have more weight than all the cunning arguments which have been drawn from inferences and probabilities.
The Ministry, in that laborious pamphlet, which I presume contains the whole strength of the party, have declared[1], "That Mr. Walpole's was the first and only instance in which the electors of any county or borough had returned a person expelled to serve in the same parliament." It is not possible to conceive a case more exactly in point. Mr. Walpole was expelled, and, having a majority of votes at the next election, was returned again. The friends of Mr. Taylor, a candidate set up by the ministry, petitioned the House that he might be the sitting member. Thus far the circumstances tally exactly, except that our House of Commons saved Mr. Luttrell the trouble of petitioning. The point of the law, however, was the same. It came regularly before the House, and it was their business to determine upon it. They did determine it; for they declared Mr. Taylor not duly elected. If it be said that they meant this
- ↑ Case of the Middlesex election considered, page 38.
