every principle of justice and even of
decency. Election petitions were decided by the entire House, and were
almost invariably treated as party questions, in which impartiality was
not even professed. Thirty years before, the Prime-minister himself (Sir
Robert Walpole) had given notice to his supporters that "no quarter was
to be given in election petitions;" and it was a division on one
petition which eventually drove him from office. There was not even a
pretence made of deciding according to evidence, for few of the members
took the trouble to hear it. A few years after the time of which we are
speaking, Lord George Germaine thus described the mode of proceeding
which had previously prevailed: "The managers of petitions did not ask
those on whose support they calculated to attend at the examination of
witnesses, but only to let them know where they might be found when the
question was going to be put, that they might be able to send them word
in time for the division." The practice had become a public scandal, by
which the constituencies and the House itself suffered equally--the
constituencies, inasmuch as they were liable to be represented by one
who was in fact only the representative of a minority; the House itself,
since its title to public confidence could have no solid or just
foundation but such as was derived from its members being in every
instance the choice of the majority. Yet, so long as petitions were
judged by the whole House, there seemed no chance of the abuse being
removed, the number of judges conferring the immunity of shamelessness
on each individual. To remedy such a state of things, in the spring of
1770 Mr. G. Grenville brought in a bill which provided for the future
trial of all such petitions by a select committee of fifteen members,
thirteen of whom should be chosen by ballot, one by the sitting member
whose seat was petitioned against, and one by the petitioner. The
members of the committee were to take an oath to do justice similar to
that taken by jurymen in the courts of law; and the committee was to
have power to compel the attendance of witnesses, to examine them on
oath, and to enforce the production of all necessary papers; it was also
to commence its sittings within twenty-four hours of its appointment,
and to sit from day to day till it should be prepared to present its
report. It was not to the credit of the ministers that they made the
passing of such a bill a party question. T