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equality of votes, but not otherwise, the returning officer, if himself a duly registered elector, may give a vote (d).

Such is the course of proceeding for the purpose of a general election upon the summoning of a new parliament. In the case of a particular vacancy, by death or otherwise, in an existing parliament, the course as regards the election for the particular place is the same, except that the warrant for the writ is given by the speaker, acting by order of the house, or (supposing the vacancy to occur during a prorogation or adjournment) by the speaker without any such order (e).

As to the elections for the Universities, whether of England, Scotland, or Ireland (to which the provisions of the Ballot Act as to the manner of voting do not apply), it has been provided by the University Elections Act, 1861, and other Acts, that any elector therein shall be at liberty to record his vote without personal attendance at the poll, by means of a voting paper, signed by him and delivered on his behalf, to the Vice-Chancellor (ƒ), or to his deputy, at one of the appointed polling places (g), by some other elector of the same university, previously nominated for that purpose by the elector so voting (h) ; but the polling at any election for any of the Universities is not to continue for more than five days at the most (i).

the same statute (s. 20) applied also to contested municipal elections. And see Part III. of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, on which depends the law regu lating municipal elections in England; Pickering v. James (1873), L. R. 8 C. P. 489. The Act of 1882 may be applied to Ireland by Order in the Council of the Lord Lieutenant (Local Government (Ireland) Act, 1898, s. 104).

(d) Sect. 2.

(e) Recess Elections Act, 1784; Bankruptcy Act, 1883, s. 33;

Election of Members during
Recess Act, 1858; Elections in
Recess Act, 1863.

(ƒ) University Elections Acts, 1861 and 1868; Representation of the People Act, 1867, s. 41.

(g) As to the polling places for the Universities of Oxford and

Cambridge, see Parliamentary
Elections Act, 1853, s. 5.

(h) See Universities Election Act, 1868.

(i) Parliamentary Elections Act, 1853, s. 4; Representation of the People Act, 1867, s. 43.

Besides the points hitherto noticed, there are some others which require attention, and which are common to all elections in England or Wales, whether for counties or boroughs, namely, the following :-

1. While no one is competent to vote unless his name appears on the register of electors (k), the law does not. permit the qualification of any person, who has been so registered, to be questioned at the time of polling (1); and no inquiry whatever is allowed to be made on that occasion relative to the right of any person to vote, except only that the sheriff or other returning officer shall, if required on behalf of any candidate to do so, put to the voter at the time of tendering his vote, and not afterwards, either or both of two questions, worded in such manner as the Act of Parliament in that behalf prescribes (m). The object of these questions is to ascertain, first, the identity of the proposed voter with the registered person in respect of whose qualification he proposes to vote; and, secondly, that the proposed voter has not already voted at that election (n). The voter may, upon the like requisition, be put to his oath upon these matters (o); but the law provides, that no person claiming to vote shall be excluded from doing so, unless it appears upon his answers to the questions, that he is not entitled to vote, or unless he refuses to take such oath (p).

(k) Ballot Act, 1872, s. 7. (7) Parliamentary Voters Registration Act, 1843, s. 79; Pryce v. Belcher (1846), 3 C. B. 58; (1847) 4 C. B. 866; Stowe v. Jolliffe (1874), L. R. 9 C. P. 734.

(m) Parliamentary Voters Registration Act, 1843, s. 81. Analogous regulations are made for the university elections, with reference to objections to roting papers. (See University Elections Act, 1861.)

(n) R. v. Thwaites (1853),

1 El. & Bl. 704; The Ballot Act,

1872, First Sched. (27); and Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, s. 13 (4).

(0) Parliamentary Voters Registration Act, 1843, s. 81. By 2 Geo. 2 (1729), c. 24, and 43 Geo. 3 (1803), c. 74, an oath in regard to bribery also might be put to the voter; but these enactments have been repealed. (See Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854, Sched. A.; Ballot Act, 1872, 4th Sched.)

(p) R. v. Harris (1835), 7 Car. & P. 253; R. v. Dodsworth (1837),

2. Though no person can vote unless his name be on the register, yet a person who has been excluded therefrom by the decision of the revising barrister, may nevertheless tender his vote at the election; and the returning officer is bound to enter it in the poll book as having been tendered, distinguishing, however, all votes so claimed from votes admitted. In the event of a petition complaining of an undue election or return, the correctness of the register, either as to votes excluded or admitted, may be impeached before the judge before whom the trial of the petition is conducted; and the vote may be either allowed or rejected on the scrutiny, and the poll altered accordingly (9).

3. Moreover, as it is essential to the very being of parliament that elections should be absolutely free, all undue influences upon the electors are illegal, and strongly prohibited (). It is accordingly provided, that on every day appointed for the nomination, or for the election, or for taking the poll for the election, of a member to serve in parliament, no soldier, within two miles of the city, borough, or place where the nomination or election is to be declared or poll taken, shall be allowed to go out of the barracks or quarters in which he is stationed, unless for the purpose of mounting or relieving guard, or for giving his vote at such election. And every soldier allowed to go out for any such purpose, within the limits aforesaid, must return to his barracks or quarters with all convenient speed, as soon as his guard shall have been relieved or vote tendered. But these provisions do not apply in the case of soldiers attending as guards to his Majesty or any of the royal family, or in the case of soldiers usually stationed within the Bank of England (8).

8 Car. & P. 218; Parliamentary Voters Registration Act, 1843, s. 82; Ballot Act, 1872.

(7) Rules made under the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868, s. 25; Ryder v. Hamilton (1869), L. R. 4 C. l. 559.

(r) The Bill of Rights, 1689;

9 Com. Journ. 191; 17 Com. Journ. 507.

Elections

(*) Parliamentary (Soldiers) Act, 1847. The rule formerly was, that, as soon as the time and place for the election

It has also been resolved, by vote of the house of commons, that no lord of parliament, or lord lieutenant of a county, has any right to interfere in the election of commoners (t); and by the 2 W. & M. (1690), c. 7 (u), the lord warden of the Cinque Ports was prohibited from recommending any members there. Officers of the excise, customs, stamps, and certain other branches of the revenue, as well as justices and officers appointed under the Metropolitan Police Acts, are also expressly prohibited, under heavy pecuniary penalties and loss of office, from any interference (). Moreover, riots have been frequently held to make an election void; and by the Reform Act, 1832, it was provided, that where, at any place of election, the proceedings were interrupted by were interrupted by riot, or open violence, the sheriff or other returning officer should adjourn the poll at such place till the following day, and, if necessary, should then further adjourn the same until the interruption should have ceased (y).

While the electors were thus secured against violence at elections, and against other such external interferences with the exercise of the right of voting, they remained open to the internal dangers of what have been called "the infamous practices of bribery and corruption;" and careful provision has from time to time been made by parliament to check these insidious influences. Bribery at elections was an offence even at the common law, and punishable with fine and imprisonment (z); but, for the

were fixed, all soldiers quartered in the place were to remove at least one day before the election to the distance of two miles or more, and not to return till one day after the poll was ended. (8 Geo. 2 (1735), c. 30.) But this enactment, being found inconvenient, is now repealed by the statute above cited.

(t) As to the legal effect of the sessional order of the House of

Commons, see Anson, Law and Custom of the Constitution, i., p. 119, n.

(u) Repealed by Statute Law Revision Act, 1867.

(2) Metropolitan Police Courts Acts, 1829, s. 18, and 1860, s. 5. (y) Representation of the People Act, 1832, s. 70.

() 3 Burr. 1335, 1359; 4 Doug. 292. Blackstone says (vol. i. p. 179), that the first instance

more easy repression of bribery and of other cognate offences, specific provision has, from time to time, been made by certain Acts of Parliament. It is convenient shortly to state these provisions here.

First, by the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854 (a), the three following offences were prohibited, namely:-(1) Bribery, which is defined as the gift or promise of money for valuable consideration, or the gift procurement or promise of any office place or employment, both as regards him from whom the gift procurement or promise proceeds, and also as regards him who agrees to vote for any money valuable consideration office place or employment, and the offence is declared to be a criminal offence (b); (2) Treating, which is defined as the providing by any candidate, before during or after an election, of any meat drink entertainment or provision (c) ; and (3) Undue influence, which the Act defines in such manner as to comprise, generally, any force, violence, or restraint, or the infliction of, or threat to inflict any injury, or the practice of any intimidation (d). In the case of each offence, the act must be done in order to induce some person to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of his having voted. Moreover, the Act prohibited the providing by a candidate, either for any voter or for any inhabitant of the county city or place, of any cockade or

that occurs of election bribery is as early as 13 Eliz., when one Thomas Longe, being a simple man and of small capacity to serve in Parliament, acknowledged that he had given the corporation by which he was returned 4.; and for this offence he was removed, and the corporation was fined 207.

(a) This Act was passed only for a limited time, but (with various amending Acts, the Corrupt Practices Prevention

Act, 1863, the Parliamentary Elections Act, 1868, and the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883), has been, so far as unrepealed, from time to time continued down to the present day see the Expiring Laws Continuance Act, 1902.

(b) Corrupt Practices Preven-
tion Act, 1854, ss. 2, 3.
(c) Sect. 4.

(d) Sect. 5; R. V.
(1857), 29 L. T. (0.8.) 107.

Barnwell

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