Members returned for two places. Double returns. elections was transferred by statute to the courts of law Chapter (see p. 654). 3 2 XXIII bers should At the commencement of each session, the house agrees Sessional orders, Apto resolutions dealing with the case of members who are pendix I. returned for two or more places in any part of the United Kingdom. This order regulates the manner of choosing When memfor which place a member will sit when he has been withdraw, returned for more than one, and his withdrawal from the see p. 350. house, if debate arose upon the matter of his election. When the time limited for presenting petitions to the court against his return has expired, and no petition has been presented, he is required to make his election within a week, in order that his constituents may no longer be deprived of a representative. This election may either be made by the member in his place or by a letter addressed to the Speaker. When a petition has been presented against his return for one place only, he cannot elect to serve for either. He cannot abandon the seat petitioned against, which may be proved to belong of right to another, and thus render void an election which may turn out to have been good in favour of some other candidate; neither can he abandon the other seat; because if it should be proved that he is only entitled to sit for one, he has no election to make, and cannot give up a seat without having incurred some legal disqualification, such as the acceptance of office, or bankruptcy. Upon this principle, on the 24th May, 1842, Mr. O'Connell, who had been chosen for the counties of Cork and Meath, elected to sit for the former, directly after the report of the election committee, by which he was declared to have been duly elected for that county.5 When there is a double return, there are two certificates Notice of 1 103 C. J. 99. 100. 2 Mr. O'Connell, 24th May, 1842, 97 ib. 302; Mr. Gathorne Hardy, 21st Feb. 1866, 121 ib. 104; also 141 ib. 28; 142 ib. 4. 3 Mr. C. Villiers, 8th Dec. 1847; Mr. Callan, 19th March, 1874; Mr. Parnell, 11th May, 1880, 103 ib. 99; intention 4 Case of Mr. O'Connell, 1841, 96 Chapter Return amended, see p. 658. Sessional endorsed on the writ,1 and both the names are entered in the ference of The house, also, agrees to resolutions in condemnation Interorders, Ap of irregular practices to influence the freedom of election peers and regarding the votes of peers, and the interference of ministers. pendix I. The ancient form of an indenture was abolished by the Parliamentary and Municipal Elections Act, 1872, 1st sch. s. 44. 2 In Report, Oaths of Members, 1848, See Helston Election Petition 4 35 Geo. III. c. 29, s. 13, and 4 Geo. IV. c. 55, s. 68, repealed by 5 Rogers on Elections, part i. In the South Northumberland election, 1878, the sheriff declined to give his casting vote, and made a double return. See debates in the Lords, 27th June, 1853, 128 H. D. 3 s. 791: 5th July, 1858, 151 ib. 926. 927. Opinion of attorney-general, 24th Nov. 1882, 275 ib. 121. In 1872, the legal question of the right of peers to vote, or to be entered upon the register of voters, was conclusively decided by the Court of Common Pleas. The Earl of Beauchamp and the Marquess of Salisbury, having had their Election Petitions, &c., Act, 1868, and peers and lord-lieutenants1 and bribery at parliamentary Chapter elections. On the 10th December, 1779, the Commons resolved that it was "highly criminal in any minister or ministers, or other servants under the Crown of Great Britain, directly or indirectly to use the powers of office in the election of representatives to serve in Parliament, &c." 2 By the Election Petitions and Corrupt Practices at Elections Act, 1868, the Parliamentary Elections and later at Corrupt Practices Act, 1879, and the statute 44 & 45 Vict. c. 68, the trial of controverted elections is confided to two judges, selected, as regards England, from the King's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice; as regards Ireland, from the Court of Common Pleas at Dublin; and names struck off the register by the 1 In February, 1868, two bishops 68 ib. 844; 26 H. D. 796. 989, &c. 237 C. J. 507. XXIII Chapter as regards Scotland, from the Court of Session. XXIII. Petitions Election petitions presented be tried judges. election complaining of undue elections and returns are The judges are also to report the withdrawal of an election On the 1st June, 1874, Mr. O'Donnell (lately member for Galway) appeared at the bar and claimed to make a statement before the certificate of the judge, by which he was unseated, was read: but the Speaker informed him that it appeared from the judge's certificate that he was disqualified from sitting, and that he therefore was not entitled to be heard, 129 C. J. 184. ment, 2 The Election Petitions Act, Shorthand 1868, s. 24, directs that notes of writer of Parlia evidence given at an election trial shall be taken by the shorthand writer of the House of Commons, whose transcript shall be sent to the Speaker with the judge's certificate. The shorthand writer does not report proceedings on the withdrawal of a petition. Commissions. Proceed in election. XXIII corrupt practices have extensively prevailed is equivalent Chapter In addition to these inquiries by election judges, if upon A few words will suffice to explain the proceedings of the ings of the house, so far as its judicature is still exercised in matters of matters of election. It being enacted by sec. 50 of the Election Petitions, &c., Act, 1868, that "no election or return to Parliament shall be questioned except in accordance with the provisions of this Act," doubts were expressed whether this provision would not supersede the jurisdiction of the house, in determining questions affecting the seats of its own members, not arising out of controverted elections. It is plain, however, that this section applied to the questioning of returns by election petitions only. Under the procedure in force before the Election Petition Act, 1868, when returns were questioned, by petition, the matter was determined by the statutory tribunal; otherwise the house uniformly exercised its constitutional jurisdiction. And such continues to be the position of the house, after the judicature of its election committees had been transferred to the judges. In the autumn of 1868, an election petition had been presented to the Court of Session in Scotland, complaining of the election of Sir Sydney Waterlow for the county of Dumfries, on the ground of his holding a government contract. In the ensuing session, however, the petition having been withdrawn, a select committee was appointed to" consider |