the recognizance will be forfeited. The chairman certifies the forfeiture; and the sums may then be recovered from the parties who have entered into the recognizance by information by the Attorney General. The certificate of the forfeiture, by the chairman, cannot be called in question; his handwriting to the certificate has only to be verified. 4. Petitions, when Election Petition withdrawn before Committee appointed.] Provision is also made by the 6th section of the act for further inquiry into bribery, when any election petition containing a charge of bribery has been withdrawn, before a select committee has been appointed to try it. When such has been the case, a petition complaining of general or extensive bribery at such election, may be presented at any time within twenty-one days after the withdrawal of the election petition has been notified to the House. A further period is allowed, if the twenty-one days expire during an adjournment at Easter or Christmas, or a prorogation of the House. The petition is then to be presented within two days after the end of the adjournment, or within fourteen days after the beginning of the next session. It is not necessary, with regard to this petition, that any of the acts of bribery complained of should have been committed within three calendar months of the presentation of the petition. This petition may be subscribed either by persons claiming to have had a right to vote at such election, or by a person alleging himself to have been a candidate or claiming to have had a right to be returned at the election. A recognizance is to be entered into in the same manner as in the case of a petition presented within three months after the commission of the acts of bribery. The mode of inquiring into, and reporting upon the sufficiency of the recognizance is the same. The select committee, which is to be appointed by the general committee in the same manner, has a similar power of inquiring into the allegations in the petition, and of reporting to the House. No report of such a committee can affect the seat of a member, or restrain the issuing of a writ. The forfeiture of the recognizance is to be certified in the same manner by the chairman, as in the case of petitions presented within the three months of the acts of bribery. Committees may order costs to be paid.] The select committees appointed to try these petitions complaining of extensive bribery, and also the committee reassembling under the provisions of the second section of the act, have power, in their discretion, to order that the expenses incurred and occasioned in such inquiries into bribery before them, or any part of such expenses, shall be paid by any person, who having been first heard before the committee, shall have been proved to have been guilty of bribery, or of having received bribes, or shall have been proved to have occasioned expense by bringing forward frivolous charges of bribery against other persons. (Sect. 15). A certificate, signed by the Speaker, stating the amount of the costs to be paid by each of the parties, will be conclusive evidence of their liability, and of the amount they have to pay. It is provided further, by section 16, that all costs, charges and expenses mentioned in the report of any committee, sitting under the authority of this act, are to be ascertained and allowed in the same manner as the costs, charges and expenses of petitions reported to be frivolous and vexatious. And the same mode is provided for the recovery of such costs. Ample as are the provisions of this statute for inquiring into general bribery at elections, it is not probable that they will often be called into use. An unsuccessful candidate at an election will feel little interest in petitioning the House on the subject of bribery, when he has no chance of obtaining the seat on that petition, or even of having a fresh writ issued. Electors are still less likely to petition when nothing is to be gained by their petition; for if the charges preferred are true, there is always a probability that the place from which the petition proceeds may, in consequence, be disfranchised. In disclosing cases of corruption, electors are, in general, more influenced by the desire of obtaining a triumph for their party, than by any abstract love of purity of election. 5. Inquiry before Commissioners.] A recent statute, the 15 & 16 Vict. c. 57, intituled "An act to provide more effectual inquiry into the existence of corrupt practices at elections for members to serve in Parliament," has made further provision for inquiring into cases of corrupt practices at elections. It recites that "it is expedient to make more effectual provision for inquiring into the existence of corrupt practices at elections." And it enacts, that, when upon a joint address of both Houses of Parliament to her Majesty, it shall be represented that an election committee, or a committee appointed to in quire into the existence of corrupt practices, shall have reported that corrupt practices have, or are believed to have prevailed extensively at any elections, commissioners may then be appointed to inquire into such alleged corrupt practices. Such commissioners are to inquire into the manner in which the election complained of has been conducted; when the report of the committee refers to more than one election, they are to inquire in the first instance into the proceedings at the latest election. They are to investigate into the nature of the corrupt practices that may have occurred, and if they shall find that corrupt practices have taken place at such last election, they are then to make inquiries concerning the latest previous election; if corrupt practices shall appear to have taken place at that election, the commissioners may then go a step further back, and make inquiries as to the previous election; and so in like manner from election to election, as far back as they may think fit. Whenever the commissioners fail in discovering corrupt practices at any election in the series, they are not to inquire concerning any previous election. The commissioners are from time to time to report the evidence taken before them; and more especially with respect to each election they are to report, the names of all persons whom they may find to have been guilty of corrupt practices at such elections, as well those who have given bribes, or payments by way of head-money, as those who have received such bribes or payments. The reports of the commissioners are to be laid before Parliament. CHAPTER XIII. ON COSTS. 1. Regulated by Statute. 2. Costs when Petition withdrawn. 8. On objections to Voters. 10. Recognizances, when estreated. THE power of committees to award costs against parties, on election inquiries, is regulated by the statute 11 & 12 Vict. c. 98. Although committees were frequently in the habit of granting costs, even prior to the Grenville Act, the 10 Geo. 3, c. 16, under a resolution passed at the commencement of every session, there existed no statutory authority for the giving of costs until the passing of the 28 Geo. 3, c. 52. In certain cases the right to receive costs follows as a matter of course, upon the decision of the committee; |