try the petition, and all proceedings of the former com28 Geo. 3. c. 52. mittee shall be void. But by the 28 Geo. 3. c. 52. s. 17. Eng.

s. 17. Eng.

When not dis

solved, though

reduced to 12.

whenever any committee shall have sat for business 14 days, not including those days on which they shall have adjourned on account of the absence of any member, nor including Sunday, Christmas-day, or Good Friday, they may proceed to business, if a number of members not less than 12 shall be present; and in such case the committee shall not be dissolved by the absence of the members, unless the number able to attend shall by death or otherwise be reduced to less than 12, and shall so continue for 3 sitting days; and whenever any committee shall in like manner have sat for business 25 days, they may proceed to business, if a number of members not less When though than 11 be present; and in such case the committee shall not be dissolved by reason of the absence of the members, unless the number shall by death or otherwise be reduced to less than 11, and shall so continue for 3 sitting days.

reduced to 11.

Powers of committee.

10 Geo. 3. c. 16. s. 18. Eng.

$. 25.

Spesial report.

s. 27.

By the 10 Geo. 3. c. 16. s. 18. Eng. such committees shall have power to send for persons, papers, and records; and shall examine all witnesses who come before them upon oath; and shall try the merits of the return or election or both, and shall determine by a majority of voices, whether the petitioners or the sitting members, or either of them, be duly returned or elected, or whether the election be void; which determination shall be final, and the house on being informed thereof by the chairman of such committee, shall order the same to be entered on their journals, and give the necessary directions for confirming or altering the returns, or for the issuing a new writ, or for carrying the said determination into exccution. And by s. 25, if the committee shall come to any resolution other than the determination above mentioned, they shall if they think proper report the same to the house for their opinion, at the time that the chairman shall inform the house of such determination; and the house may confirm or disagree with such resolution, and make such orders as to them shall seem proper. This act provides, (s.27.) that whenever the committee shall think

1

it necessary to deliberate amongst themselves, upon any May deliberate question which shall arise in the course of the trial, or in private. upon the determination thereof, or upon any resolution concerning the matter of the petition; as soon as the committee shall have heard the evidence and counsel on both sides relative thereto, the room wherein they sit shall be cleared, if they shall think proper, while the members consider thereof; and all such questions, as well as such determination, and all other resolutions shall be by a majority of voices; and if the voices shall Determination be equal, the chairman shall have a casting voice: But by majority. by s. 28, no such determination shall be made, unless

s. 28.

s. 26.

13 members shall be present, and no member shall have a vote who has not attended during every sitting of the Number required committee. And by s. 26, if any person summoned by the committee shall disobey such summons, or if any witness shall prevaricate, or otherwise misbehave in giv- conduct of witTo report mising or refusing to give evidence, the chairman of the nesses, &c. committee, by their directions, may during the course of their proceedings report the same to the house, for the interposition of their authority or censure as the case

shall require. But by the 28 Geo. 3. c. 52. s. 16. Eng. 28Geo. 3. c.52. the committee is in any of such cases empowered, by s. 16. Eng. warrant signed by the chairman, and directed to the May commit for serjeant at arms, or his deputy, to commit such person contempt. (not being a peer or lord of parliament) to the custody of the serjeant, without bail or mainprize, for any time not exceeding 24 hours, if the house shall then be sitting, or if not, then for any time not exceeding 24 hours, after the hour to which the house shall be adjourned. The 11 Geo. 3. c. 42. s. 5. Eng. provides that if the 11 Geo.5. c.42. select committee shall have occasion to apply or report s. 5. Eng. to the house, in relation to adjournment of the committee, Adjournment in the absence of the members thereof, or the non-attend- what case. ance or misbehaviour of witnesses summoned to appear, or appearing before them, and the house shall then be adjourned for more than 3 days, the committee may also adjourn to the day appointed for the meeting of the house. By the 42 Geo. 3. c. 84. s. 8. G. B. every such committee 42Geo.3.c.84. shall be attended by a shorthand-writer, who shall be appointed by the clerk of the house of commons, and sworn

s. 8. G. B.

Shorthand writer by mittee.

to attend com

Oaths by whom

administered.

106eo. 5. c.16.

s. 29. Eng.

Committee to re

port whether pe tition or opposi tion frivolous.

28Geo. 3.c.52. s. 18. Eng.

s. 19.

by the chairman faithfully and truly to take down in shorthand the evidence adduced before the committee, and from day to day as occasion may require to transcribe, or cause the same to be transcribed, in words at length, for the use of the committee.

to

By the 10 Geo. 3. c. 16. s. 29. Eng, the oaths directed be taken in the house, shall be administered by the clerk or clerk assistant in the same manner as the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; and the oaths before the select committee, shall be administered by the clerk attending the committee; and persons guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury in evidence before the house, or said committee, shall incur the pains and penalties to which any person convicted of perjury is liable by the laws and statutes of the realm,

By the 28 Geo. 3. c. 52. s, 18. Eng. such committees at the time they report to the house their final determi, nation on the petition, shall also report, &c. whether such petition did or did not appear to them to be frivo, lous or vexatious; and they shall in like manner report with respect to every party who shall have appeared before them in opposition to such petition, whether the opposition did or did not appear to be frivolous or vexatious; and if no party shall have appeared before them in opposition to such petition, they shall then report, &c, whether such election or return, or such alleged omission or insufficiency of a return, did or did not appear to be vexatious or corrupt. And by s. 19. whenever such committee shall report the petition to be frivolous or tion frivolous. vexatious, the parties who shall have appeared before them in opposition to such petition, shall be entitled to recover from the persons who shall have signed such petition, the full costs and expenses which such parties shall have incurred: But on the other hand, by s. 20, whenever such committee shall report the opposition Costs when opposition frivo- made to the petition to be frivolous or vexatious, the persons who have signed such petition shall be entitled to recover from such parties, with respect to whom such report shall be made, the costs and expenses which such petitioner shall have incurred. And by s. 21, whenever, Costs when re- in any case where no party shall have appeared before

Costs when peti

tous.

s. 20.

8. 21.

tern corrupt,

such

s. 22.

Mode of taxing

such committee in opposition to such petition, such committee shall report with respect to the election or return, or to the alleged omission of a return, or to the alleged insufficiency of a return, complained of in such petition, that the same appeared vexatious or corrupt, the persons who shall have signed such petition shall be entitled to recover from the sitting member (if any) whose election or return shall be complained of, such member not having given notice of his intention not to defend the same, or from any other person whom the house shall have admitted to be a party to oppose such petition, the costs, &c. which such petitioners shall have incurred in prosecuting their petition. And by s. 22, in the cases before mentioned, the costs, &c. of prosecuting or opposing any such petition shall be ascertained in the following manner, viz. on appli- costs. cation made to the speaker for ascertaining such costs and expenses, he shall direct the same to be taxed by two persons, of whom the clerk or clerk assistant of the house shall be one, and one of the following officers, not being a member of the house shall be the other, viz. masters in Ch. clerks in K, B. or Exc. and prothonotaries in C. B. and the persons so authorized to tax such costs, &c. shall examine the same, and report the amount thereof to the speaker, who shall on application made to him, deliver to the party a certificate signed by himself, expressing the amount of the costs, &c, allowed in such report; and the persons appointed to tax such costs, shall receive such fees as shall be fixed by any resolution of the house: And by s. 23, the party entitled to such costs, &c. or his executors or administrators, may demand the whole amount so certified, from any one of the persons who are liable to the Mode of recopayment thereof, and in case of non-payment recover the same by action of debt, in any court of record at Westminster, in which action it shall be sufficient for the plaintiff to declare, that the defendant is indebted to him in the sum, to which the costs, &c. so ascertained shall amount by virtue of this act, and the certificate of the speaker under his signature of the amount of such costs, &c. together with an examined copy of the entries in the journals of the house, of the resolutions of the committee,

shall

s. 23.

vering costs.

In cases where

questions of right arise.

s. 25. Eng.

shall be sufficient evidence in support of such action; and in such action no wager of law, or more than one imparlance shall be allowed; and the party in whose favour judgment shall be given shall recover costs. And by s. 24, when the amount of such costs, &c. shall have been recovered from any person, it shall be lawful for such person to recover in like manner from such other person as shall be liable to pay the said costs, &c. a proportionable share thereof.

This statute further enacts, (s. 25.) that whenever any such committee shall be of opinion that the merits of 28 Geo. 3. c. 52° such petition do wholly or in part depend on any question which shall be before them respecting the right of election for the county, city, and borough, district of burghs, or place to which such petition shall relate, or in respect of the right of appointing the returning officer, the said committee shall require the counsel or agents for the parties, or if there be none such before them,

committee of

then the parties themselves, to deliver to the clerk of the Statement to be committee, statements in writing of the right of election, made to clerk of or right of appointing returning officers, for which they questions to be contend, and the committee shall come to distinct resodetermined. lutions on such statements, and shall at the time they report their final determination on the merits of such petition, also report to the house such statement, together with their judgment in respect thereto, and such report shall be entered in the journals of the house, and notite thereof shall be sent by the speaker to the sheriff or reReport entered turning officer, and a true copy of such notice shall by on journals, and such sheriff, &c. be affixed to the doors of the countynotice thereof

given.

s. 26.

Ameal from such decision touching the right of elec tion, &c.

hall, or town-hall, or of the parish church nearest to the place where such election has usually been held, and such notice shall also be inserted by order of the speaker in the next London Gazette. But by s. 26. it shall be lawful for any person within 12 calendar months after the day on which such report shall have been made to the house, or within 14 days after the commencement of the next session, to petition the house to be admitted as a party to oppose that right of election, or of appointing the returning officer, which shall have been deemed valid