there affembled, and took poffeffion of the booth, and all access thereto; affaulted the freemen, tore off their cloaths, and ftripped them naked to the waift, and beat, bruised, and otherwise ill treated them, to the great danger of their lives; prevented them from polling, and declaring they came there to fupport the blues.

2d. That on account of the said violences, &c. only four perfons could poll for the petitioners on that day, and the poll was adjourned to the 11th.

3d. That the petitioners called on the fheriffs to protect the perfons of faid voters, and preferve the freedom of election; the sheriffs did appoint one end of the booth for the voters of the petitioners to poll at, and the other for Yeo and Holroyd. Many conftables fworn to keep the peace: pofts and rails erected for feparating the voters on each fide and protecting them to poll. But the faid rioters again affembled on Monday morning, cut and broke down the faid pofts and rails, and carried them away; and during the poll obftructed the petitioners' voters from polling, and committed the like violences, as on the ninth, fo that only 21 voters could poll.

4th. Said poll being adjourned till the next day, on the morning of the fame several hundred voters for the petitioners being peaceably affembled at that end of the booth appointed by the fheriffs for them to be polled at, leaving open the other end, a great mob of colliers and other rioters, with many hundreds of their voters, came up to that part of the booth where the petitioners' voters were ftanding, and then and there dragged by the hair of the head, ftripped, beat, and cruelly tore and bruifed many of the petitioners' voters, and drove the reft from the faid poll; would not permit them to give their votes, fo that three only polled that day.

5th. Said rioters being determined that the petitioners' voters fhould not come up to the poll, they affembled in the night time continually afterwards, and took poffeffion of the booth, and kept the fame until the time of polling the next day. Obftructed all the avenues to the place of polling, violently drove back the fheriffs, magiftrates, and peaceofficers, whenever they attempted to open access for faid voters; took the ftaves from the conftables and broke them; fame violences continued from day to day till the 18th inclufive.

6th. Previous to the day of election, and during the poll, petitioners and the other candidates were called upon to poll

by

by tallies, to prevent riot and confufion at the election. Agreed to by petitioners, but refufed by Yoe and Holroyd.

Petitioners allowed to keep their majority of 27, and to poll at different ends of the booth, to be protected by peaceofficers, was accepted by Halifax and Rogers, and refufed by Yeo and Holroyd.

7th. Said colliers were hired or employed by Yeo and Holroyd, and their agents, and paid, entertained, and provided with lodging, meat, and drink by them, and they abetted the riots and obftructions.

8th. On account of the faid riots and violences offered the perfons of the fheriffs, magiftrates, and peace-officers, on the 18th of September, the poll was neceffarily difcontinued, That your petitioners are ready with their witneffes to prove the truth of the feveral allegations herein made.

Wherefore your petitioners moft humbly pray that this honourable House will hear them by their counfel, and take the premises into confideration, and grant fuch relief therein as the nature of the cafe requires, and as to the House in its good wisdom and juftice fhall feem fit; and your petitioners Thall ever pray, &c.

Mr. Fox faid, he would not take upon him to affirm that Mr. Fox. the charge contained in this petition was well founded.; whether it was or no, would appear from the evidence to be brought to the bar: but he maintained that it was a heavy charge, and a specific charge: and if it fhould be proved, the gentlemen against whom it was brought were deferving of very fevere punishment. The crime with which they were charged was of a heinous nature: a violation of the. freedom of election, which tended to undermine the liberty of the country, by fapping the foundation of the freedom of the conftitution. He therefore moved the following refolu

tions:

Firft, That this petition be taken into confideration on Thursday next; which was agreed to.

Secondly, That Sir Thomas Halifax and Mr. Rogers, the petitioners, be allowed by themfelves or their counsel, to bring evidence to the bar of the Houfe of Commons, in fupport of the charge contained in the petition; which was also agreed to.

Thirdly, That Mr. Edward Roe Yoe and Col. J. Holroyd be defired to attend the Houfe of Commons on Thursday

next.

Q 2

Mr.

Mr. Rigby,

General Smith,

Mr. Fox.

Mr. Rigby opposed this laft refolution. It was unjust and unprecedented. The gentlemen pointed at in the petition must be accounted innocent until they fhould be proved guilty. A mere allegation was not fufficient to authorife the Houfe to bring Col, Holroyd and Mr. Yoc to the bar in the character of delinquents; he would therefore give the motion for this refolution his negative.

General Smith faid, that the refolution was not unprecedented. He himself had been brought to the bar of the House in the humiliating character of a delinquent, before any evidence was called for against him, and merely upon a fufpicion that he had fecreted certain witneffes whom he named: a circumftance in his life which had made a deep impretion in his mind, and which he could never efface, At the fame time candour obliged him to declare, that he did not bring that fact as a precedent for fummoning the attendan of Mr. Yoe and Mr. Holroyd. He thought he had been treated unjustly, and he could not in juftice to himself pafs by this opportunity of animadverting on a proceeding by which he confidered himself greatly injured.

Mr. Fox did not conceive that he did any thing unkind or unjust to Col. Holroyd and Mr. Yoe, when he defired their attendance on Thursday at the bar of the Houfe. He was of opinion, on the contrary, that the gentlemen themselves would with and be anxious for an opportunity of making known their innocence. Whenever the honourable gentleman [Mr. Rigby] had any accufation to bring against him, he begged that he might bring it face to face, and give him an opportunity of anfwering for himself, A new writ would be moved for to-morrow for an election of members to ferve in Parliament for Coventry; and in the mean time a very great number of voters, friends to the petitioners, would be abfent from the election, while Col. Holroyd and Mr. Yoe would by this partial conduct, have an unfair advantage over their competitors. This would be the littleft manoeuvre to which a minifterial majority, amongst all their condefcenfions, had ever defcended. He thought that this caufe fhould be decided before any election at Coventry fhould take place. It was, indeed, Mr. Holroyd's and Mr. Yoe's intereft that a new election fhould take place as foon as poffible, both because the practices of which, as was alledged, they had been guilty, muft give an unfavourable impreffion of them, which might have an unhappy influence on their election; and becaufe, if the election fhould be over before the enquiry into the things

things charged against the accufed party, the petitioners would not have the fame motives that they have now for making good their charge, and might therefore very naturally be fuppofed to relax in their zeal of profecuting this appeal and complaint to the House of Commons. Mr, Grenville's bill, as it was called, had, indeed, been productive of much good; it, however, was the fource of fome inconveniencies; and among thefe he reckoned the poffibility of influencing, by fuch a manœuvre as that he had mentioned, an election. He begged and hoped that miniftry would not be fo uncandid as to take advantage of an inconveniency attending that excellent bill, and of establishing a precedent, which was in itself unjuft, though it could never militate against themselves. He alfo adverted to that forwardness of miniftry in endeavouring to bring on an election at Coventry, which appeared on the first day of the meeting of Parliament, &c.

Lord Beauchamp faid, the law requires, that within a cer- Lord Beautain time writs fhould be iffued for elections, and that time champ. would expire to-morrow. No hurry had been fhewn in appointing a time for examining the fheriffs of Coventry. If thefe officers had done as they ought to have done; if they had made a return of two members, according to the numbers that were actually polled, however few, the circumftances that rendered the election undue and of no avail might have come before the Houfe in the way of petition as utual, and much trouble have been thereby prevented. An honourable friend of his had faid, that there would be partiality in bringing on the election at Coventry at a time when the petitioners with their witneffes, who were their friends in the election, fhould be attending the bar of that Houfe. But would there not be as great partiality in ordering the two other gentlemen to be absent from the place of election, as it would be to call to the bar voters on the other fide? The petitioners might appear by counfel; but it was propofed that Mr. Holroyd and Mr. Yoe fhould attend the Houfe in perfon. His Lordship farther contended, that the vote of the Houfe when printed, was a fufficient, and the proper intimation to the laft mentioned gentlemen to attend, if they thought their intereft required their attendance, and that any order to attend was equally improper, unjust and unprecedented. For with regard to what had been advanced by General Smith, he believed that he had been ordered to attend, after the affair he alluded to had made fome progrefs in the Houie, and that it was by a committee of the whole Houfe on that subject, that he was ordered to attend. General

General
Smitb.

Mr. Fax.

General
Smith.

Lord Beau

champ.

Mr. Fox.

Mr. Skeride".

General Smith from the Journals of the Houfe evinced, that Lord Beauchamp, in making this last position, was mistaken.

Mr. Fox replied to Lord Beauchamp. He allowed that there would be partiality in ordering Colonel Holroyd and Mr. Yeo to attend the Houfe, if the election were to be hurried on in the manner he apprehended it would be; but he was for deferring the election until this caufe was decided, therefore an order for the attendance of thefe gentlemen would not betray any partiality.

General Smith obferved, that there was a precedent for putting off the election of members for Coventry, in the Borough of Hindon, to which no writ had been fent for electing a member of parliament for the course of two years.

Lord Beauchamp replied, that the cales were totally diffimilar; for the burgeffes of Hindon had been guilty of certain practices, for which that delay to fend a writ of election was a deferved punishment, whereas the inhabitants of Coventry were not charged with malverfation of any kind. His Lordship added, that he had a petition, in oppofition to that prefented by his honourable friend, from Colonel Holroyd and Mr. Yeo, and others, burgeffes of Coventry. He read the prayer of the petition; which was, that the fheriffs might be punished for not making a return of members to serve in Parliament for Coventry, &c.

Mr. Fox withdrew his motion for the third refolution, The petition, mentioned by Lord Beauchamp, was brought up, and ordered to be taken into confideration at the fame time with the other petition relating to the fame fubject.

A petition having been prefented to the Houfe, complain ing of an undue election, and containing a charge of bribery and corruption against the fitting members for Stafford,

Mr. Sheridan rofe and complained, that it was in the power of any petitioner to bring a charge of crimes and mifdemeanors against any member of that House with impunity. Where it is alledged that an election is undue on account of informalities or upon certain points of law or cuftom, the character and feelings of the member against whom fuch a petition is brought receive no hurt; but the cafe is otherwife where an accufation is brought of bribery and corrup tion, crimes fo high in the eye of the laws and conftitution of this country. He therefore expreffed a wifh that fome gentlemen of greater experience in Parliament and confequence than himself, would devife fome method of prevent