st men;
but if everything that he had done in violation of those privileges was
to be brought against him, if a king's evidence could be found in every
instance, he scarcely knew whether he might not himself be brought under
the grasp of a tribunal. Messrs. Warburton and Barneby also stood up in
the defence of Mr. O'Connell. Lord John Russell likewise expressed
his hostility to any further inquiry or proceeding: the report of the
committee, he said, ought not to be touched, unless the house saw some
very strong reasons to doubt the opinions, or to distrust the integrity,
of the gentlemen who had given judgment. He moved as an amendment a
series of resolutions which embodied the report verbatim, making them
the resolutions of the house, instead of the opinions of the committee.
This amendment, after Lord Stanley, Sir Robert Peel, and others had
spoken in favour of the original motion, and other members had stood up
in defence of Mr. O'Connell, was carried by a majority of two hundred
and forty-three against one hundred and sixty-nine. Lord Stanley then
brought the question still more to the point by moving, "That it appears
to this house that there was between the contracting parties a distinct
understanding, that, if any surplus should remain, after providing for
the legal expenses of the election of Mr. Raphael, that surplus should
be applied in the first place to the defraying of the expenses of the
petition against the former elections, and in the next place to the
funds of the Carlow Liberal Club: and such understanding calls for
the notice of the house, as liable to serious abuse, as a dangerous
precedent, and as tending to subvert the purity and freedom of
election." Lord John, in reply, said he would not enter into the matter
of fact, or go into anything beyond the report of the committee; if the
committee had agreed on these facts, and had thought them material, they
would have been reported to the house.

Mr. O'Connell's troubles, however, were not yet over. His return, with
that of his colleague, Mr. Ruthven, for the city of Dublin at the last
election had been petitioned against, and the petition had been referred
to an election committee in the usual manner. This committee made their
report on the 16th of May, when Messrs. O'Connell and Ruthven were
declared not duly elected, and they were accordingly unseated. Their
opponents at the election, Messrs. Hamilton and West, took their seats,
after having been ex