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TABLE VI.*

SHOWING MAXIMUM PUNISHMENTS, INCAPACITIES AND PENALTIES TO WHICH PERSONS ARE EXPOSED FOR OFFENCES AT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS.

OFFENCE.

MAXIMUM PUNISHMENT.

INCAPACITIES.

PENALTIES IN CIVIL COURT.

Knowingly making a false DECLARATION 7 years' penal servitude, (1) Incapacity to sit in House of Commons for 7 years. as to election expenses

PERSONATION, or aiding, abetting, or in-
citing to the commission of personation
Any other CORRUPT PRACTICE (viz.,
bribery, treating, or undue influence)

A CORRUPT ARRANGEMENT for the with-
drawal of a petition (s. 41 of the Act
of 1883)

and

2 years' hard labour, and

(2) Incapable of being registered as elector or voting
at any election (Parliamentary or otherwise) for
7 years.

(3) Incapable for 7 years of holding any public or
judicial office.

(4) If a justice of the peace, barrister, &c. &c.,
liable to further consequences under s. 38.
All the above incapacities.

1 year with or without All the above incapacities. hard labour, or fine of

1

£200, and

year's imprisonment No incapacities. and a fine of £200

Election Agent FAILING TO MAKE RE- Fine of £500

TURN OF EXPENSES after being ordered

by the Court

No incapacities.

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ILLEGAL PRACTICES

Fine of £100

Illegal PAYMENT, HIRING, or EMPLOY- Fine of £100

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Incapable of being registered and voting at any
election in the constituency, where illegal practice
committed, for 5 years.

No incapacities.

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N.B.-The above incapacities apply to any and every person convicted of or reported as guilty of any of the offences named; but if a CANDIDATE is reported by an Election Court as personally guilty of any corrupt practice, in addition to all those incapacities he becomes incapable of ever being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons for the constituency in which he offended (s. 4), and if he is reported as personally guilty of any illegal practice he is incapable for the next seven years of sitting in the House of Commons for the constituency in which he offended (s. 11).

* Taken by permission from Messrs. M. W. Mattinson and S. C. Macaskie's "Law relating to Corrupt Practices at Elections" (Waterlow & Sons, London).

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ANALYSIS

OF

RECENT STATUTES

AFFECTING

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

IN

SCOTLAND.

WE propose to arrange the Analysis under the following chapters:

I. Constituencies.

II. Registration.

III. Proceedings at Elections.

IV. The Laws against Corrupt Practices at Elections, and for the Trial of Controverted Elections.

CHAPTER I.

CONSTITUENCIES.

IN considering the changes recently made on the Parliamentary constituencies of Scotland, it will be convenient to do so under two heads-the first, in so far as they affect the places represented; and the second, in so far as they affect the persons represented.

SECT. I. SEATS.

Before 1832, Scotland sent forty-five members to the Imperial Parliament, of whom thirty were elected by the freeholders of the counties, and fifteen by the town councils

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of the burghs. By the Reform Act of that year the number of representatives was increased to fifty-three, of whom thirty were assigned to the counties, and twenty-three to the burghs. The Reform Act of 1868 increased the number of representatives to sixty, of whom thirty-two were assigned to the counties, twenty-six to the burghs, and two to the universities. The Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, has again increased the number to seventy-two; of whom thirtynine are assigned to the counties, thirty-one to the burghs, and two to the universities.

Section 2 of the Act of 1885 disfranchises, in Scotland, the Haddington and Wigtown districts of burghs, each of which contained a total population under the number taken as the basis of separate representation. For parliamentary purposes the burghs constituting these districts are henceforth parts of the counties within which they are situated. Certain provisions are made by § 8 of the Registration (Scotland) Act, 1885, and § 17 of the Redistribution Act, 1885, in regard to the registration of persons within the transferred areas. These will be referred to hereafter (infra, p. 33), when we come to deal with the subject of Registration. The last-mentioned Act further provides (§ 25) that where by the operation of this Act any royal or parlia'mentary burgh ceases as a burgh to return or to contribute 'to return a member to Parliament, nothing in this Act shall affect in any other respect the rights and privileges of such burgh as a royal or parliamentary burgh, or the rights, privileges, and functions of the magistrates, town council, and officers thereof.'

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Section 5 gives certain additional members to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen.

Section 7 provides for the alteration of the boundaries of the burghs named in Schedule V.; and § 17 (explained infra, p. 33) will apply to the voters within the transferred

areas.

Section 8 provides for the division of the burghs named in Schedule VI., which also sets forth the boundaries of the divisions. Each division is to return one member as if it were a separate parliamentary burgh. Dundee will be the only undivided burgh returning more than one member.

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The provisions as to registration and election in the parliamentary divisions will be explained hereafter.

Section 9 provides for the division of the counties named in Schedule VII., which also sets forth the boundaries of the divisions. Each division is to return one member, as if it were a separate county, the divisions of Lanarkshire constituted by the Reform Act, 1868, being superseded. The provisions as to registration and election in the parliamentary divisions will be explained hereafter.

Section 20, as interpreted by § 25, gives the sheriff power, as soon as may be after the passing of the Act, to mark out 'by boundary stones, posts, or other marks,' the boundary of any parliamentary burgh or division of a burgh which does not follow the boundary of a parish

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or other 'well-defined line of demarcation.' The expense of such marking of boundaries and of maintaining and renewing the marks is to be 'defrayed as part of the expenses of the town-clerk in the registration of voters for the parliamentary 'borough.'

Section 22 contains a number of definitions and provisions applicable to the Schedules of the Act. The most important of these, so far as Scotland is concerned, is that which provides that if any doubt arises as to the parliamentary 'division of a county or borough in which any parish,

ward, or other place, whether larger or smaller than a parish ' . . . or ward, is intended by the Schedules of this Act to 'be included, such doubt shall be determined for the year ' 1885 by' the sheriff (§ 25) 'having power to divide the said borough or county into polling districts; and for subsequent 'years, on the application of any voter, shall be determined by an order... in Scotland of one of Her Majesty's Principal 'Secretaries of State, to be made after local inquiry, and to be 'confirmed by Parliament.' It was held in Cairns v. Steedman, 3rd Nov. 1884, 12 R. 44 (see the Digest appended to this work, p. xi.) that the method of construing the description of the boundaries of burghs contained in § 5 of the Reform Act, 1832, was applicable to the description of the boundaries of a burgh constituted by the Reform Act, 1868. This judgment was chiefly based on the wide terms of § 56 of the latter Act importing the provisions of the earlier

Statute. There is no similar enactment in the Act of 1885, and it may be questioned, seeing how different are the principles on which the definitions of boundaries are framed in the Acts of 1832 and 1885, whether any of the rules contained in § 5 of the Act of 1832 can be applied to the descriptions of boundaries in the Schedules of the Act of 1885. It would be very convenient if sub-section 4 of that section were applicable as between burghs and counties.

SECT. II. FRANCHISES.

Prior to 1832 the parliamentary representatives of counties were elected by the freeholders, and the parliamentary representatives of burghs by the town councils.

By the Reform Act, 1832, the franchise was conferred in counties on (1) the owners (joint or several) of lands or other heritable subjects, including feu - duties, of the clear annual value of £10; and (2) on tenants (joint or several), (a) for life, or for 57 years or for 19 years, not being the actual occupiers, whose interest in their leases amounted to £10 yearly, or (b) who had paid a grassum of £300, or (c) who being the actual occupiers paid a yearly rent of £50. In the case of owners, six months', and in the case of tenants, twelve months', possession previous to 31st July in each year was required as a condition of the right to be registered.

In burghs the franchise was conferred by the same Act on owners (joint or several) of subjects of the yearly value of £10, and on tenants (joint or several), including lodgers, so it was held, who paid a yearly rent of £10. Twelve months' occupancy prior to 31st July in each year was required, both in the case of owners and tenants.

By the Reform Act, 1868, the ownership qualification in counties was lowered to £5 clear yearly value, and the qualification of tenants in actual personal occupancy was reduced to £14 of annual value, as appearing on the valuation roll. In the case of owners, six months', and in the case of tenants, twelve months', possession previous to 31st July was required.

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