and intended to go forward ?• - Yes. SELECT COMMITTEE ON FICTITIOUS VOTES, IRELAND. 75 ^ 1832, in my possession, are packed up, and I am this day about to proceed to London with Mr I have already furnished this return up to March 1837. T. Drummond, Esq., lam'& cr\ & c. & c. & c. ( signed) John Colburn. 1262. Do you think that much inconvenience arises from the way in which the registries are at present effected ?— It would be much more convenient if the registry took place in the city of Cork instead of sending us round the countv to those various places. y 1263. It is very inconvenient to you to have to go to those places, and to take your documents with you ?— Yes; I am obliged to take all the notices, and to have books for each sessions. ^ 1264. What is the most remote distance that you are obliged to travel?— To Kanturk. 1265. How many miles is that from Cork ?— Between 30 and 40 miles; then Fermoy is 20 miles in an opposite direction ; then I have Mallow, which is on the way to Kanturk. 1266. So that the extreme points to which you are obliged to go are between 50 and 60 miles asunder ?— Yes. 1267. Must not that put all parties who are concerned either in causing per- sons to be registered, or opposing persons to be registered, to great inconvenience ? — Certainly it must. 1268. Must it not be attended with very considerable expense to parties who desire to be registered, and to witnesses and professional men ?— Yes ; I am obliged to go there, and take my clerks with me. I am never paid anything, except a shilling, upon any that register; and perhaps I get 30 or 40 notices, and only two persons will attend; and then I am obliged to print all those notices. The city pays for the printing. 1269. Mr. Beamish.] That applies to the parties that go to register as much as to those that go to oppose?— Certainly. 1270. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] Does it often happen that a great many more persons give notice of an intention to register than those that come forward to register?— Almost every sessions. 1271. You said that sometimes there would not be more than one or two per- sons appearing for 20 or 30 notices ?— I will not confine myself to one or two ; but out of 25 or 30 notices there are often not a dozen. 1272. Do not you think it would be a good plan to require the shilling to be paid upon the giving of the notice?— I am sure it would curtail the number and the expense to the city considerably. 1273. Would it not prevent a great many tricks which are practised by persons giving abortive notices ?— I think it would check the number given. 1274. It would tend to confine the notices to those that were really in earnest, 1275. Mr. Beamish.'] Have you any reason to know that parties accumulate notices upon you, without an intention of registering ?— I cannot say what the intention is. 1276. Mr. Serjeant Jackson. J The only fact you know is, that you always receive a larger number of notices than the number of persons that lc^ istci Invariable 1277 And that in the considerable proportion which you have already stated? — Yes, except that, in the city of Cork, there are a great number more persons register there, because they are upon the spot. 1278 You were asked about the non- resident freemen. From your knowledge of the city of Cork and the gentry who are amongst those non resident freemen, are they not an exceedingly respectable class of persons ?— None more so. 1279. They consist of the most respectable gentlemen in fact in the county ?— The non- r esid'ent freemen certainly are; the great majority ot them are tngniy ^ tt m. eBeamish.^ Have they, as a body, any direct connexion with Cork ?- Some of them may have. . . . . 128,. Have the great majority of them any local interest m the " ty ofCoK - I cannot say what interest they have exactly; there are a great nnmberof highly O. 46. K 2 K 2