V 2 8 4 M I N U T E S O F E V I D E N C E T A K E N B E F O R E T H E John F. Fosbcry, 8 June 1838. 13016. The charges of partiality that were communicated to you by the Government were on the ground of your legal decisions ?— Altogether; every one of them were legal points. It struck me as being extraordinary they should accuse me of partiality; it might be an error of judgment, but it certainly was not partiality. , 1 . 13017. Chairman.'] Will you state the first day of your beginning to register ? — 10th October. . n 13018. And this memorial went up how soon after that ?— I he letter is dated 25th October. 13019. You do not know the date of the memorial?— No; the judges came in the meantime, and it was rather fortunate for me, because there were 24 appeals against my decision, and the judges reversed only one; so that that was a tolerably satisfactory answer to the charges against me. 13020. Then the case was this : the memorial complained of your legal deci- sions, but the judges coming in the meantime, your decisions with one excep- tion were confirmed, so far as they were appealed from ?— Yes. 13021. Mr. Lefroy.] There were appeals on both sides?— I find here, on reading this newspaper, there was an appeal decided 011 the Conservative side, but I cannot state anything else as to the appeals myself. The appeal was taken, and if it was an appeal on a point of law I wrote the substance of it and returned it to the barristers 011 both sides, who agreed upon it, and it was entered in the clerk of the peace's book. If it was an appeal upon value, he entered it as an appeal upon value, and they made their own selection. 13022. Then, in fact, you entered so little into political distinctions, that you did not attend to whether the appeal was for the Conservative or the Liberal side ?— Not the least in the world; I had nothing to do with it whatever. 13023. But a great many of your decisions made on behalf of what has since appeared to be claimants on the Liberal side, were appealed against before a Com- mittee of the House of Commons ?— I understand so, from what I have heard and read in the newspapers, there were votes I admitted on the Liberal side rejected by the House of Commons on the election before the last. 13024. Persons you had admitted?— So I understand; I found that from the newspapers, I recollect particularly one of Colonel White's tenants ; one man I thought an excellent freeholder, and I am quite satisfied he was a good voter, was rejected by the Committee. 13025. Then they applied a stricter test against the Liberal party than you had done ?•— Certainly ; I thought the vote of that man an excellent vote indeed all Colonel White's tenants I thought excellent votes as could be. 13026. In that memorial to the Government there does not appear to have been the least charge against you of partiality in your conduct in the court, in respect to giving access to the court, of the description which Mr. Nicholls has referred to ?— Not the slightest in the world ; I took the charges seriatim in the memorial, and they were all complaints of my legal decisions. I think the memorial was presented when I was registering the second town, but I got no information of it for some time. 13027. Have you any reason to know whether Mr. Nicholls' name was to that memorial ?— I cannot say positively. 13028. Did he appear to take a very active part?— He appeared to take an active part; he attended the court at Longford and Ballymahon, 13029. That memorial then could scarcely have been unknown to him ?— I should think it was quite impossible ; I think it could not have been unknown to him. 13030. Were any other means taken in the way of attempts to intimidate you m the discharge of your duty ?— Certainly there were; I am very anxious to state them. 13031. Will you be so good as to state to the Committee the nature of those attempts ?—' There was first of all that memorial; then I was served with a writ m the court- house, or rather in the inn adjoining the court- house, to which there was an entrance from the court; I was served with a writ to appear in a suit. 1 ' 13032. During the discharge of your duty ?— Yes, to appear at the suit of some person whose name I forget, I think it was Beglin, whose vote 1 had re- jected. 13033. Was