SELECT COMMITTEE ON FICTITIOUS VOTES, IRELAND. , j / J / j other party at the last election got possession of our certificates and if tW choose to use them to personate at the next election they can do it 7 448 /. Supposing the duration of the election was confined to two days instead ^ Mr. Richard Gould. of to five, what effect would that hav T tViini^ ' ^ as to personation, in your opinion '— a March 1838. P- 44B8. Do you think it would be preferable to the present system I do 4489- Upon what grounds?— I think that if we had booths enough if we could poll our men in one day, it would be so much the better, it woidd'be less expense. 4490. Would you think it an improvement in the law to restrict the days of polling to two, to classify the districts, and to have sufficient booths in " each district to poll the voters in that district?— I would, certainly. . 449Do you think it would conduce to prevent persons that have not a right from voting, and being put upon the poll- books ?— I do not think it would affect it at all under the present system, as regards the registry; we know that people are forswearing themselves. 4492- Mr. Serjeant Jackson.'] Where is this Lancasterian school, which you say that elector was kept in ; is it a national school ?— It is under the manage- ment of the Monks. 4493- Did you keep your voters there?— We assembled them there in the day. 4494. The men that came from the country ?— Yes. 4495- Who brought them there?— They came there of themselves. 4496. Did the Roman- catholic clergy bring any of them there?— I dare say they did. 4497. Do not you know that they did ?— I have no doubt of it; I was in the committee- room; I was in the Lancasterian school- house only twice during the election, and I do not know whether I saw clergymen there; but I have no doubt I did. 4498. Did you keep them there day and night?— No, there was no occasion to keep them at night. 4499. What did you do with them at night?— Sent them home. 4500. Do you mean that you used to send them home every night ?— Yes; I do not know that there was a single man kept in town at night. 4501. Were they kept shut up in the day- time?— There was no shutting up at all; they went there to be classified, and to know the booths they were to go to ; if we had not some place of the kind, we could not do our business. The Liberal party are anxious to have every facility given that will put them on a footing with the other party; the other party being richer, and their men of a better description, and all upon the spot, they do not wish that any change should take place that would give one party an advantage over another. The printing of the book cost us at the last election 90/. for want of classifi- cation. 4502. Mr. Beamish.] You said that you thought that the annual revising of those registries would be of service?— No doubt of it, if properly done. 4503. You think that in so revising the registry there would be a facility in discovering the parties that had changed their residence ?—" Yes. 4504. Would that apply equally to freemen; might not a freeman leave his residence and yet come back and vote at the election, and you be totally ignorant of it?— Several of them have done so. 4505 Then that revision would apply not to freemen but to householders .'— It would apply to householders in vastly greater proportion than to freemen. 4506 Would it not be almost an impossibility to discover whether a freeman had' gone away during the period ?— It would be very difficult. 4507. Was it not the fact that Major Wallace went away ?— Yes, and Mr. E 4508. If a great number of freemen went away, would it not entail great difficulty upon the parties to ascertain who had changed their ^ ence .--\ es ; and an annual registry would operate too much agamst the V^^ t^ would serve the other party, If we had a weekly opportunity ^ SS^ S the Recorder, as we always had before the Reform Bill wshoidd^ be^ safcsfied and we should wish to have every bad voter struck out, and to have that done annually, if it is wished. 4509> 0.46. c c 4