After the question of the Pensions inquiry had been disposed
of, Mr. CHARLES BULLER moved that his Controverted Elections Bill should be " catnmitted." The bill is not to be pres,ed till after the recess ; the author very quietly telling Sir Robert Peel, that he merely moved pro forma, and that he did not intend to proceed with his bill till the 7th of February. Afterwards, in reply to a question from Sir ROBERT PEEL, Mr. I311.1.en stated, that the last clause, which post- poned the operation of the measure till after the close of the present session, was copied by mistake front the bill of last session, and that he always intended that his measure should come into operation as coon as it was passed. Alt. Buller did not explain why he suppressed this fact when appealed to by Sir Robert Peel on the second reading, arid also when Mr. O'Connell declared that he was to move the omission of that clause. He has probably gathered boldness, since the 27th November, by out-of-doors backing.
For an ex post fiicto ttibunal, precedents and authorities are quoted by the Ministerial journalists, from a brief furnished them, and which we too have encountered, vied rya', in the course of the week. The Central Criminal Court had power to try offences committed before it was established; and Sir Romer PELL'S Jury Bill constituted an ex post facto tribunal. But the analogy between these measures and Mr. &tames happens to fail in this important particular—that the thieves and other criminals did not reconstruct the court in which they were to be tried; they were not permitted to constitute thereselves'judges in their own cause.
Our objection to the ex post facto character of the election tribunal was, that although plausible reasons might be :Avowed in support of it in Parliament, it would go forth to the country, and be regarded by the people, in no other light than as the arbitrary act of a majority to secure a party purpose by setting aside the established law. By fixing days for the regular trial of the controverted elections, Lord Jolts: RUSSELL has rendered the bill comparatively harmless in this respect. The House of Lords will do the rest.
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