and other illegal practices, the said Patrick Heron hath procured himself to be returned member for the said stewartry, in prejudice of the petitioner, who had the majority of legal votes, was duly elected, and declared by the said John Gordon, the legal preses of the said meeting, so to be, and ought to have been returned; and therefore praying the house to take the premises into their consideration, and to grant the petitioner such relief, as to the house shall seem meet.-See 58 Journ. 19. 400, 401.

Petition of a Candidate for a City in Ireland, stating the Constitution of the City, and Right of Election; and alledging, that through the undue Influence of the Sitting Member, &c. Persons, not intitled, were admitted to their Freedom by the Council; that the Information of quo Warranto had been filed against such Council for so doing, to which they had not pleaded, &c.; that Persons who were entitled to their Freedom, had been refused the same, and Writs of Mandamus for their Admission disobeyed; that the Returning Officers had illegally received and rejected Votes; that Petitioner ought to have been returned, he having the legal Majority; and that the Sitting Member had been guilty of Bribery and Corrup

tion.

THAT the city of Waterford is of great extent, population, and commerce, and that the

freemen and freeholders thereof return one member to represent that city in the imperial parliament; and that, by various letters patent, granted by their late majesties king Charles the first, and king Charles the second, and others, his majesty's predecessors, kings of England and Ireland, their said majesties did order, will, grant, and appoint, that the city of Waterford should for ever thereafter be a free city of itself; and that the said charters also give, grant, and ordain, that the citizens of the said city, as also the mayor, sheriffs, and citizens of the county of the said city, and all and singular the citi zens, inhabitants, and residents, within the said city, and the liberties thereof, shall be for ever one body corporate and politic; and that the said charters, or some or one of them, also grant and give to the mayor, sheriffs, and citizens of the said city, certain great customs, called coquet, arising in the said city, saving and reserving to the crown the little custom, (that is to say), the payment of three pence in the pound, for all merchandize imported and exported, to be paid by alien merchants only, and not by the citizens of Waterford; and also saving and reserving the custom or subsidy on poundage, (that is to say), the payments of twelve pence in the pound, for all merchandize imported and exported, or be paid as well by merchants who are natural-born subjects, as alien merchants; but the citizens and inhabitants of Waterford, who are or shall be free of the said city, by right of birth, marriage, or apprenticehood, and dwelling within the said city, or county of the said city, and not otherwise or in any other manner excepted; and that the right of admitting persons, qualified to be

admitted to the freedom of the said city, is vested in the mayor, sheriffs, and citizens, in council assembled, the said city having been incorporated by the name of the mayor, sheriffs, and citizens of the said city of Waterford; and that the right of voting on the election of a representative to serve in parliament for the city of Waterford, is vested in the freemen and freeholders thereof; and that the sheriffs of the said city, for the time being, are the returning officers for such elections; and that the council consists of forty members, viz. of nineteen aldermen, of whom the mayor is one, and of twenty-one common councilmen, of whom the sheriff's are two; and that the mayor, for the time being, is an integral part of such council; and that the resident sons, and sons-in-law, 'of freemen of the said city, and persons who have served a regular apprenticeship within the same, to freemen thereof, such persons being resident therein, are of right entitled to their freedom; but by the letter, spirit, and object of the charters of the said city, by its ancient usages and customs, and by the several statutes relating to cities and their franchise now of force in Ireland, no person, howsoever in other respects entitled, ought to claim, or to be admitted to the freedom of the said city, unless, at the time of such claim or admission, he is residing and inhabiting within the said city, or the liberties thereof; and that the election of a member to serve in parliament for the said city, commenced on the 24th day of July, 1802, Samual Morgan, esq. being then the mayor of the said city, and John Denis and Edward Weeks, esxjrs. then sheriffs of the said city, and as such the returning officers at such elections;

and that William Congreve Alcock, esq. and the petitioner, were the only candidates; and that, by the undue means hereinafter mentioned, the said W. C. Alcock obtained a majority of thirty-one votes on the poll, which continued sixteen days, at the close of which poll, the number of admitted votes for the said W. C. Alcock, was declared to be 471, and for the petitioner 440, whereupon the said W. C. Alcock was returned accordingly to serve in parliament for the said city, in prejudice of the petitioner, (who was duly elected, and ought to have been returned), and of the legal electors of the said city, and in open defiance of the law and freedom of elections; and that the said W. C. Alcock, and the petitioner, are members of the aforesaid council or corporation of the said city; and that the majority of the said council, with the mayor, who presides therein, have been for several months past completely under the influence and dominion of the said W. C. Alcock, which influence, by him unduly exerted, has induced the said council to commit many illegal and unwarrantable acts, in order to procure his return at the said election, to the prejudice of the petitioner; and that accordingly the said council, for the purpose aforesaid, in compliance with the wishes of the said IV. C. Alcock, have, at divers meetings held since the 20th day of January, 1802, illegally and improperly assumed and exercised the power of admitting by favour to the freedom of the said city, several hundred persons, not resident or inhabiting therein, and therefore not entitled or admissible to the same, the persons so admitted being, as the petitioner begged leave to reprehh

sent, the zealous friends of the said W. C. AL cock, and previously pledged to vote for him on the said election, and created for that particular purpose and occasion; and that by the 29th section of the 29th chapter of an act of parliament, passed in Ireland, in the 35th year of his present majesty's reign, it is enacted, that no person shall vote as a freeman, at the election of a member to serve in parliament, whose freedom shall not have come to him by service, birthright, or marriage, unless admitted, or his freedom granted to him six calendar months at least before the teste of writ for holding such election, by force whereof the friends of the said W. C. Alcock, who had been so admitted to their freedom, by special favour, within six months before the teste of the writ for holding the said election, being disqualified; and the said W. C. Alcock, well knowing that the petitioner had the support of an unquestionable majority of legal freemen, a council was held on the 23d day of July, 1802, long after the writ to hold the election had issued, and the very day before the poll commenced, wherein 106 persons, the friends of the said IV. C. Alcock, were admitted to their freedom for the express purpose of serving the said W. C. Alcock, by their votes on the said election, and for that occasion merely; in proof whereof the petitioner shewed, that on the said 23d day of July, many persons, who had been previously admitted to their freedom by special favour, and between whose admission and the teste of the writ, six months had not elapsed, were re-admitted as of right, on spurious and fabricated claims, in order to bring them within the exception of the aforesaid section of the statute;