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tributed; and I cannot help thinking it was a great feat to have
collected 4,500 of them. And then it is said that 880 blanks and
spoils was a largo number. And, intrinsically, it is a large number
but I cannot help thinking that it is nothing more than might have
been naturully expected. See how many of these people aro
imperfeotly educated; how many thero would be who would not
care so much about the election us to take the trouble to Bign the
paper or even to tear it up, but who left it to bo fetched away again
or left at pleasure. I cannot help thinking it is a natural proceeding
that the working man going to his work would leave the paper
without thinking anything about it, and when the messenger culled
for it on behalf of the Vestry, the wife or child would suy, "Oh,
yes; you want the voting paper? Here it is," and forthwith hund
it over just as it was delivered. The number of papers returned
blank certainly, to my mind, indicates an absence of pressure to get
people to fill up their papers either one way or the other. And,
therefore, I cannot help thinking that this large number of blank
papers is, on the whole, an iudicution of the honesty with which
the operutiou was performed by Mr. Paget and his stuff. With
regurd to tho spoilt papers—as I pointed out to my brother Field
—1,900 voted one way and 1,600 another, and the spoils were almost
in exact proportion, viz., 68 and 62. That did not look as though
the whole thing hud not been honestly done. The objections fail
in doing anything more than showing that the work was well done;
and, therefore it is impossible for the application of the relators to
succeed.
Mr. Jelf— I ask your Lordship to exercise the discretion which you
have in this case, in making an order as to costs. The money for the
defence is paid by the Vestry, and not by the individual commissioners
themselves. Seeing how the relators have saved your
Lordships' time by withdrawing technical points upon which they
had good grounds to rely, I ask your Lordship not to order the
relators to pay.
Mr. Justice Wills—I may say this, that if you had failed after
nisi prius you would have had to pay costs.
Mr. Jelf — In this case there has been an entire absence of bitterness.
The Clerk to the Court—I asked Mr. Justice Field before he left
the Bench as to costs, and he said, "Certainly, dismissed with costs "
Mr. Channell — Rule dismissed with costs. But I would call your
Lordship's attention to the fact that Mr. Ross is not the relator, as