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Note.-In page 3, the statutes referred to in notes (ƒ) and (8) have ex-
pired, and their provisions are re-enacted by 3 G. 4. c. 55. s. 14.

A SUMMARY

OF THE

LAW OF ELECTIONS.

CHAP. I.

Of the Elective Franchise.

THE right of voting for the choice of representatives to serve in Parliament, depends upon different qualifications, according to the different places for which it is exercised, but there are certain causes of disability which are attached to the person, and exclude those whom they affect from exercising the franchise any where.

The elective franchise does not extend to infants; (") Of persons not qualified nor women; (b) nor aliens, (C) unless made denizens by to vote. letters patent, or naturalized by Act of Parliament;

(d) nor

ideots; (e) nor lunatics, except during lucid intervals; (ƒ) but mere imbecility is not a sufficient exclusion, if the voter at the time understands what he is doing. () Papists in Great Britain are disabled if they refuse the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, or abjuration. (h) Persons convicted of felony are disqualified, so of perjury and subornation of perjury; (*) so of bribery; but the mere declara

7.8. W. 3. c. 25, s. 8. (*) 4 Inst. 5.

() 12 Jour. 367. See 2 Peck, 117. (d) Foreign seamen, who in time of war serve two years on board an English ship, by virtue of the King's proclamation are naturalized, 13 G. 2, c. 3. So foreign Protestants and Jews having resided in any of the American colonies without an absence of two months at a time, ibid. c. 7. So foreign Protestants serving two years in the army there, 2 G. 3, c. 25. Or serving three years in the whale fishery, and properly qualify. ing themselves by taking the necessary oaths, either in the superior

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Of persons not qualified to vote.

tion by a Committee, that a person has been guilty of bribery, will not operate as a disqualification. (") Where the Committee has specially reported to the House the names of certain electors who had taken bribes, an Act of Parliament has been passed for their disfranchisement by name. (b)

Whether outlawry in civil suits, or excommunication, creates a disability, has not yet been determined. (©)

Some are excluded for the purpose of securing the freedom of election, as Peers; (d) Irish Peers, except when members of the House of Commons themselves. () Revenue officers are disqualified. As commissioners and others concerned in managing the duties of excise or customs, or the duties on stamps, salt, windows, or houses, or in managing the revenue of the post-office, as well as captains or mates of mail packets; (f) but commissioners of the land-tax, and persons acting under them, are excepted from disqualification, () as well as those holding freehold offices by letters patent. (4)

The occasional employment, during the sickness or absence of excise officers, of a person formerly discharged from the office, and not upon the restored list, for which employment he received an annual stipend from the collector, to be allowed by the board at their discretion, was holden no disqualification. (i)

The captain of a Custom-house cutter, who had secretly resigned the command to another, from whom he received an annuity as a compensation, he himself having no longer any concern in the cutter, was holden a good voter. (*) But where the voter held the office of post-master under a regular appointment, but the duties were performed by an inn-keeper, who received the salary for his own use, the correspondence with the London Post-office being carried on in the voter's name, his vote was disallowed. () So was that of the husband of a post-mistress, she having been appointed to the office before her marriage. (m)

A person once appointed office-keeper by the commis

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to vote.

sioners of excise, to see certain entries signed, without Of persons fee or salary, but who had given up the appointment, and not qualified his wife had received the deputation, was holden not disqualified. (")

A sub-distributor of stamps appointed by the distributor, not by the commissioners, who exercised no controul over him, though he would have been dismissed by the distributor, if disapproved of by them, the distributor being answerable for the money he received, out of which he allowed him a per centage, and authorized him to sign certain licences, was considered a good vote. (b) A subdeputy appointed by a country post-master to distribute letters in a certain district, and receive the postage at a certain profit per mile on each letter, whose name was not in the post-office books, was not disqualified. (©) Nor the guard of a mail coach. (d) Collectors of the duties on houses and windows are within the disqualifying words of the 22 G. 3, c. 41, s. 1.; but being appointed by the commissioners of the land tax are protected, by an exception in sect. 2. of the same Act, and not disqualified. () Police magistrates, receivers of fees at the police offices, and constables whilst they remain in office and for three months afterwards, are incapable of voting for Middlesex, Surrey, or Westminster, or Southwark,() and the same incapacity is extended to those of the Thames Police. (8) But farmers of the post-office duty being collectors thereof, (h) and corn and coal meters not receiving, or being entitled to receive any fee or salary out of the revenue of customs, or other public revenues of the Crown, (i) are exempted from the operations of the disqualifying statutes.

Another disqualification arises from the receipt of alms, within a limited time before the Election, generally a year, (*) though in particular cases this period is extended either by Act of Parliament as in London. () A determination of the House of Commons, (") or special usage.

In the application of the general rule as to the receipt of

() 1 Peck, 373. (but see the case of John Hawkins, Wootton Bassett, 1817.)

(6) 2 Lud. 552; 1 Fras. 164; 1 Peck. 373.

() 2 Lud. 562, but see Glasgow, 1 Peck. 354.

(4) 2 Fras. 454.

2 Lud. 551. See 20 G. 3, c. 3,
(f) 54 G. 3, c. 37, s. 15.
(5) Ibid. c. 187, s. 36.
(4) 27 G. 3, c. 26, s. 15.
(i) 51 G. 3, c. 84.

(*) 2 Doug. 126.

11 G. 1, c. 18, s. 14.
(") Reading, 2 Doug. 105.

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