"fubjects, whofe interefts and welfare are always nearest

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons,

"I have ordered the estimates for the current year to "be laid before you; and I trust to your zeal and affec❝tion to make fuch provifions for their farther supply, "and for the application of the fums granted in the laft "Parliament, as may appear to be neceffary.

"I fincerely lament every addition to the burthens "of my people; but they will, I am perfuaded, feel the neceffity, after a long and expenfive war, of effectually "providing for the maintenance of the national faith and "our public credit, fo effential to the power and profperity of the State.

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"My Lords and Gentlemen,

"The alarming progrefs of frauds in the revenue, ac"companied in fo many inftances with violence, will not fail on every account to excite your attention. I must, "at the fame time, recommend to your most serious "confideration, to frame fuch commercial regulations as may appear immediately neceffary in the prefent moThe affairs of the Eaft-India Company form an "object of deliberation deeply connected with the general interests of the country. While you feel a juft "anxiety to provide for the good government of our pof"feffions in that part of the world, you will, I truft, ne

"ment.

ver lofe fight of the effect which any measure to be "adopted for that purpose may have on our own Confti"tution, and our deareft interefts at home. You will "find me always defirous to concur with you in fuch mea"fures as may be of lafting benefit to my people: I have "no wish but to confult their profperity, by a conftant "attention to every object of national concern, by a uni"form adherence to the true principles of our free Con"stitution, and by supporting and maintaining, in their "just balance, the rights and privileges of every branch "of the Legiflature."

The Commons then returned to their own Houfe, and the Speaker from the chair addreffed them in a fhort speech of thanks for the honour they had done him. After which they proceeded to the fwearing in of members, which was their only employment for feveral days.

May

May 24.

The fwearing in of members, and the revival of the ftanding orders of the Houfe, took up till near five o'clock. Mr. Lee then rose to bring under the confideration of the Mr. Lee. House, the return that had been made by the High Bailiff of Westminster to the præcipe of the Sheriff of Middlesex, for electing two citizens to serve in Parliament. The conduct of that officer appeared to him to be fuch, that he held himself warranted, as a lawyer, in saying that it was illegal, contrary to his known duty, and to the exprefs and pofitive law of the land. He hoped that if he was right in all these pofitions, or in any one of them, the House would readily agree to the motion which he intended to make before he fhould fit down. But as the regular way to bring the business before the Houfe, he moved that the return, which was to be the subject of his motion, might be read. The Clerk accordingly read it. As foon as the return was read, Mr. Lee proceeded. He faid that if there was one principle in parliamentary law more clear, or more indisputable than another, it was this that a writ ought to be returned on the day on which in the writ itself it is made returnable. This pofition appeared fo evident from the words of the 10th and 11th of King William III. that when he first heard of the return that had been just read, he firmly believed the measure must have been advised by perfons who either did not know that such an act was in existence, or who had fuffered it entirely to efcape their memory. To convince the House that he was well founded in this, he needed only to read the particular part, of the act to which he alluded, chap. 7. The words are, "For preventing abufes in the returns of writs of fummons for the calling and affembling of any Parliament for the future, or writs for the choice of any new member to serve in Parliament; and to the end fuch writs may, by the proper afficer or his deputy, be duly returned and delivered to the Clerk of the Crown, to be by him filed, according to the ancient and legal courfe: Be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majefty, &c. that the Sheriff, or other officer, having the execution or return of any fuch writ, which fhall be iffued for the future, fhall, on or before the day that any future Parliament fhall be called to meet, (and with all convenient expedition, not exceeding fourteen days, after any election made by virtue of any new writ) either

in

66

in perfon, or by his deputy, make return of the fame to the Clerk of the Crown in the High Court of Chancery, to be by him filed," &c. After he had read the words of the ftatute, he asked the House whether any candid and impartial man could lay his hand upon his breast and say, that the High Bailiff had complied with the pofitive injunction of this act? Had he returned the writ or præcipe ? Had he made any return? He contended, and on this he was ready to ftake his character as a lawyer, that the return which had been just read was no return at all within the ftatute that he had quoted; and on this head the ftatute fhould fpeak for itself, and prove, that within the purvieu of the act, the return enjoined by it was a return of members; for immediately after the paffage quoted by him from the statute, follow thefe words. "and the Sheriff or other perfon making fuch return, fhall pay to the faid Clerk of "the Crown, the ancient and lawful fees of four fhillings, "and no more, for every knight of the fhire; and two fhil"lings, and no more, for every citizen, burgefs, or baron "of the Cinque Ports, returned into the faid Court, to be by "him filed" From this act then it appeared moft evident, that the writs for calling a new Parliament ought, by law, to be returned on or before the day on which the Parliament is to meet: that on that day the members for election, of whom the writs are iffued, ought to be returned; and that the returning officer could not, without a manifest violation of law, refuse to make a return of fuch members. As to the fourteen days mentioned in the act, they were allowed only after elections, for filling up vacancies during a Parliament; and therefore did not apply to the present cafe, which related to a new Parliament. This, then, being the cafe, he was founded in faying, that the High Bailiff of Westminster had acted contrary to law; and confequently contrary to his duty. That he knew it was his duty to make a return on or before the day of the meeting of the Parliament, was pretty obvious from this circumftance, that of his own authority he clofed the poll, on the 17th inft. the day before the prefent Parliament met, Now what was the juftification of his conduct that the High Bailiff had fet up? It was fimply this-that a fcrutiny had been demanded, which he had thought proper to grant. This, furely, at beft, would have been but a lame excufe; but it had not even the shadow of an excufe in the present cafe, because the fcrutiny was granted at a time when by

law

law it ought to have been refufed; because the law had rendered the business of a fcrutiny impoffible, as it could not, in the prefent cafe, take place at all, the period for carrying on a poll, of which a fcrutiny is only a continuation, elapfing on the very day when the fcrutiny was demanded. For his part, he would very freely confefs, that he was an enemy to fcrutinies, and fo had the House of Commons ever been, and for this plain reafon; that the returning officers who carry them on, have not the neceffary powers to carry them on with any effect:-They cannot iffue any fummons to compel the attendance of witneffes, and they have not the power of tendering an oath to fuch as may voluntarily attend the tribunal. He did not mean, however, to fay, that it was illegal to grant a fcrutiny; he was, on the contrary, ready to admit the legality of a scrutiny, provided it was concluded before the day on which the writs are returnable; but beyond that day he would not admit it to be legal. Enemy as he was in general to a fcrutiny, he would not fay, that, within the verge of poffibility a cafe might not arife, in which it might be proper to grant one; but this much he would fay, that in the whole courfe of his experience (which, by the bye, lay very much in queftions of elections) he never met a cafe in which it would not have been infinitely more proper to refufe than grant a fcrutiny; and he called upon any profeffional gentlemen on the other fide of the Houfe, who were converfant in those matters, whether the general fense of Parliament and of Select Committees did not go with him in this affertion? By the expreffed fenfe of Parliament, and the opinions of the ableft men, he was ready to try the merits of the fpecies of return which had been made by Thomas Corbett. It was the opinion of that great lawyer; the late Mr. Chancellor Yorke, that the numbers" on the poll were abfolutely binding upon the returning officer; and the reafon of this opinion was obvious; it was, that the returning officer ought not to suffer the name of a perfon not duly qualified to vote, to be upon the poll; but its being once admitted, it was conclufive against the returning officer, who could not afterwards object to it, without impliedly admitting that he had been remiss in his duty in fuffering any one to vote who was not legally qualified. The poll then was to be the returning officer's guide, and as he ought not to admit improper perfons to vote, fo he ought not himself to arraign his own poll,

and fuppofe that perfons not duly qualified had been by him permitted to vote. He did not mean in the present ftage of the bufinefs to move for the punishment of the High Bailiff; his only object for this day, was, to propofe to the House to refolve, what he ought to have done; and yet if he were to go the full length this day, of moving that he should be taken into cuftody, the precedents of the House would bear him out in making fuch a motion, for on a fimilar occafion the Sheriffs and other returning officers, as had been the cafe in 1702, in the Cumberland election, had been attached without any previous step, and fimply on the ground, that the King having commanded them to return members to ferve in Parliament, and an exprefs ftatute enjoining them to return them on or or before a particular day, the omiffion of a return of members on that day, was in itself a palpable violation of an act of Parliament. Nay, fo jealous had former Houses of Commons been of their privileges, that when all their members were not returned, they not only imprifoned those who omitted to make the returns, but they frequently refufed to proceed to business till all the returns were made, and the number of members completed :-And indeed he was not surprised that they should be fo jealous on this head, for if fcrutinies were to be permitted after the day on which the writs are made returnable, not only the House and Select Committees under Mr. Grenville's act would be robbed of their jurisdiction, which by law belongs to them, but the returning officers would have it in their power to keep whom they pleafed out of Parliament. This was the cafe at prefent with Lord Hood, against whose majority nothing had been alledged by any one, and yet the noble Lord was to be deprived of his feat, and the electors of Westminster of their representa tive, for the Lord knew how long, because it had pleased Mr. Corbett to tranfgrefs an act of Parliament. This was no queftion of party; he declared upon his honour and upon his confcience, that if Lord Hood alone were interested in the event of this queftion, he would make the motion that he was now going to fubmit to the House; because he thought that the rights and privileges of the Commons had been invaded; and that it was the duty of every honest member to maintain those privileges, upon which depends the very existence of the Conftitution. He then moved, "That Thomas Corbett, Bailiff of the liberty

of