from, until the Petitioner, &c. and the Counsel or Agent for the fittting Member, shall be directed to withdraw; and when the Houfe fhall be locked, the Order of the Day fhall be read, and the Names of all the Members written or printed on diftinct equal Pieces of Parchment or Paper, and rolled up, fhall be put in equal Numbers in fix Boxes or Glaffes, and be fhaken together, and then the faid Clerk Affiftant fhall publicly draw out of the Boxes or Glaffes alternately the faid Pieces of Parchment or Paper, and deliver the fame to the Speaker, to be by him read to the Houfe; and fo fhall continue to do, untill forty nine Names of the Members then prefent be drawn.

By Sect. 6. If the Name of any Member who fhall have given his Vote at the Election complained of, or who fhall be a Petitioner, or against whofe Return a Petition fhall be then depending, or whole Return fhall not have been brought in fourteen Days, fhall be drawn; his Name fhall be fet afide, with the Names of those who are absent from the House.

By Sect. 7. If the Name of any Member fixty Years of Age or upwards be drawn, he fhall be excufed from ferving on the felect Committee to be appointed as herein after is mentioned, if he require it, and verify the Caufe of fuch Requifition upon Oath.

By Sect. 8. If the Name of any Member who has ferved in fuch felect Committee during the fame Seffion be drawn, he fhall, if he requries it, be excufed from ferving again in any fuch felect Committee, unless the Houfe fhall, before the Day appointed for taking the faid Petition into Confideration, have refolved, that the Number of Members who have not ferved on fuch felect Committee in the fame Seffion, is infufficient to fulfil the Pur

F2

Purposes of this Act, respecting the Choice of fuch felect Committee.

By Sect. 9. No Member who, after having been appointed to ferve in any fuch felect Committee, shall on account of Inability or Accident, have been excufed from attending the fame throughout, fhall be deemed to have ferved on any fuch felect Committee.

By Seat. 10. If any other Member fhall offer and verify upon Oath any other Excufe, the Subftance of the Allegations fo verified upon Oath fhall be taken down by the faid Clerk, in order that the fame may be afterwards entered in the the Journals, and the Opinion of the House shall be taken thereon; and if the House shall refolve, that the faid Member is unable to ferve, or cannot without great and manifeft Detriment ferve in fuch felect Committee, he alfo fhall be excufed from fuch Service.

By Sect. 11. Inftead of the Members fo fet afide and excufed, the Names of other Members fhall be drawn ; who may in like Manner be fet afide or excufed, and others drawn to fupply their Places, until the whole Number of fortynine Members, not liable to be fo fet afide or excufed, fhall be complete; and the Petitioners or their Agents fhall then name one, and the fitting Members or their Agents another, from among the Members then prefent, whofe Names fhall not have been drawn, to be added to those who shall have been fɔ chofen by Lot.

By Sect. 12. Either of the Members fo nominated fhall or may be fet afide, for any of the fame Caules as thofe chofen by Lot; or fhall, if he requires it, be excufed from serving on the faid felect Committee; and the Party who nominated the Member fo fet afide, or excused, shall nominate another in his ftead, and fo continue to do

as

as often as the Cafe fhall happen, until his Nominee is admitted.

By Sett. 13. As foon as the faid forty-nine Members fhall have been fo chofen by Lot, and the two Members to be added thereunto fhall have been fo nominated as aforefaid, the Door of the House shall be opened, and the Houfe may proceed upon any other Bufinefs, and Lifts of the forty-nine Members fo chofen by Lot fhall be given to the Petitioners, their Counfel or Agents, and the Counfel or Agents for the fitting Members, who fhall immediately withdraw, together with the Clerk appointed to attend the faid felect Committee; and the faid Petitioner and fitting Members, their Counsel or Agents, beginning on the Part of the Petitioners, fhall alternately ftrike off one of the faid forty-nine Members, un till the faid Number fhall be reduced to thirteen ; and the faid Clerk, within one Hour at fartheft from the Time of the Parties withdrawing from the Houfe, fhall deliver in the Names of the thirteen Members, together with the two Members nominated as aforefaid, fhall be fworn at the Table, well and truly to try the Matter of the Petition referred to them, and a true Judgment to give according to the Evidence, and fhall be a felect Committee to try and determine the Merits of the Return or Election. appointed by the Houfe, to be that Day taken into Confideration; and the Houfe fhall order the faid felect Committee to meet at a certain Time, to be fixed by the Houfe, which Time fhall be within twenty-four Hours of the Appointment of the faid felect Committee, unless a Sunday or Christmas Day' fhall intervene; and the Place of their meeting and fitting fhall be fome convenient Room or Place adjacent to the House of Commons, or Court of Requefts, properly prepared for that Purpose.

* F 3.

By

By Sect. 14. On the Parties withdrawing, the House fhall continue fitting; and the faid fifty-one Members, fo chofen and nominated, fhall not depart the Houfe, till the Time for the Meeting of the faid felect Committee fhall be fixed.

By Sect. 15. If upon the drawing out the Name of any Member by Lot as aforefaid, the faid Petitioners or fitting Members, or their Agents, fhall declare, that fuch Member is intended to be One of the two Nominees to be nominated by them refpectively, and if fuch Member fhall confent to fuch Nomination, the Name of fuch Member fo drawn by Lot fhall be fet aside, and, unless objected to as aforefaid, he fhall ferve as fuch Nominee, and the Name of another Member shall be drawn to fupply his Place, to complete the Number forty-nine Members to be drawn by Lot, and if the faid Petitioners or fitting Members, or their Agents, fhall not refpectively nominate a Member then prefent, who fhall be admitted according to the Directions of this Act, then the Want of fuch a Nomination fhall be fupplied, by drawing out, inftead thereof, the Name of one or two Members, as the Cafe fhall require, who shall be drawn by Lot in the like Manner, and subject to the like Objections and Excufes, as the other forty-nine Members already drawn by Lot, and fhall be added to the Lifts of the faid forty-nine Members, and fhall be liable to be ftruck off in the like Manner; leaving always the Number of fifteen Members in the Whole, and no more, as a felect Committee for the Purposes aforefaid.

By Seal, 16. The Names of all the Members fo written and rolled up as herein before directed, fhall, previous to the Day appointed for taking any fuch Petition into Confideration, be prepared by the faid Clerk Affiftant, and by him put into a Box or Parcel in the Prefence of the Speaker,

together

together with an Atteftation figned by the faid Clerk Affiftant, purporting, that the Names of all the Members were by him put therein the

in the Year

Day of which faid Box or Parcel the Speaker fhall feal with his own Seal, and to the Outfide thereof fhall annex an Atteftation figned by himself, purporting, that the faid Box or Parcel was on the

in the Year

Day of made up in his Prefence, in the Manner directed by this Act; and that as foon as the Parties fhall be withdrawn as aforefaid, and before the House shall enter on any other Business, any Member may require, that the Names of all the Members which remain undrawn fhall be drawn and read aloud by the faid Clerk Affiftant.

By Sect. 17. The faid felect Committee fhall, on their meeting, elect a Chairman from among fuch of the Members thereof as fhall have been chofen by Lot; and if in the Election of a Chairman, there be an equal Number of Voices, the Member whofe Name was firft drawn in the House fhall have a cafting Voice; fo likewife, in cafe there should ever be Occafion for electing a new Chairman, on Death or neceffary Abfence of the Chairman first elected.

By Sect. 18. The faid felect Committee shall have Power to fend for Perfons, Papers, and Records; and fhall examine all the Witneffes who fhall come before them upon Oath, and fhall try the Merits of the Return or Election, or both; and fhall determine by a Majority of Voices of the faid felect Committee, whether the Petitioners or the fitting Members, or either of them, be duly returned or elected, or whether the Election be void; which Determination fhall be final between the Parties to all Intents and Purposes: And the House, on being informed thereof *F 4

by