fully admitted, hear and determine the same, and if no such complaint be exhibited within the four months, the freeholder shall continue on the roll until an alteration of his circumstances be allowed by the freeholders at a Michaelmas meeting or meetings for an election as a sufficient cause for striking or leaving him out of the roll. Lord Glenbervie takes notice, that no express provision has been made by 16 G. 2. c. 11. s. 4., for an application to the sessions, 1st, Where 'an objection is made at the meeting of freeholders, but is overruled by them; and 2ndly, where a man has once been admitted on the roll, and has stood there for the necessary time either not objected to, or objected to without success; and an objection is taken to his vote from a subsequent change of circumstance. Both of these cases, however, have been determined to be within the meaning of the act. 2 Doug. 364. No conveyance or right whatsoever, whereupon infeoff- 12 A. c. 6. s. 1. ment is not taken and seisin registrated one year before the teste of the writ for a new Parliament, and in case of an election during a Parliament, whereupon infeoffment is not taken one year before the date of the warrant for making out the writ, shall, upon objection made, entitle the person so infeoft to vote or be elected at that election. No infeoffment upon any redeemable right whatsoever (except proper wadsets, adjudications, or apprisings allowed by the act of 1681) shall entitle the person so infeoft to vote or be elected for any shire or stewartry. s. 3. A wadset is a conveyance of an estate, capable of being enjoyed until 3 Lud. 376. it is redeemed, but liable to redemption on payment of a sum either really 4 Doug. 201. or supposed to be advanced upon it. A proper wadset (which, according to the act of 1681, gives a right to vote) is where the lender is to trust only to the rents for his interest, and to enjoy the benefit, if they exceed, and to bear the loss, if they fall short of the amount, paying the public burthens at the same time. An improper wadset (which does not give a right to vote) is where the lender is to account for the rents, deducting only the interest when there is an excess, and receiving the difference when there is a deficiency, (as is the practice in the case of heritable bonds, the common security in Scotland.) The person entitled to redeem the estate, is called a reverser, and as long as his right continues he may vote. Adjudications or apprisings, after the expiration of the legal reversion, give a right to vote. L C. 2. 3 Parl. 1681. c. 21. Apparent heirs life renters and husbands Apparent heirs in possession by virtue of their predecessors infeoffment and life renters, (tenants for life) in possession, and husbands for the freeholds of their wives, or having right to a life rent by the curtesy, if such life renters put in their claim are entitled to vote, if not the fiar (i. e. remainder man in fee) may vote, but both fiar and life renter shall not vote, unless they have distinct lands of the holding extent or valuation required. in right of wives and by curtesy, other wise the fiar may vote. 12 A. c. 6. s.7. Husbands not No husbands shall vote by virtue of their wives' into vote by vir. feoffments who are not heiresses, or have not right to the tue of infeoffof the land, on account whereof such vote shall be claimed. ments of wives, unless heir esses. 7 G. 2. c. 16. B. 3. Refusal to take property If a freeholder shall refuse to take the oath of trust and possession, he shall be erased out of the roll of freeholders. oath of trust, 16 G. 2. c. 11. B. 8. No person to No person shall vote or be inrolled in respect of an extent of lands holden of the king or prince, unless it vote in respect is proved by a retour of lands prior to the 16th September, of an old ex- 1681, and no division of the old extent made since proved by a that time by retour or any other way shall be evidence of retour prior to the old extent. tent, unless Sept. 1681. to be inrolled year. 8. 10. No purchaser or singular successor shall be inrolled No purchaser till he be publicly infeoft, and his seisin registered or until infeoft a charter of confirmation be expede when confirmation is No heir appanecessary, one year before the inrolment; and no heir rent until his apparent, shall be inrolled, until his predecessor's titles predecessor's titles are pro- are produced, and allowed by the freeholders as a sufficiént qualification; and any person, though absent, may be inrolled, provided the titles and vouchers of his qualificathough absent. tion are produced and laid before the freeholders. duced. Persons may be inrolled 8.20. Electors and elected to hold their lands immediately from the king or prince. One person only shall be entitled to vote or be elected in respect of the same lands, and where lands are holden by any baron or other freeholder immediately of the king or prince, such baron or freeholder may be elected, and vote for those lands; and no vassal or sub-vassal that owners may vote or be shall be entitled to vote or be elected; and where lands When lands held by a perare holden of the king or prince, by a peer or other person son disabled, or body politic or corporate by law disabled to be an M. P., or to vote in such elections, then the proprietor and elected. owner of such lands, and not any of his superiors, shall be entitled to vote, or be elected in respect of the same lands; and no alienation of the superiority to be made No alienation to deprive him by such person incapable to elect or be elected shall of such right. deprive the proprietor and owner of the lands of his right to vote, or his capacity to be elected; and the property of lands holden in part of the king or prince, When lands held part of and in part of a peer or other person, or body politic or the king and corporate incapable to elect or be elected, shall be a part of a person disabled,owner sufficient qualification, and shall entitle the proprietor to may vote or be vote and to be elected. The foregoing statement contains the substance of the legislative enactments as to the qualification of electors for knights of shires or stewartries in Scotland, which is considered sufficient for a work of such a nature as the present. Reference may be made by the reader to the cases of Clackmannan and Lanerk, 2 Doug. 343. 365. Fife, 4 Doug. 177. Elgin and Nairn, 3 Lud. 328. 404.; and Ayrshire Phil. Elect. Cases, and to Mr. Connell's able treatise on the Law of Elections in Scotland. elected. In the town of Edinburgh, and the other royal Edinburgh and boroughs, the right of election was before the union the royal boroughs. vested in the magistrates and council. In Edinburgh, it remains still the same, but in the other boroughs, in consequence of their division into fourteen districts, each borough is to elect a commissioner, who, with the commissioners from the other boroughs in the same district, are to elect their representative. The answer to the question, therefore, who are the electors for the royal boroughs of Scotland, depends on the answer to the previous question, who may be elected magistrates and Con. 313. 335. And the cases there cited. 16 G. 2. c.11. 8.29. No members of the council. Formerly residence by the sta tutes of 1487, c. 108., 1535 c. 26., and 1609 c. 8. was: a necessary qualification for borough officers. These acts, so far as they respect the office of provost, have been determined by the court of session to have fallen into desuetude; but with respect to bailies and other office bearers, they are still in force. The proper exercise of the ordinary calling of those individuals at a place of business within the borough, will, however, constitute residence, although the dwelling house may be beyond its bounds; and where, from the nature of the trade, it is necessary to reside at a little distance from the town, non-residence is not a valid objection. The magistrates and members of the council must have been admitted members of some of the guilds, or crafts of the borough, and this appears to be the chief qualification. It is no objection to any commissioner for choosing a burgess, that he is not a residenter within the borough, to commission-bearing all portable charges with his neighbours, or that er being non- he is not trafficking merchant therein, or that he is not in possession of any burgage, lands, or houses, holding of the said borough, and such qualifications need not be ingrossed in his commission. resident. Qualifications of a commis sioner, and of a member of district of boroughs. 3 Lud. 272. It has not been declared by any law, at least since the union, what are the qualifications of a commissioner, but he should be a burgess of the borough from whom he is sent; and the member elected should be a burgess of one of the boroughs within the district which he is chosen to represent. |