. ,46 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE Luna, 5° die Martii, 1838. MEMBERS PRESENT. Mr. Beamish. Mr. Hogg. Mr. Serjeant Jackson. Mr Lefroy. LORD GRANVILLE SOMERSET, IN THE CHAIR. Mr. . Lucas. Mr. M. J. O'Connell. Lord Granville Somerset. Mr. R. Gould. 5 March 1838. Mr, D. Meagher. Mr. Richard Gould, called in ; and further Examined. 4607. Chairman.] THE Committee understand that you wish to make some explanation of your answers to questions 4115 and 4116?— I do ; I stated that in makincr the valuation we had no fixed principle, and that I conceived there were very few houses of the value of 8 I. that were valued by us then. I wish to state there were very few houses of the value of 8 I. that we did not value; and in like manner in the answer to the next question, I wish to say there are very few houses solely occupied by the owners that we did not value; and when I said that we valued very few houses from 5 I. to 10/., I wish to say, comparatively speaking; I mean compared with the number of houses of that value in the city. Mr. Daniel Meagher, called in; and further Examined. 4608. Mr. Beamish.'] CAN you state the number of persons who voted at the last election, of the various classes of freemen, freeholders and householders, dis- tinguishing the numbers of each?— At the last election there voted 88 freemen for the sitting Members, 598 freemen against them. For the sitting Members, 1,372 householders, and for the defeated candidates, 414 householders. Of the 40 s. freeholders, there voted 365 for the sitting Members, and 31 for the defeated can- didates. Then of the other, which we call property voters, I mean 10/., 20/., and 50 I. freeholders, there voted 120 for the sitting Members, 190 for the defeated candidates. That gives a total of 3,188, to which are to be added non- resident freemen, 195. That makes the total of those that voted at the election of 1837, 3.383. 4609. Have you made out a list of those persons whose houses you have ex- amined, and whom Mr. Lane has returned as not appearing in the rate- books ?— I have. 4610. How many do they amount to?— I visited 69 houses taken from my book, the value of which is 10/., and in the same list I find 19 on the Conservative side, which I did not go into the value of, as I before stated, not wishing to inter- fere with the franchise ; that makes 88. Mr. Lane has returned of this class for is37> 156, and I have accounted by this list for 88, leaving the number of 68 which I did not visit, and many of which can be stated by Mr. Henry Barry, who valued them in 1835 ; after the election of 1835, therefore, I account'for 88 out of the 156, and I beg to hand in this list signed. [ The Witness delivered in the same. Vide Appendix.] 4611. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] Will you refer to your answer, No. 380.5; you were asked " Do you think none of them" ( that is the householders) " are so likely to be bribed as the freemen ?— Certainly not." " Nor the 40s. freeholders?" To which you answered " The 40 s. freeholders have dwindled to a mere nothing." How- do you reconcile that with the evidence you have just given of their amounting to 360 odd ?— That is a mere nothing compared with what they were. 4612. How much were they ?— I suppose atone time they were above 1,000, or near 1,000. 4613- Do you think that over one- third of them is nothing 9—- I do ; they are dwindled away. 0 J 4614. Have you any grounds for saying that they were at any time 1,000?— Yes, 1 think in the contested election of 1812, when Mr. Hutchinson was there, there were