fore, serve in some measure to explain and elucidate some of the imperfect and obscure provisions of this appellate jurisdiction, preserved by the 60th section of the Reform Act, and must be considered as incorporated therewith. in 2 W. 4, supplied and 9 G. 4. The 9 G. 4, c. 22, for example, describes what Some defects persons are entitled to petition, as being either candidates or electors, that is, persons claiming to have cured by the been duly elected, or persons claiming to have had a right to vote. This latter class of persons is now very distinctly pointed out and designated by the Reform Law as unregistered persons tendering their votes at the election, for the purpose of bringing their right to be registered under consideration of the House of Commons; a new class of claimants to a right to vote not in existence before the 2 W.4. The statute of the 9th of George the Fourth then proceeds to digest and explain in detail the course of proceeding to be pursued by all petitioners; and the substance of its various provisions in that respect will form the subject of the following section of this chapter. SECTION 2. Nature and Ground-work or Foundation of Petitions to the House of Commons against undue Returns. the House of Petition to the House of Commons is a remedy Petitioning or mode of seeking redress permitted by statute Commons law, where a member has been or is considered by against re. the opposite candidate to have been unduly or improperly elected or returned. turns. Consolida There are four sorts of petition presentable to the House: 1. Petitions of complaint or original petitions. 3. Petitions for admission to oppose report. 4. Petitions of defence for admission to sustain report. The then existing laws on this very important tice of peti- subject, or rather the practice and mode of pro tion of prac tions by 9 G. 4, c. 28. Grounds of petition against elections or re turns of members. ceeding in case of complaint of undue return, had been consolidated into one general system by the single act of repeal and remodification, the 9 G. 4, c. 22. The various bases or objects of petitioning by petition of complaint are succinctly expressed and defined, by the 2d Section of the statute 9 Geo. 4, to be, at that time, as follows: 1. Undue election of members. 3. Nonreturn [by sheriff or returning officer] of writ issued for the particular election on or before the return day. 4. Not returning writ where issued during a session or prorogation within fifty-two days after date. 5. Return not according with the requisition of the writ. 6. Complaint of any specific matter stated in the return. [See Section 1.] 7. To be admitted to defend return. [See S. 51.] By the 2 W. 4, c. 45, an eighth ground of original petition is allowed on the complaint of 8. Undue election by reason of the alleged incor rectness of the register in respect of insertions or omissions.* This ground of petition or complaint will become by far the most important subject-matter of petition, and will be in future perhaps the most fruitful, certainly the most considerable, source of such application to the House. The words "upon petition," it must be observed, imply that all existing grounds of petition are still in force; and this section, first assuming that petitions will be presented on other grounds than that of undue registration or omission from register, provides that in all cases the correctness of the register may be impeached. It may be questioned, therefore, directly, by and as a consequence of objection taken to voting, under an incorrect registry, or incidentally and collaterally, on petitions founded upon any other objection, as cause of petition before the passing of the Reform Act. SECTION 3. Summary of Course of Practice in Proceeding on The course of proceeding by way of petition 9 G. 4, c. 22. against returns is fully provided in detail by the 9 G. 4, c. 22. * There are also two other grounds of petition Petition of appeal against right reported by Committee, and By whom to be subscribed. Time for presenting petitions. Recogni zance. The petition must be subscribed by some person or persons claiming to have had a right to vote, or to be returned at the particular election, and it must allege that ground. S. 4. By a current order of the House, passed at the commencement of every session, it is required that petitions on the first three grounds enumerated above, shall be presented within fourteen days from the date of the order; or upon either of the other grounds within the same time after the return be brought in, unless the time limited should be intercepted by a recess, in which case the petition may be presented on the first day of the following sitting. A day and hour is thereupon appointed for considering the petition, [S. 5.] and notice must be given to all parties. [S. 2.] After a petition has been presented, before it can be proceeded on, the first step to be taken on the part of the petitioner, is to enter into a recognizance in a 1000l. and 5007. sureties, and to pay costs, &c. [S. 5.] The mode of entering into the recognizance is by first delivering to the clerk of the House the names and addresses in writing, on the day after the petition is presented, of the proposed sureties, who are to be enquired after seven days from the entry of sureties names by the clerk of the House in his recognizance book, or by two persons to be appointed by the Speaker from amongst the Masters in Chancery, the clerks in court of the King's Bench, and Exchequer and Prothonotaries of the Common Pleas, upon whose report of sufficiency of sureties the recognizance is entered into before the Speaker, [S. 7.] or if forty miles from town, before a justice [S. 8.] of the peace. If such recognizance be not entered into within fourteen days, or the time be enlarged, as it may be once for not exceeding thirty days, on special appearance to the House, founded on affidavit, the order for reading the petition will, on the Speaker's report of no recognizance, be discharged. The recognizance having been entered into, if the time for considering the petition be not changed, as it may be by application, the House proceeds to appoint a committee for taking into consideration the matter and merits of the petition. select com At the time appointed for taking the petition into Ballot for consideration, one hundred members must be pre- mittee. sent, [S. 17.] of whom thirty-three are to be drawn by ballot. [S. 18.] A list of those members is to be given to the parties, who are thereupon to withdraw, and reduce the number to eleven by striking off one each alternately; [S. 30.] or if no opposing party appear, the petitioner and clerk of the House to reduce the list. SECTION 4. Select Committee. of committee. The select committee being thus nominated, are Appointment to be sworn, and they are then considered duly appointed, when they adjourn till next day for the election of chairman, "in likeness of the Speaker," which |