same confusion introduced into it as at the registration, for want of parochial or district classifications. The people come into the booths to vote just as they come before the barristers to register, entirely according to the ' initial letter of the names. So that if a check be necessary, you must have in each booth people from each parish, and from each district, in order to identify that the man that goes to vote is the man he professes to be, or if lie has lost his franchise, to check it. 236. Would you suggest, then, as a remedy for the evils of the present system of registration, that there should be, instead of the alphabetical arrangement, an arrangement dividing the candidates for registration parochially ?— The arrangement I would suggest would be, just the adoption of the English law. I was astonished when I looked at the English law, and found how ours differed from it. 237 Mr. Curry.] With a revision every year?— I think there should be a • evision to strike oft' the names of dead men, and so forth; and I think there should be parochial divisions. Tliey are registered in England according to parochial divisions, and according to their classes. People of different rights are " . ... , , ,1 _ ,1- Tmn - uront tn nilerik a ner