boroughs (), recorders (a), and revising barristers (b). To this list we may add any person who holds any new office or place of profit under the Crown, created since 25th October, 1705 (e); and any person who holds a royal pension, either during pleasure or for a term of years (d). Moreover, by the House of Commons (Disqualification) Act, 1782, a disqualification attaches to persons holding any contract with government on account of the public service (e). But as to these there is an exception in the case of members of an incorporated trading company and also a provision, that where the completion of any contract shall devolve on any person by descent or limitation, will, or marriage, the incapacity shall not attach until twelve calendar months after he shall have become interested in such contract. Finally, by the Succession to the Crown Act, 1707, s. 26, any person already chosen a member of parliament, not being an officer in the army or navy accepting a new commission, who accepts any office of profit from the Crown, is made to (z) Bro. Ab. tit. Parliament, 7; 4 Inst. 48; Whitelocke, Parl. ch. 99, 100, 101; Com. Journ. 25th June, 1604; 14th April, 1614; 22nd March, 1620; 2nd, 4th, and 15th June, 17th Nov. 1685; Rogers, Elect., vol. ii. p. 5. As to sheriffs substitute in Scotland, see Sheriffs (Scotland) Act, 1747, S. 11; Representation of the People (Scotland) Act, 1832, s. 36. (a) Municipal Corporations Act, 1835, s. 103. (b) Parliamentary Voters Registration Act, 1843, s. 29. (c) Succession to the Crown Act, 1707, s. 25; House of Commons Disqualification Act, 1741 ; Civil List and Secret Service Money Act, 1782; Public Officers (Ireland) Act, 1817; 57 Geo. 3, (d) Succession to the Crown Act, 1707, and Crown Pensioners Disqualification Act, 1715. See 22 & 23 Vict. c. 5 (1859), with regard to the eligibility of persons holding certain diplomatic pensions; and the Pensioners Civil Disabilities Relief Act, 1869, as to persons who hold civil service pensions or superannuation allowances. (e) As to this provision, see Rogers, Elections, vol. ii. p. 26, and Royse v. Birley (1869), L. R. 4 C. P. 296. vacate his seat thereby, though, if the office is one created prior to 25th of October, 1705, he is rendered capable of being re-elected; but the Representation of the People Act, 1867, s. 52, provided that no vacation of the seat or necessity for re-election should arise where a member had been returned since his acceptance of any of the offices mentioned below, merely by reason of his subsequent acceptance of some other office in that list in immediate succession the one to the other (ƒ). Subject to these standing restrictions and disqualifications, every subject of the realm is now eligible as a member of the house of commons. But Blackstone (g) mentions certain now obsolete requirements for eligibility, of which one was that all members should be inhabitants of the places for which they were chosen (h). This rule, however, was practically disregarded as early as Elizabeth and was at length entirely repealed in 1774 (). Qualifications were, up to a much more recent period, required in regard to property, the changes on which subject have been as follows. Formerly (k), the provision was, that all knights of the shire should either be actual knights, or "such notable esquires and gentlemen as have estates sufficient to be knights, and by no means of the degree 66 (f) The following are the offices referred to in the text: Lord High Treasurer; Commissioner for executing the offices of Treasurer of the Exchequer of Great Britain and Lord High Treasurer of Ireland; President of the Privy Council; Vice-President of the Committee of Council for Education; Comptroller, Treasurer, and Vice-Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household; Equerry or Groom in Waiting on his Majesty; any Principal Secretary of State; Chancellor and Under Treasurer of her Majesty's Exchequer ; PaymasterGeneral; Postmaster General ; Lord High Admiral; Commissioner (h) 1 Hen. 5 (1413), c. 1. (k) See 23 Hen. 6 (1445), c. 14. "of yeomen.' Afterwards the qualification was made to consist (without regard to rank or title) simply in real estate, which by the 9 Anne (1710), c. 5, was fixed at 6007. per annum of freehold or copyhold estate for a county member, and 3007. of the like estate for a burgess. Afterwards it was, by 1 & 2 Vict. (1838), c. 48, made to consist of the like value in real estate in these several cases, but with the admission of personal estate, or of real and personal combined, as an equivalent; and since the 21 & 22 Vict. (1858), c. 26, all property qualification has been dispensed with. The Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 (s. 11), makes the like dispensation regarding municipal officers. There have also been instances wherein persons in particular circumstances have forfeited the common right of eligibility, being declared ineligible for that parliament by a vote of the house, or for ever ineligible by an act of the legislature (1). By a statute of 1372 lawyers practising in the King's Courts were disqualified from sitting as knights of the shire (m), but apparently with little effect; and the king's writs for the Parliament holden at Coventry, in the sixth year of Henry the Fourth, contained a fresh prohibition (grounded on an ordinance of the House of Lords, and rightly attacked as unconstitutional), that no apprentice or other man of the law should be elected a knight of the shire therein (a). Our legal historians have branded this parliament with the name of parliamentum indoctum, or the lack-learning parliament (o), Sir Edward Coke observing that there was never a good law made thereat (p). The Act of 1372 remained on the Statute Book till 1871 (9), though long previously inoperative. 3. The third point, regarding elections, is the method of proceeding therein (r), a matter which is regulated by (/) 7 Geo. 1 (1720), st. 1, c. 28. (m) 46 Ed. 3. (n) Pryn. Plea for Lords, 379; 2 Whitelocke, 359, 368; Pryn. on 4 Inst. 13. (0) Walsingh. A.D. 1405. (7) Statute Law Revision Act, 1871. (r) Com. Dig. Parl. D. 11. S. C.-II. 2 D the law of parliament and by the statutes which have been from time to time passed on the subject; and we shall give here some account of the method of proceeding in England and Wales (s). As soon as the parliament is summoned, the lord chancellor, on behalf of the Crown, sends his warrant to the clerk of the crown in chancery; who thereupon issues out writs to the proper "returning officer" of each county or borough, that is to say, as the general rule, to the sheriff in the case of a county, and to the mayor in the case of an incorporated borough, commanding such officer to proceed in due course to the election (t). And the returning officer must, in the case of a county election, within two days after the day on which he receives the writ, and in the case of a borough election, either on the same day or on the day following that on which he receives the writ, give public notice at some time between the hours of 9 A.M. and 4 P.M. of the day and place of election, or for the poll if the election is a contested one, and of the time and place where forms of nomination papers may be obtained (u). Such day of election in the case of a county or district borough must not be later than the ninth day (and in the case of other boroughs than the fourth day), after that on which the writ is received; and the place of election must be some convenient room in the town wherein the same is to be held. By the Elections (Hours of Poll) Act, 1885, the hours of polling are now from eight o'clock in the forenoon to eight o'clock in the evening in all cases. (8) The principal statute now in force is the Ballot Act, 1872. (t) The expenses and charges of the returning officer at a parliamentary election, are regulated and controlled by the Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act, 1875, as amended by the Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act, 1885; and under these Acts he is also entitled to require security to be given by the candidate, for the charges which may become payable under the Act. An attempt has been made by the Parlia mentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act (1875) Amendment Act, 1886, to control the amount of these expenses, and to provide for the taxation thereof. (u) Ballot Sched. (2). Act, 1872, First A candidate for election is nominated in writing subscribed by two registered electors of the county, or borough, as proposer and seconder, and by eight other registered electors as assenting to the nomination (~); and if, at the expiration of one hour after the time appointed for the election, no more candidates stand nominated than there are vacancies to be filled up, such candidates are returned to the clerk of the crown in chancery as having been duly elected. But otherwise the returning officer must adjourn the election until a future day, on which the poll is taken in due course (y). Up to a comparatively recent period, the poll in a contested election was taken by each voter openly stating at the polling booth the name of the candidate for whom he intended to vote; but, in the hope of diminishing the temptation to corrupt voting and its attendant evils, an important change was made by the Ballot Act, 1872, which, although passed only for a period of six years (), has been continued by successive Expiring Laws Continuance Acts, and is still in force. By the provisions of the Act, in the case of a poll at an election, the votes are now given by ballot (a), that is to say, by each voter handing in a ballot paper previously supplied to him, whereon are inscribed the names of each candidate, against one or more of whom, as the case may require, the voter secretly puts a mark and then places the paper in a closed box (b). This ballot box having been taken charge of and examined by the returning officer, the result of the poll is ascertained by his counting the votes given to each candidate, and he then returns the name of such candidate or candidates, as the case may be, to whom the majority of votes have been given, to the clerk of the crown in chancery (e); and, in the case of an (x) Ballot Act, 1872, s. 1. (y) Ibid. As to the polling districts, see s. 5. (*) Sect. 33. (a) Sect. 2. (b) Ibid. (c) Ibid. It may be here observed, that the system of voting provided by the Ballot Act, 1872, for parliamentary elections is, by |