66 M I N U T E S OF E V I D E N C E T A K E N B E F O R E T HE Mr G Gardiner. 7863. But it does include the others ?— Yes. - 864. Was it intended upon the last petition to have investigated the quali- 2 « March 1838. fication of those voters if the Committee had opened the register ?— We had prepared a very large class of persons whom we considered not to have suffi- cient value, and intended to have scrutinized them. 7865. Do you know whether that list included those persons ?— It did not include those persons admitted by Mr. Tighe, for they were registered in March, and were not capable of voting. 7866. Then those voters are on the registry, and subject to objections, in addition to the list of objectionable votes that you made ' out for the Com- mittee ?— Yes ; for the list we had prepared only came up to January 1837- 7867. Has that principle of Mr. Tighe's, which he has avowed as the criterion by which he will admit persons upon the register, increased the number of applicants very considerably r— So much so, that in October last there were more admitted at one session, than there were during the course of two years before. The number of claimants were so many that there were 83 admitted at the October sessions last. 7868. Did you ever hear Mr. French declare that the county was really registered to the full extent to which it could afford, in his opinion, a solvent and properly qualified constituency ?— There was a very large number registered in April ] 835 ; there were 100 registered at one sessions, and after that there were very few, for the course of a year ; and he said he thought the county had been run out; sometimes there would not be half a dozen at a sessions, till the period of October 1836. 7869. Did he not state after the general registry of 1835, that in his judg- ment the county was fully registered ?— I heard him state that at the June sessions following, when there were not a dozen claimants. 7870. He had had considerable experience of the county?— He had. 7871. He had been chairman a good many years?— He had, I believe, two years before the Reform Act. J 7872. How many, do you think, have been put on the register since that declaration of Mr. French's ? — There has been, at any rate, between 300 and 400 ; about 350, I think. 7873. On which side are those principally?— There are three to four of the radical party; of the 83 admitted in October, there were 70 to 13, that is, five to one. 7874. Are great excitement and great pressure exercised in that county to urge men to come forward to register ?— Very much; men are often forced on the table; I have seen a man called on, who did not know that he had been noticed, and had not the lease with him to produce, and his name was in the list, and notice given for him ; I saw him forced forward upon the table. 7875. Have you ever seen anything happen to men who did not swear up to the necessary amount to qualify them to be registered ?— I have seen them, after being severely injured and ill- treated; I did not see it happen myself, I was not by; but I saw the persons, and they stated it to me; I have known instances, when, in returning from the registry the same day, they have been waylaid and beaten. 7876. And the account they gave you of it was that they had been so ill treated for not having sworn up to the full amount to qualify them ?— Yes ; and I have known instances of a man's crop being damaged considerably, his hay scattered about, and his gates broken and carried away ; and he came and con- sulted me about it the next day, and told me of it: he lives about a quarter of a mile from me; rather a respectable man; he would not submit to be brought into subjection by the low party. 7877. The consequence of this is, in your judgment, that there are a great many voters upon the register not possessing a bond fide qualification of 10 I. ? — There are a great many that I am well aware have not a 40 s. interest. 7878. Are there many upon the register who have lost their qualification since their being entered upon it ?— There are, including persons that have been rejected by the Committee in 1833, persons that have lost their freehold by lives expired and leases parted with; altogether there are about 290 upon the register. 7879- That you conceive have lost their qualification ?— That I know have lost it. 7880. Deducting