Mr. SHELLABARGER. Iwillanswer that if the gentleman will bear with me until I come to one after another of the suggestions. Now, my proposition is this: that the law of Pennsylvania requires this district board to count the votes ofallae counties; that anything less than that is not a compliance with the aw; that that is shown by the return itself not to have been done; that therefore the return is insig nificant in law; and hence, just as the AttyGen and the Governor of Pennsylvania decided, it was rejected as good for nothing. Then we have these i eas, which I beg to impress upon any gentleman who desires information in regard to this question: 1st, that the Governor of the State decided that this district return, in which Somerset county was omitted, was worthless, and could not be made the predicate of his action. 2nd, that that opinion was based upon the opinion of Mr. Meredith, the AttyGen of the State of Pennsylvania. 3rd, that that is a return made in express, direct, and palpable violation, or rather disre gard, of the requirements of the laws of Pennsylvania, which require that that board shall count all the votes given. 4th, that if you permit the sweeping away of a brid e or the sickness of a return judge or any other accident to deprive the people of their choice, and make a return binding which is made in absence of that part of the district kept out by such accident, then you have put it into the power of bad men, as well as of an accident, to change the result in any election in any congressional district in the U.S.; and 5th, that there is no such practical difficulty in the case as the majority of the committee suggest, to wit, that the vote of Somerset county could not be had. It could be had, at any rate upon a contest, or an inquiry into the merits of the case which would reach to and bring up the returns of the precincts and far better than to permit a man by ab senting himself to change the result inany congressional district, will it be to have no return at all, and let the body that has the control of the question, whether it be court or HoRep, send for the evidence that will show who is elected. This report of the board is a mere instrumentality, a mere method of getting at the truth. Then why take a position which will enable a bad man to change the result rather than resort to that other expedient to await the sending for and procuring the returns that lie back of this return of the board. Now, I come to the question last asked by my colleague, [Mr. RnnFoun] as to what would have been the consequence if this man from Somerset had gone into the board. Now, that is a very pertinent question; and it is one that it is exceedingly easy to answer. Had he gone into the board, as it was then constituted and convened, with the kind of returns that they had there, and had the return of Somerset county been counted in with those that were there on that day, then the result would have been a small majority for Mr. Coffroth.