But not with- into consideration within fourteen days after the appointment of the committee of privileges. in 14 days after appointment of committee of privileges. House may alter the time 3. PROVIDED also, That the house may alter the day and hour so appointed for taking such petition into consideration, and appoint some subsequent day and hour for the on like notice same as occasion shall require; giving to the respective parties the like notice of such alteration, and order to attend on the said subsequent day and hour, as aforesaid. and order. Serjeant at arms, before the reading of the order of the day, to re. quire the attendance of the members: At his return, house to be counted. 4. AND be it further enacted, That at the time appointed for taking such petition into consideration, and previous to the reading of the order of the day for that purpose, the serjeant at arms shall be directed to go with the mace to the places adjacent, and require the immediate attendance of the members on the business of the house; and that after his return the house shall be counted, and if there be less than one hundred members present, the order for taking such petition into consideration shall be immediately adFor want of journed to a particular hour on the following day, (Sunday 100 members, and Christmas-day always excepted ;) and the house shall then adjourn to the said day; and the proceedings of all committees, subsequent to such notice from the said serjeant, shall be void; and, on the said following day, the house shall proceed in the same manner; and so from day to day, till there be an attendance of one hundred members at the reading of the order of the day, to take such petition into consideration. to adjourn. Till 100 be present. 100, bar. 5. AND be it further enacted, That if after summoning the In presence of members, and counting the house as aforesaid, one hundred members shall be found to be present, the petitioners, by The petitioners, &c. to be themselves, their counsel, or agents, and the counsel or ordered to the agents of the sitting members, shall be ordered to attend at the bar, and then the door of the house shall be locked, and no member shall be suffered to enter into or depart from the house until the petitioners, their counsel, or agents, and the counsel or agents for the sitting members, shall be directed to withdraw, as hereinafter is mentioned; and when the door shall be locked as aforesaid, the order of the day shall be read, and the names of all the members of the house, written or Names of the printed on distinct pieces of parchment or paper, being all as near as may be of equal size, and rolled up in the same manner, shall be put in equal numbers into six boxes or glasses, to be placed on the table for that purpose, and shall there be shaken together; and then the clerk or clerk assistant attending the house shall publicly draw out 49 be drawn. of the said six boxes or glasses, alternately, the said pieces of parchment or paper, and deliver the same to the speaker, to be by him read to the house; and so shall continue to do, until forty-nine names of the members then present be drawn. members to be put into six boxes or glasses; to be drawn alternately, and read by the speaker, till Voting members at the election, 6. PROVIDED always, That if the name of any member who shall have given his vote at the election so complained or complain of as aforesaid, or shall be a petitioner complaining of an undue election or return, or against whose return a petition shall be then depending, or whose return shall not have 、ants. been brought in fourteen days, shall be drawn; his name to be set aside. shall be set aside, with the names of those who are absent from the house. 7. PROVIDED also, That if the name of any member of sixty All above 60 years of age or upwards be drawn, he shall be excused from years old excused, serving on the select committee, to be appointed as hereinafter is mentioned, if he require it, and verify the cause of such requisition upon oath. on select com 8. PROVIDED also, That if the name of any member who Or those who has served in such select committee during the same session have served be drawn, he shall, if he require it, be excused from serving mittees in the again in any such select committee, unless the house shall, same session, before the day appointed for taking the said petition into Unless the consideration, have resolved, that the number of members number who who have not served on such select committee, in the same have not served be insession, is insufficient to fulfil the purposes of this act, re- sufficient. specting the choice of such select committee. cused shall 9. PROVIDED always, That no member, who after having Members exbeen appointed to serve in any such select committee shall, not be deemed on account of inability or accident, have been excused from to have servattending the same throughout, shall be deemed to have served on any such select committee. ed. verifying be entered. 10. AND be it further enacted, That if any other member Members shall offer and verify upon oath any other excuse, the sub- other excuses, stance of the allegations so verified upon oath shall be allegation to taken down by the said clerk, in order that the same may be afterwards entered on the journals, and the opinion of the house shall be taken thereon; and if the house shall resolve, And if the house resolve that the said member is unable to serve, or cannot without that they are great and manifest detriment serve, in such select commit- unable, &c. tee, he also shall be excused from such service. are to be excused, to be drawn to &c. 11. AND be it further enacted, That instead of the mem- Instead of bers so set aside and excused, the names of other members whom others shall be drawn; who may, in like manner, be set aside or complete the excused, and others drawn to supply their places, until the number 49, whole number of forty-nine members, not liable to be so set aside or excused, shall be complete; and the petitioners, or Petitioners their agents, shall then name one, and the sitting members, may nane. or their agents, another, from among the members then pre- ting members sent, whose names shall not have been drawn, to be added another, to those who shall have been so chosen by lot. one, and sit like causes be 12. PROVIDED always, That either of the members so nominated shall or may be set aside, for any of the same causes who may for as those chosen by lot; or shall, if he require it, be excused set aside, or from serving on the said select committee; and the party excused, who nominated the member so set aside or excused, shall and others nominate another in his stead, and so continue to do as often as the case shall happen, until his nominee is admitted. named. 13. AND be it further enacted, That as soon as the said forty-nine members shall have been so chosen by lot, and Door to be opened, and the two members to be added thereunto shall have been so the house may nominated as aforesaid, the door of the house shall be opened, proceed on and the house may proceed upon any other business; and lists of the forty-nine members so chosen by lot shall then T other business. to be then given to the petitioners, &c. clerk are to withdraw, and to strike off one alternate ly, till the number be re duced to 13: Clerk within one hour to deliver a list or them; Lists of the 49 be given to the petitioners, their counsel, or agents, and the counsel or agents for the sitting members, who shall immediately withdraw, together with the clerk appointed to atWho with the tend the said select committee; and the said petitioners and sitting members, their counsel or agents, beginning on the part of the petitioners, shall alternately strike off one of the said forty-nine members, until the said number shall be reduced to thirteen; and the said clerk, within one hour at furthest from the time of the parties withdrawing from the house, shall deliver in to the house the names of the thirteen members then remaining: and the said thirteen members, together with the two members nominated as aforesaid, and they with shall be sworn at the table, well and truly to try the matter of the petition referred to them, and a true judgment to give according to the evidence; and shall be a select committee to try and determine the merits of the return or election appointed by the house to be that day taken into consideration; and the house shall order the said select committee to meet at a certain time to be fixed by the house, which time shall be within twenty-four hours of the appointment of the said select committee, unless a Sunday or Christmas-day shall intervene and the place of their meeting and sitting shall be some convenient room or place adjacent to the house of commons, or court of requests, properly prepared for that purpose. the nominees, shall be sworn a select com mittee. House to order them to meet in 24 hours. On withdrawing the mem 14. PROVIDED always, That on the parties withdrawing bers not to de- as aforesaid, the house shall continue sitting; and the said part till meet- fifty-one members, so chosen and nominated, shall not depart the house till the, time for the meeting of the said select. committee shall be fixed. ing of com mittee be fixed. Petitioners, &c. declaring nominee, and member consenting thereto, as such, and But on ne 15. PROVIDED always, and be it further enacted, That if that any mem- upon the drawing out of the name of any member by lot, as ber drawn is aforesaid, the said petitioners or sitting members, or their intended for a agents, shall declare, that such member is intended to be one of the two nominess to be nominated by them respectively, and if such member shall consent to such nomination, the name of such member so drawn by lot shall be set aside, he is to serve and, unless objected to as aforesaid, he shall serve as such another to be nominee, and the name of another member shall be drawn drawn to sup- to supply his place, to complete the number of forty-nine ply his place; members to be drawn by lot; and if the said petitioners or sitting members, or their agents, shall not respectively nominate a member then present, who shall be admitted according to the directions of this act, then the want of such nomination shall be supplied, by drawing out, instead thereof, the name of one or two members, as the case shall require; who shall be drawn by lot in the like manner, and subject to the like objections and excuses as the other forty-nine members already drawn by lot, and shall be added to the lists of the said forty-nine members, and shall be ways 15 as a liable to he struck off in the same manner; leaving always the number of fifteen members in the whole, and no more, as a select committee for the purposes aforesaid. glect of nomination, deficiencies to be supplied by lot; leaving al select com mittee. Previous to 16. AND, for the greater dispatch and certainty in the taking petition proceeding herein-before described, be it further enacted, up into con sideration, That the names of all the members so written and rolled as herein-before directed, shall, previous to the day appointed for taking any such petition into consideration, be prepared by the said clerk, or clerk assistant, and by him Clerk to put put into a box or parcel, in the presence of the speaker, to- the members gether with an attestation, signed by the said clerk, or drawn into a box or parcel, clerk assistant, purporting that the names of all the mem- and attest the bers were by him put therein the day of same in the year the names of which said box or parcel the speaker shall seal with his own Speaker to seal; and to the outside thereof shall annex an attestation, seal the same, signed by himself, purporting, that the said box or parcel making up day of in the year and attest the thereof in his presence. was on the made up in his presence, in the manner directed by this act; and that as soon as the parties shall be withdrawn as aforesaid, and before the house shall enter on any Names of other business, any member may require, that the names of drawn may be all the members, which remain undrawn, shall be drawn, read by the and read aloud by the said clerk or clerk assistant. members un clerk. of members 17. AND be it further enacted, That the said select committee shall, on their meeting, elect a chairman from among Chairman to such of the members thereof as shall have been chosen by be elected out lot; and if in the election of a chairman there be an equal chosen by lot. number of voices, the member whose name was first drawn On equality, in the house shall have a casting voice; so likewise in case member first there should ever be occasion for electing a new chairman, drawn to have on the death, or necessary absence of the chairman first voice. elected. a casting upon to con the return; 18. AND be it further enacted, That the said select com- Select committee shall have power to send for persons, papers, and mittee im powered to records; and shall examine all the witnesses who come be- send for perfore them upon oath; and shall try the merits of the return, Examine witsons, &c. or election, or both; and shall determine, by a majority of nesses, voices of the said select committee, whether the petitioners And deteror the sitting members, or either of them, be duly returned mine finally. or elected, or whether the election be void; which determination shall be final between the parties to all intents and purposes; and the house, on being informed thereof by House therethe chairman of the said select committee, shall order the firm, or alter same to be entered in their journals, and give the necessary directions for confirming or altering the return, or for the issuing a new writ for a new election, or for carrying the Or issue writ said determination into execution, as the case may require. tion." 19. AND be it further enacted, That the said select com- Select committee shall sit every day (Sunday and Christmas-day only ex- adjourn for cepted) and shall never adjourn for a longer time than twenty- more than 24 four hours, unless a Sunday or a Christmas-day intervene, leave. without leave first obtained from the house, upon motion, and special cause assigned for a longer adjournment: and If house then sitting, busiin case the house shall be sitting at the time to which the ness to be said select committee is adjourned, then the business of stayed, the house shall be stayed, and a motion shall be made for And motion a further adjournment, for any time to be fixed by the house, made for further adjourn. not exceeding twenty-four hours, unless a Sunday or Christ- ment. mas-day intervene. for new elec mittee not to hours without Sunday or Christmas-day intervening not to be deemed in cluded. Select committee-man not to be ab- 20. AND be it further enacted, That where the time prescribed by this act for the meeting, sitting or adjournment of the said select committee, shall, by the intervention of a Sunday or Christmas-day, exceed twenty-four hours, such meeting, sitting, or adjournment, shall be within twentyfour hours from the time of appointing or fixing the same, exclusive of such Sunday or Christmas-day. 21. AND be it further enacted, That no member of the said select committee shall be allowed to absent himself from the same, without leave obtained from the house, or an excuse allowed by the house at the next sitting thereof, to sit, till all, on special cause shewn and verified upon oath; and the who have not said select committee shall never sit, until all the members On failure of to whom such leave has not been granted, nor excuse almeeting with lowed, are met; and in case they shall not all meet within in one hour, a one hour after the time to which the said select committee journment to shall have been adjourned, a further adjournment shall be reported, with made in the manner as before directed, and reported, with the cause the cause thereof, to the house. leave,.be met. further ad be made, and thereof. Chairman, at sentees, tend next sitting; 22. AND be it further enacted, That the chairman of the next meeting said select committee shall, at the next meeting of the to report ab- house, always report the name of every member thereof who shall have been absent therefrom without such leave or exwho are to be cuse as aforesaid; and such member shall be directed to directed to at- attend the house at the next sitting thereof, and shall then be ordered to be taken into the custody of the serjeant at arms attending the house for such neglect of his duty, and otherand be censur- wise punished or censured at the discretion of the house, at discretion, unless it shall appear to the house, by facts specially stated and verified upon oath, that such member was, by a sudden unless absence accident, or by necessity, prevented from attending the said select committee. et or punished proved unavoidable. If 13 do not attend, commitree to ad Journ; If less for 3 23. AND be it further enacted, That if more than two members of the said select committee shall on any account be absent therefrom, the said select committee shall adjourn in the manner herein-before directed; and so from time to time, until thirteen members are assembled. 24. AND be it further enacted, That in case the number. days, then to of members able to attend the said select committee shall, be dissolved by death or otherwise, be unavoidably reduced to less than and another chosen; thirteen, and shall so continue for the space of three sitting days, the said select committee shall be dissolved, and another chosen to try and determine the matter of such petition in manner aforesaid; and all the proceedings of the ceedings to be said former select committee shall be void, and of no ef and past pro void. other than de complaint, may be reported, fect. Resolutions of 25. AND be it further enacted, That if the said select committee, committee shall come to any resolution other than the deterinination of termination above mentioned, they shall, if they think proper, report the same to the house for their opinion, at the same time that the chairman of the said select committee shall inform the house of such determination; and the and the house house may confirm or disagree with such resolution, and order thereon. make such orders thereon, as to them shall seem proper. 26. PROVIDED always, That if any person summoned by may make |