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XXIII.

Chapter that the office of postmaster-general should not be deemed a new office, disqualifying the holder from being elected, or sitting and voting as a member of the House of Commons: but that any member accepting the office, though eligible for re-election, should vacate his seat.1

secretaries

By the 22 Geo. III. c. 82, not more than two principal Undersecretaries of state could sit in the House of Commons; and of state. not more than one under-secretary to each department would appear to have been admissible to the House of Commons under the 15 Geo. II. c. 22, s. 3; and as doubts were entertained whether more than two under-secretaries could sit there, in practice there were, until 1855, only two undersecretaries who held seats in that house at the same time.2 But on the establishment of the secretary of state for war in 1855, an Act was passed to enable a third principal secretary, and a third under-secretary, to sit in the House of Commons; and again, in 1858, by the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 106, on the appointment of a fifth secretary of state for India, it was provided that four principal and four under-secretaries may sit as members of the House of Commons at the same time. In 1864, notice was taken that five under-secretaries had been sitting in the house, in violation of the latter Act, and a motion was made that the seat of the fifth under-secretary had been vacated. The house, however, referred the question to a committee, who reported that the seat of the undersecretary last appointed was not vacated. At the same time, as the law had been inadvertently infringed, it was thought necessary to pass a bill of indemnity. An Act, 27 & 28 Vict. c. 34, was also passed, providing that in future, if, when there are four under-secretaries in the house, another member accepts the office of under-secretary, his seat shall be vacated, and he shall not be re-eligible while four other under-secretaries continue to sit in the house. If

1 For similar provisions in later statutes see 34 & 35 Vict. c. 70, s. 4 (president of the local government board); 48 & 49 Vict. c. 61, s. 3 (secretary for Scotland); 52 & 53 Vict. c. 30, s. 8 (president of board of agriculture); 62 & 63 Vict. c. 33,

8

s. 8 (1) (president of the board of
education). See also amendment
of 7 Geo. IV. c. 32 (president of
board of trade) by 51 & 52 Vict. c.
57.

2 2 Hatsell, 63, n.

3174 H. D. 3 s. 1218. 1231, &c.

Cumula

tive offices.

First lord of the

treasury,

cellor of

the exchequer.

XXIII

five secretaries or under-secretaries are returned at a general Chapter
election, none shall be capable of sitting and voting until
the number is reduced to the statutory limit. And the
same rule is further applied to other offices, of which the
number may be limited by statute.

The Act of Anne has, in some cases, been held not to
apply to the acceptance of other offices of state, by gentle-
men already holding office from the Crown. Thus the
acceptance of the paid offices of lord justice in England
and in Ireland, when held in conjunction with other offices
of state, was ruled not to vacate seats in Parliament, as
appears from the cases of Mr. Craggs, Mr. Walpole, and
Lord Midleton.1

After the Revolution of 1688, the office of lord high treasurer being executed by commissioners, it was customary and chan- for the first commissioner (or lord) of the treasury to hold also the office of chancellor of the exchequer. Among other examples may be mentioned that of Sir R. Walpole in 1716, and again from 1721 to 1741; of Mr. Pitt from 1783 to 1801, and again in 1804 until his death; of Mr. Canning in 1827, and Sir Robert Peel in 1834. But as the two offices were generally accepted at the same time, no question arose as to the vacation of the seat. In 1770, however, Lord North, being then chancellor of the exchequer, accepted also the office of first lord of the treasury. On that occasion, no new writ was moved, nor was any doubt expressed as to the legal effect of the acceptance of this second office. Again, in October, 1809, Mr. Spencer Perceval, while chancellor of the exchequer, succeeded the Duke of Portland as first lord of the treasury, but retained his former office. Doubts were expressed by Lord Redesdale, whether he had not vacated his seat: but Lord Chancellor Eldon and Mr. Speaker Abbot agreed that he had not; and no new writ was issued. In August, 1873, Mr. Gladstone, already first

See offices without salary, p. 650.

1 2 Hatsell, 47.

2 2 Lord Colchester's Diary, 214. 215. Lord Eldon wrote, 25th Dec. 1809, "I think Mr. P.'s seat is not void by any acceptance of any office

of profit since his election. The Act
has not said that if the king gives an
increase of profit to a person already
holding an office of profit, his seat
shall be void, but only that if any

XXIII.

Chapter lord of the treasury, further assumed the office of chancellor of the exchequer. Controversy ensued as to the legal consequences of this proceeding: but as Parliament was dissolved during the recess, the complicated questions involved in this case, including former precedents under the Act of Anne, and the due construction of remedial provisions of the Reform Act of 1867, did not become the subject of adjudication.1

2

4

3

commands.

By the 6 Anne, c. 41, s. 27, the receipt of a new or other New army commission by a member who is in the army or navy, is commisexcepted from the operation of the Act, and does not vacate sions. his seat; and the same exception has been extended, by construction, to officers in the marines; and to the office of master-general or lieutenant-general in the ordnance, accepted by an officer in the army; and to military governments accepted by officers in the army. On the 9th Military June, 1733, General Wade having accepted the office of governor of the three military forts in Scotland, it was resolved that the acceptance of such an office by a member, being an officer in the army, did not vacate his seat." The acceptance of a commission in the militia does not vacate the seat of a member. It has always been held that the Ambasoffice of ambassador, or other foreign minister, does not dis-sador. qualify, nor its acceptance vacate the seat of a member: but the acceptance of the office of consul or consul-general has been deemed to vacate a seat, though the member was

person accepts an office of profit his
seat shall be void."

"I think with you," wrote the
Speaker," that under the statute of
Anne, there must be the concurrence
of office and profit conjointly in the
new grant, which is to vacate the
seat; to reaccept the same office
under a new commission has never,
in practice, been held to vacate a
seat; and the acceptance of a new
annexation of profit to an office
already in possession, has been con-
sidered equally free from the same
consequences," 2 Walpole, Life of
Spencer Perceval, 51-54.

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Pensionholders.

Offices without salary.

Petitioning candidates

considered to be re-eligible.1 By 22 & 23 Vict. c. 5, it was
declared that persons holding diplomatic pensions were not
disqualified from being elected or sitting and voting in the
House of Commons. And by 32 & 33 Vict. c. 15, pensions,
&c., for civil services, under the Superannuation Acts, do
not disqualify the holder from being elected, or sitting or
voting, as a member of the House of Commons. A recorder
is eligible to serve in Parliament except for the borough of
which he is recorder.2

In January, 1821, Mr. Bathurst held temporarily the
presidentship of the board of control, without its emolu-
ments, in connection with another cabinet office then held
by him; and under those circumstances did not vacate his
seat; and the holder of a new office, created in 1887, of
parliamentary under-secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland, did not come within the scope of 41 Geo. III. c. 52
(see p. 640), because no salary or profit attached to the
office.4

At one time it was doubted whether a candidate claiming eligible. a seat in Parliament by petition, was eligible for another place before the determination of his claim: but it was resolved, on the 16th April, 1728, "that a person petitioning, and thereby claiming a seat for one place, is capable of being elected and returned, pending such petition." 5 In case the petitioner should, after his election, establish his claim to the disputed seat, the proper course would appear

12 Hatsell, 22. 54; 106 C. J. 12 (Dungarvan writ).

2 3 & 4 Vict. c. 108, s. 66; 45 & 46
Vict. c. 50, s. 163. New writs issued
on acceptance of office, 125 C. J.
412; 148 ib. 392. 615; 150 ib. 3.

33 Lord Sidmouth's Life, 339.
* 15th and 28th April, 1887, 313
H. D. 3 s. 888. 1003; see also n. 1
p. 648. In 1881 and 1906 new
writs were issued in the cases of Mr.
Herbert Gladstone and Mr. Fuller,
who had accepted lordships of the
treasury, without salary. A new
writ was not issued in the case of a
member, who having accepted a

lordship of the treasury without
salary before his election, was
subsequently made a lord of the
treasury with salary, 152 Parl.
Deb. 4 s. 97. See also the answer
to a question, 21st January, 1897,
as to a member of the house acting
as a commissioner of assize and
also the personal explanation of
the member himself, 45 ib. 196,
200.

5 21 C. J. 135; 2 Hatsell, 73. It
seems also that a person returned
for one place may petition for
another, Rogers on Elections, part ii.
(17th ed. revised 1900), p. 178.

Chapter
XXIII

XXIII.

Chapter to be to allow him to make his election for which place he would serve, in the same manner as if he had been returned for both places at a general election.1

Members returned for two

places, see p. 652.

Whenever any question is raised, affecting the seat of a Questions affecting member, and involving matters of doubt, either in law or the seat of fact, it is customary to refer it to the consideration of a members. committee.2

contro

Before the year 1770, controverted elections were tried Trial of and determined by the whole House of Commons, as mere verted party questions, upon which the strength of contending factions might be tested.3

The

election.

tion of

Grenville

In order to prevent so notorious a perversion of justice, Constituthe house consented to submit the exercise of its privilege committees to a tribunal constituted by law, which, though composed under the of its own members, should be appointed so as to secure Act. impartiality, and the administration of justice according to the laws of the land, and under the sanction of oaths. principle of the Grenville Act, and of others which were passed at different times since 1770, was the selection by lot of committees for the trial of election petitions. Partiality and incompetence were, however, generally complained of in the constitution of committees appointed in this manner; and in 1839, an Act was passed establishing a new system, upon different principles, increasing the responsibility of individual members, and leaving but little to the operation of chance.

This principle was maintained, with partial alterations of Present the means by which it was carried out, until 1868, when system. the jurisdiction of the house, in the trial of controverted

'This point was considered in 1849, when such a case seemed likely to occur; but there have been no precedents.

2 Case of Mr. Wynn (Stewardship of Denbigh), 94 C. J. 58; of Mr. Whittle Harvey, registered hackney carriages, ib. 29; of Mr. Hawes (see p. 170); of Baron Rothschild, as a government contractor (see p. 32); of Sir B. O'Loghlen (see p. 641); of succession to a peerage (Earldom of Sel

borne) (see p. 633, n.); of the holding
of a single election in a case of two
writs being issued (see p. 638); and of
the grant of the Chiltern Hundreds
to a member who has succeeded to
a peerage (see p. 634, n.).

3 E.g. Sir Robert Walpole's resig-
nation (1741) in consequence of an
adverse vote upon the Chippenham
Election petition; see also 1 Caven-
dish, Deb. 476. 505; 1 May, Const.
Hist. (7th ed.), 362.

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