The Select Committee of the House of Commons on the
Cor- rupt Practices Prevention Act have sent in their Report. They recommend that all petitions should be tried by two Judges instead of one, and that disagreement between the Judges should be equivalent to acquittal ; that all persons guilty of corruption should be tried at once, and if convicted, sentenced to imprison- ment for three months', with or without hard labour ; that a special officer should attend election petitions in order to prosecute them ; that trials should be held in London, if the parties and the Judges consent; and that persons convicted of corrupt practices should be .disqualified from voting for seven years. They recommend that no vote be thrown away, unless the candidate have been dis- qualified by a tribunal, or his disqualification be publicly notorious, and that the law against payment for the conveyance of voters in boroughs be made more stringent.
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