RETURNING OFFICER • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Returning officer

... two years. Every cause deserves that it should be tried according to its nature and circumstances; and in the case of the Colchester Committee, in the trial of paltry briberies of odd pounds, shillings, and pence, in the corruption of a returning officer, who is but a miller, they spent nearly the same number of days that we have been inquiring into the ruin of kingdoms by the peculation and bribery of the chief governor of the provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa. Therefore God ...

— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. X. (of 12) • Edmund Burke