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Chapter I. of any office, service, or employment; and the county and borough 101. occupation franchise is substituted, in the counties, for the 127. rateable value occupation franchise of 1867, and, as regards boroughs, for the 10l. occupation franchise of 1832.1

tion.

By whatever right these various classes of persons claim Registrato vote, either for counties or for cities and boroughs, it is necessary that they shall be registered in lists prepared by the overseers of each parish. On certain days courts are beld, by barristers appointed by the Lord Chief Justice of England and the Senior Judge of each Summer Circuit, to revise these lists, when claims may be made by persons omitted, and objections may be offered to any name inserted by the overseers. If an objection be sustained, the name is struck off the list; and the claimant will have no right to vote at any ensuing election unless he shall succeed, at a subsequent registration, in establishing his claim: but, in certain cases, there is an appeal to the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice from the decisions of revising barristers; 2 and the register is corrected in accordance with the judgment of that court.

The last change which took place in the law relating to registration was effected by the Registration Act, 1885. The chief peculiarity of this Act is the extension of the borough system of registration to counties, the far greater minuteness with which the duties of overseers are defined, and the elaborate instructions and directions given to them. in the precepts in the schedules of the Act.

tion of

It has not been attempted to explain, in detail, all the Qualificadistinctions of the elective franchise; neither is it proposed voters. to state all the grounds upon which persons may be disqualified from voting. Aliens, persons under twenty-one years of age, of unsound mind, in receipt of parochial relief, or convicted of certain offences, are incapable of voting. Many officers, also, concerned in the collection of the

1 Stephen's Blackstone, ed. 1890, ii. 364; Rogers on Elections, 16th ed. part i. xxxviii.

22 & 3 Will. IV. c. 45; 6 & 7

3

Vict. c. 18; 41 & 42 Vict. c. 26.
Rogers on Elections, 16th ed.
part i. xlii.

Qualifications and

cations of

members

revenue were formerly disqualified: but by recent statutes Chapter I. all these disabilities have been removed.1

The legal qualifications and disqualifications for sitting disqualifi- and voting in Parliament may now be briefly enumerated. The property qualification which, since the reign of Queen for sitting Anne,2 had been required for members sitting for places in and voting. England and Ireland, was in the year 1858 abolished by the Act 21 & 22 Vict. c. 26.

Abolition of property qualifica

tion.

Aliens.

Formerly it was necessary that the member chosen should himself be one of the body represented. The law, however, was constantly disregarded, and in 1774 was repealed.1 An alien is disqualified to be a member of either House of Parliament.5 The Act 12 & 13 Will. III. c. 2, declared that "no persons born out of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, or Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging (although he be naturalized or made a denizen, except such as are born of English parents), shall be capable to be of the privy council, or a member of either House of Parliament." The 1 Geo. I. stat. 2, c 4, in order to enforce the provisions of the Act of William, required a special clause of disqualification to be inserted in every Naturalization Act: but as no clause of this nature could bind future Parliaments, occasional exceptions were permitted, as in the cases of Prince Leopold in 1816, and Prince Albert in 1840; and this provision of the 1st George I. was repealed by the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 66, s. 2. Later Naturalization Acts have since been passed, without such a disqualifying clause.

By Acts 31 & 32 Vict. c. 73, and 37 & 38 Vict. c. 22, revenue officers were restored to the right of voting.

2 By 9 Anne, c. 5; 33 Geo. II. c. 20; 1 & 2 Vict. c. 48.

31 Peck. 19; 1 Hen. V. c. 1; 8
Hen. VI. c. 7; 10 Hen. VI. c. 2; 23
Hen. VI. c. 15.

4 14 Geo. III. c. 58.
57 & 8 Vict. c. 66, s. 6.

In 1765 the judges were unani-
mously of opinion, "That an alien
married to a king of Great Britain

And by the 33 & 34 Vict.

is, by operation of the law of the
Crown (which is part of the common
law), to be deemed as a natural-born
person from the time of such mar-
riage, so as not to be disabled by the
Act 12 Will. III." 31 L. J. 174.

Lowther's Naturalization Act,
1866; Bischoffsheim, Baron de Fer-
rieres, and Lange's Acts, 1867; Bolc-
kow's Act, 1868; De Virte's and
Mackay's Acts, 1877; Ramingen's
Act, 1880.

Chapter I. c. 14, an alien to whom a certificate of naturalization is granted by the Secretary of State, becomes entitled to all political and other rights, powers, and privileges, and is subject to all the obligations of a British subject.1

For procedure re

2

By standing order No. 12, the Lords prescribe that no lord Minors. under the age of twenty-one years shall sit in their house. By the 7 & 8 Will. III. c. 25, s. 8, a minor was disqualified to be elected to the House of Commons. Before the passing of that Act, several members were notoriously under age, yet their sitting was not objected to. Sir Edward Coke said that they sat "by connivance: but if questioned would be put out; yet on the 16th December, 1690, on the hearing of a controverted election, Mr. Trenchard, though admitted by his counsel to be a minor, was declared upon a division to be duly elected. And even after the passing of the Act of Will. III., some minors sat "by connivance." Charles James Fox was returned for Midhurst when he was nineteen years and four months old, and sat and spoke before he was of age; and Lord John Russell was returned for Tavistock a month before he came of age.5

4

already

By the law of Parliament a member already returned Members garding the for one place, is ineligible for any other, until his first seat sitting. of the Chil is vacated; and hence it is the practice for a member,

acceptance

dreds, see

p. 642.

tern Hun- desiring to represent some other place, to accept the Chiltern Hundreds, or other similar office under the Crown, in order to render himself eligible at the election.

Mental imbecility is a disqualification; and should a Mental imbecility. member, who was sane at the time of his election, afterwards become a lunatic, his seat may be dealt with under the provisions of the Lunacy Vacating of Seats Act, 1886 (see p. 637).

Vacation English peers are ineligible to the House of Commons, Peers and

of seat on succession

1 See also 33 & 34 Vict. c. 102; to the peer- 35 & 36 Vict. c. 39. age, see p.

633.

2 10th March, 1623; 1 C. J. 681.
3 2 Hatsell, 9; 10 C. J. 508; see,
however, the case of Sir Wilfred
Lawson, 1717, 18 C. J. 672.

4 1 Memorials of Fox, 51.

Earl Russell, Recollections and
Suggestions.

For the law on this subject prior

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judges.

as having a seat in the upper house; and Scotch peers, Chapter I. as being represented there, by virtue of the Act of Union:1 but Irish peers, unless elected as one of the representative peers of Ireland, may sit for any place in Great Britain.2 The English, Scotch, and Irish judges are disqualified,3 together with the holders of various offices particularly excluded by statutes. A large class of offices which in- Offices capacitate the holders for Parliament are new offices, or Crown, see places of profit under the Crown, created since the 25th P. 640. October, 1705,5 as defined by the 6 Anne, c. 41, s. 24; Disqualifi and also new offices in Ireland under the 33 Geo. III. c. 41. also p. 641. Pensions. The holders of certain pensions from the Crown are dis

Offices.

Sheriffs and returning officers.

qualified by statute. But pensions granted under 4 & 5
Will. IV. c. 24 and 22 Vict. c. 26, for civil and diplomatic
services, do not disqualify the holders from being elected,
or sitting and voting (see p. 650).

under the

cations, see

casting vote

The sheriff of a county is not eligible for that county: For the nor is a returning officer capable of being elected for his of the returning own city or borough. By the Scotch Reform Act, 1832 officer, see p. 653.

The provisions of the law are sufficiently distinct upon that point; and there are numerous precedents of new writs issued in the room of members becoming peers of Scotland; e.g. Earl of Dysart, 10th Nov. 1707; Lord Galloway, 13th Jan. 1774; Earl of Lauderdale, 22nd Jan. 1790; Earl of Eglinton, 3rd Nov. 1796; Marquess of Queensberry, 3rd. Feb. 1857, &c.

2 Act of Union, 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 67.

3 The English judges by the law of Parliament, 1 C. J. 257; and by the Judicature Act, 1873, s. 9; and Judicature Act Amendment Act, 1875, s. 5; the Scotch judges, by 7 Geo. II. c. 16; the Irish judges, by 1 & 2 Geo. IV. c. 44; the judge of the Admiralty Court, by 3 & 4 Vict. c. 66; see Debate on the Judges' Exclusion Bill, 1st June, 1853. The Master of the Rolls alone enjoyed an exemption from this disability until the passing of the Judicature Act,

1873. County Court judges are also
ineligible by 51 & 52 Vict. c. 43 s. 8;
Recorders (see p. 650).

That all the special disqualifica-
tions for Parliament cannot be enu-
merated within the limits of this
chapter, will be believed, when it is
stated that they were to be collected
from at least 116 statutes. See
Pamphlet by the Author, on the
Consolidation of the Election Laws,
1850; see also Index to Statutes, by
Statute Law Committee, tit. House
of Commons, 2 (a), (b).

Mr. Whittle Harvey's case, 94 C. J. 48; Major Jarvis, 1866; Mr. Forsyth's case, Counsel to Secretary of State for India, 1866, 121 ib. 220. 66 Anne, c. 41, s. 24; 1 Geo. I. stat. 2, c. 56.

Rogers on Elections, part ii. 17th ed. (revised 1900) p. 5; 2 Hat. sell, 30-34; 4 Dougl. 87. 123; 9 C. J. 725 (Thetford Case); Wakefield Case, Barron & Austin, 295.

Chapter I. (s. 36), no sheriff substitute, sheriff clerk, or deputy sheriff clerk is entitled to be elected for his own shire; nor any town clerk, or deputy town clerk, for his own city, borough, town, or district.

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tors.

By the 41 Geo. III. c. 63, which arose out of Mr. Horne Clergy. Tooke's election, it is declared that "no person having been ordained to the office of priest or deacon, or being a minister of the Church of Scotland, is capable of being elected;" and that if he should sit or vote, he is liable to forfeit 5001. for each day, to any one who may sue for the same.1 The Roman Catholic clergy were also excluded by 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, s. 9. But by the 33 & 34 Vict. c. 91, when a person has relinquished in due form his office of priest or deacon in the Church of England, he is discharged from all disabilities and disqualifications, including that of 41 Geo. III. c. 63, and is therefore eligible to sit in Parliament. Government contractors, being supposed to be liable to Contracthe influence of their employers, are disqualified from serving in Parliament. The Act 22 Geo. III. c. 45 declares that any person who shall, directly or indirectly, himself, or by any one in trust for him, undertake any contract with a government department, shall be incapable of being elected, or of sitting or voting during the time he shall hold such contract, or any share thereof, or any benefit or emolument arising from the same; but the Act does not affect incorporated trading companies, contracting in their corporate capacity. The penalties for violations of the Act are severe. A contractor sitting or voting is liable to forfeit 5001. for every day on which he shall sit or vote, to any person who may sue for the same; and every person against whom this penalty shall be recovered, is incapable of holding any contract. The Act also imposes a penalty of 5001. upon any person who admits a member of the House of Commons to a share of a contract.2 The Act 41 Geo. III.

1 Mr. Horne Tooke was excepted from the Act; 35 Parl. Hist. 1343. 1402. 1414. 1542. 1544. For the former law on this subject, see 8 C. J. 341. 346; 1 ib. 27 (13th Oct.

1553); 1 ib. 513 (8th Feb. 1620); 2
Hatsell, 12.

See Report, 15th March, 1869,
on case of Sir Sydney Waterlow.

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