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Dougl. Introd. to Elect. 33.

10 & 11 W. 3.

did not bind another, though one cannot but fuppofe that the determination of a former committee would, in all cafes, have fome, and, in moft, a very confiderable weight, in the decifion of a fubfequent committee on the fame point. To reafon otherwife, would be to maintain that Mr. Grenville's act, under the veil of an impartial and fteady judicature, was meant to put every thing afloat which had once been fettled, and render inefficacious the moft falutary law, which ftands as a bulwark of defence for the rights of election against the defpotifm or intrigue of a powerful or infidious minifter. In law, as in other sciences, perfection is to be attained only by gradual means. By the 10 and 11 W. 3. c. 7. it is enacted that the determination of the house of commons upon the right of election fhould bind the returning officer in taking the poll. That ftatute is enlarged by the 2 G. 2. c. 24. whereby the laft determination of the house of commons is made conclufive upon the houfe as to the right of election: And though the 10 G. 3. c. 16. (amended by II G. 3. c. 42. and made perpetual by 14 G. 3. c. 15.), which establishes the new judicature, does not transfer to committees the fame power of specially determining on the

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right

right of election; yet by 28 G. 3. c. 52. a felect committee chofen under the 10 G. 3. (under the restrictions therein mentioned) is trusted with the power of binding by its decifion the right of election, and of appointing a returning officer, where the right is litigated. And by the fame act, fuch committee is authorised to give cofts upon frivolous and vexatious petitions and defences. Thefe acls, fo far as they relate to the practice or regulation of the new judicature, are added in the Appendix ; but the 10. G. 3. c. 16. which is the foundation of the whole, is fo printed, as to exhibit, by a marginal abridgment of the subsequent acts, every variation made in any fection of that act down to the prefent period. The ftatutes relating to the subject, where it was thought improper to copy them literally, will be found to be accurately abftracted, and will, in moft cafes, be found to supply the want of the ftatute book itself. Some ftatutes afterwards repealed, or new-modelled, are briefly ftated for the better understanding of subsequent acts made in pari materia. In referring to the Journals, the author has contented himself with a few precedents to the fame point, except on queftions of any nicety or doubt. It was his original inten

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tion to have comprized in this book the Scotch Law of Elections; but as that fub

ject is already treated upon at large by a

Wight on Elec- more experienced and able pen, he has

tions.

omitted the Scotch cafes, except where adduced to prove or illuftrate general pofitions. Matters of evidence are incidentally mentioned as they grow naturally out of the subject. To have gone into the doctrines of evidence more at large, would have been to have added a fupplemental treatise larger than that upon the principal fubject. The law books, therefore, must be referred to for fuch information, though practice and found obfervation only can give a ready difcrimination in this comprehenfive and difficult part of the law. On fuch parts of the fubject as relate to the power of the house of commons in fome inftances of incapacitating their own members, which cannot be measured by any rule exactly defined, the author has contented himself with the statement of precedents, or has refted his obfervations upon analogous reasoning.

The leisure of an earlier period enabled the author to compile and arrange the materials of this little work principally with a view to his own amusement. It has gra

dually

dually ripened into a treatise, which, in the judgment of fome profeffional friends, might become useful in election business.

If it should conduce, in the most trifling degree, towards so desirable an end as to facilitate the duties of the committee and bar, his wishes will be fully gratified.

ADVERTISEMENT.

Wherever the 28 G. 3. c. 36. is mentioned, the reader must obferve, that that Act will not take effect (if at all) until 10th July 1790.

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