the same incapacities as he is subject to upon conviction whether on indictment or in any other proceeding for the offence (sec. 2 (4)). As to the circumstances under which the Election Court or the High Court may relieve a person from the incapacity attaching to a corrupt or illegal practice, see secs. 19, 20, 21, and 30.

Subject to certain exceptions which are specified in secs. 36 and 37, the foregoing provisions which apply to municipal elections (municipal elections being defined as meaning an election to a corporate office," and " corporate office" being defined as meaning the office of mayor, alderman, councillor, elective auditor or revising assessor) apply also to corrupt or illegal practices in the elections of members of local boards, improvement commissioners, poor law guardians, and members of school boards, in like manner as if they were municipal elections.

A person legally employed for payment under the Act may or may not be an elector, but may not vote (sec. 13).

By the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act, 1889, it is provided that a person in the event of a second conviction for a like offence under that Act may be adjudged incapable for seven years of voting at an election of members of any public body.

See also sec. 91, p. 206, post, as to disqualification for voting at a school board election by reason of conviction for corrupt practices at the election of members of a school board.

As regards voting by paupers the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1876, (39 & 40 Vict., c. 61), provides that "no person shall be entitled to vote in the election of a guardian, or in the election to an office under the provisions of any statute, who shall be in receipt of relief given to himself, or his wife, or child, or who shall have been in receipt of such relief on any day during the year last preceding such election. In the case of any person objected to on this ground, a certificate from the clerk of the guardians under his hand shall be sufficient evidence of such person having received relief." It is however provided by the 48 & 49 Vict., c. 46, that where a person has in any part of the United Kingdom received for himself or for any member of his family any medical or surgical assistance or any medicine at the expense of any poor rate, such person shall not by reason thereof be deprived of any right to be registered or to vote"... "as a burgess or" (with certain exceptions which as regards the present question are not material) as a voter at any election to an office under the provisions of any statute." The term "medical or surgical assistance includes all medical and surgical assistance and all matters and things supplied by or on the recommendation of the medical officer having authority to give such attendance and recommendation at the expense of any poor rate.

With reference to this last-mentioned Act, it was held in Honeybone v. Hambridge, 18 L. R., Q. B. D. 418; 56 L. J. Q. B. 46; 56 L. T. 365; 35 W. R. 520, that where the guardians had permitted the relieving officer to give to a woman an order for the medical officer to attend her during her confinement, and the woman was attended not by the medical officer but by a midwife, the husband of the woman was not disqualified by such assistance, as the assistance rendered was of a medical or surgical kind, and was not the less so because it was not actually rendered by a medical man or a surgeon.

With regard to common law disqualifications, the case of R. v. Harrald (L. R., 7 Q. B. 361; 41 L. J. Q. B. 173; 26 L. T. N. S., 616), may be

referred to. In that case, at the election of town councillors for one of the wards of the borough of Sunderland, a Mr. Harrald was returned as elected by a majority of one vote. The majority included the votes of two married women. One of these women, Anne Thompson, at the time she was put upon the burgess roll was married, but was living apart from her husband, and was occupying a house and paying rates as a single woman. The other, Nancy Storey, was a single woman when placed upon the burgess roll, but had married a few days before the election. For the defendant it was argued that sec. 9 of the 32 & 33 Vict., c. 55, conferred upon women the right of voting in municipal elections; and that as the Act contained no exception with regard to married women, they were entitled to vote, if otherwise qualified. It was also contended that the burgess roll was conclusive as to the persons entitled to vote. On the other hand, it was argued that coverture was a personal disability, and that a married woman was not a person in the eye of the law. The Lord Chief Justice (Cockburn) said that it was impossible to hold that the vote of Anne Thompson, who was a married woman when she was placed on the burgess roll, was a good vote. "By the common law a married woman's status was so entirely merged in that of her husband that she was incapable of exercising almost all public functions. It was thought to be a hardship that when women bore their share of public burthens in respect to the occupation of property, they should not also share the right to the municipal franchise and be represented; and it was thought that spinsters and unmarried women ought to be allowed to exercise these rights. The 32 & 33 Vict., c. 55, accordingly gave effect to these views, and enacted that wherever men were entitled to vote, women, being in the same situation, should thereafter be entitled; but this only referred to women possessed of the necessary qualification in respect of property and the payment of rates, and I cannot believe that it was intended to alter the status of married women. It seems quite clear that this statute had not married women in its contemplation. Nor can it be supposed that the subsequent statute (the Married Women's Property Act), by which the status of married women with regard to the power to hold property has been recognised and established, has by a sidewind given them political or municipal rights. As regards the case of Nancy Storey, the circumstances are different. Although she was a single woman when placed on the burgess roll, she was at the time of the election married. There is in the case of this vote, therefore, sufficient doubt as to the validity of the vote to call for further inquiry, and the rule for a quo warranto must be made absolute."

Questions of considerable difficulty with regard to elections and other matters have arisen in cases where a borough, constituted a school district by this Act, has been extended by a local Act so as to include an area comprised in another school district, without any express provisions as to the school district affected. It is important that in any future cases the arrangements contemplated with respect to the school districts should be clearly provided for by the Act for the extension of the borough boundaries. With regard to new boroughs, see The School Boards Act, 1885 (48 & 49 Vict., c. 38), p. 356, post.

The regulations of the Education Department as to the election of a school board for a borough will be found in the Appendix, p. 477.

Casual vacancies in a school board may be filled up by the school board. See 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, Schedule 3, post.

(2) In a parish not situated in the metropolis or a municipal borough the school board are to be elected by the ratepayers. Special provision is made by the 37 & 38 Vict., c. 39, post, with regard to the borough of Wenlock.

The regulations of the Education Department as to the election of a school board in any such parish, are given in the Appendix, pp. 501, 508.

As to the persons entitled to vote as "ratepayers," see 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, Schedule 2, No. 1 (c) post, which constitutes the last rate made for the parish more than one month previously to any date the register of the persons entitled to vote at that date.

The rate book, as the register of ratepayers, is intended to be conclusive on the returning officer, subject to the disqualifications for voting which arise from statutory prohibition or the common law. As to these disqualifications, see pp. 119-123.

By the Acts relating to voting at vestry meetings a person, though assessed to the poor rate, is not entitled to vote at a vestry unless he has paid any poor rate which has become due more than three calendar months immediately preceding the vestry meeting-the payment of the rate by an owner under the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, being deemed a personal payment by the occupier. In school board elections, however, a ratepayer whose name appears in the rate book which forms the register, will be entitled to vote, notwithstanding the non-payment of any rate.

With regard to the question whether when the owner of a hereditament is rated, instead of the occupier, the owner as well as the occupier, or the occupier alone, is entitled to the qualification and franchise in respect of the rating, it may be stated that the Education Department, in a circular letter dated the 14th of November, 1870, and addressed to the deputy returning-officers for the divisions of the metropolis, as to the persons who were to be deemed to be "ratepayers" in the election of the School Board for London, expressed the opinion that the owners of tenements who were rated under an order of vestry under sec. 4 of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, as well as the occupiers of the tenements, were entitled to vote in the election. But the subsequent provision in the second schedule of the 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, renders it necessary in order to entitle either the owner or the occupier to vote that his name should appear in the rate book which forms the register. The rate book distinguishes the owners who are thus rated, as it is in these cases only that the column of the rate book headed " Amount of rate assessed upon and payable by the owner instead of the occupier by virtue of the statute or statutes in that behalf," will be filled up. In the cases where owners have voluntarily agreed to pay the rates instead of the occupiers, and are not rated under an order of vestry, the occupiers and not the owners are assessed, and consequently the occupiers alone can be regarded as "ratepayers."

As to the number of members to be elected as the school board of a parish, see sec. 31.

Provisions are contained in secs. 46 and 48 with regard to the election of a school board for a united school district, and in sec. 77 for a parish divided by the boundaries of a borough. Sec. 50 provides for the election of members to represent a contributing district at the school board of the district to which it contributes.

Casual vacancies in a school board may be filled up by the school board. See 39 & 40 Vict., c. 79, Schedule 3, post.

(3) At an ordinary vestry meeting the number of votes to which the persons present at the meeting are entitled varies according to the amount of their assessment, but in the election of a school board each voter is to have the same number of votes, namely, a number equal to the number of members of the school board to be elected.

Every voter may distribute his votes among the candidates as he may think fit. For instance, if there are fifteen members to be elected, each voter will have fifteen votes, and the voter may give the fifteen votes to one candidate, or give three each to any five of the number, or distribute them unequally amongst the candidates according to his inclination.

It will be observed that no qualification whatever is prescribed by the Act for a candidate for election as a member of a school board. Females, as well as males, lodgers as well as householders, and nonresidents as well as residents, are eligible for election. The orders of the Education Department with regard to elections, however, require that a candidate shall be of "full age.'

With regard to disqualifications for election, see 36 & 37 Vict., c. 86, sec. 8, post, as to disqualification by conviction of corrupt practices in a school board election.

As to disqualifications for holding the office of member of a school board by reason of corrupt practices at a parliamentary election, see the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883, secs. 3, 4, 6, 22, 33, 38, 43 and 46.

Under sec. 6 a person who is convicted on an indictment of any corrupt practice" at a parliamentary election is not capable during a period of seven years from the date of his conviction of holding any "public office" within the meaning of the Act. The term "public office" includes any office under the Elementary Education Acts. By sec. 4 it is provided that where upon the trial of an election petition respecting a parliamentary election for a county or borough the Election Court, by the report made to the Speaker, reports that any corrupt practice other than treating or undue influence has been proved to have been committed in reference to the election by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate at the election, or that the offence of treating or undue influence has been proved to have been committed in reference to the election by any candidate at the election, that candidate shall be subject to the same incapacities as if at the date of the report he had been convicted on an indictment of a corrupt practice. The expression "corrupt practice" means any of the following offences, viz., bribery, personation, treating, undue influence, and aiding, abetting, committing and procuring the commission of the offence of personation. Any candidate or agent knowingly making the declaration of expenses required by sec. 33 falsely is guilty of an offence which is to be deemed to be a corrupt practice. Every person who is reported by any Election Court or Election Commissioner to have been guilty of any corrupt practice at an election is, whether he obtained a certificate of indemnity or not, to be subject to the same incapacity as he would be subject to if he had at the date of such election been convicted of the offence of which he is reported to have been guilty (sec. 38). When a person is prosecuted before an Election Court for any corrupt practice and such person appears before the court, such person if convicted thereof upon the trial is subject to the same incapacities as he is rendered subject to under the Act upon conviction whether on indictment or in any other proceeding for the offence (sec. 43). It is however to be observed that sec. 22 provides that under certain specified circumstances a person may

be exempted by the report of the Election Court, or by an order of the High Court of Justice, from the incapacities which otherwise would attach to him.

With regard to the disqualifications for holding the office of member of a school board by reason of corrupt practices at a municipal election see The Municipal Elections (Corrupt and Illegal Practices) Act, 1884 (47 & 48 Vict. c. 70), in Appendix, p. 377. Sec. 2 provides that a person who commits any corrupt practice in reference to a municipal election shall be guilty of the like offence, and shall on conviction be liable to the like incapacities, as if the corrupt practice had been committed in reference to a parliamentary election, see ante. By sec. 3 it is provided that when upon the trial of an election petition respecting a municipal election for a borough or ward of a borough it is found by the report of an Election Court made in pursuance of sec. 93 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, that any corrupt practice other than treating and undue influence has been proved to have been committed in reference to the election by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate at the election, or that the offence of treating or undue influence has been proved to have been committed in reference to the election by any candidate at the election, that candidate shall be subject to the same incapacity as if at the date of the report he had been convicted of a corrupt practice. For definition of the term " corrupt practice," see sec. 2 and sec. 21 (5). Sec. 23 renders applicable the provision in the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Prevention Act, 1883, which is to the effect that a person who is reported by an Election Court to have been. guilty of any corrupt practice at an election, whether he obtained a certificate of indemnity or not, shall be subject to the same incapacity as he would be subject to if he had at the date of such election been convicted of the offence of which he is reported to have been guilty. Sec. 27 enacts that where a person is prosecuted before an Election Court for any corrupt practice and such person appears before the court, the court may proceed to try him summarily for the offence, and such person' if convicted thereof upon the trial shall be subject to the same incapacities as he is subject to upon conviction, whether on indictment or in any other proceeding for the offence. As to the circumstances under which the Election Court or the High Court may relieve a person from the incapacity attaching to him under the Act, see sec. 30. Subject to certain exceptions which are specified in secs. 36 and 37 the foregoing provisions which apply to a municipal election (municipal election being defined as meaning an election to a corporate office," and corporate office being defined as meaning the office of mayor, alderman, councillor, elective auditor, or revising assessor) apply also to corrupt practices in the elections of members of local boards, improvement commissioners, poor law guardians, and members of school boards, in like manner as if they were municipal elections. A person legally employed for payment under the Act may or may not be an elector, but may not vote (sec. 13). If a person in consequence of conviction or of the report of an Election Court under the Act becomes not capable of being elected to or holding any public office, and such person at the date of the conviction or report has been so elected or holds any such office, then his office shall be vacated as from that date. By the Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act, 1889, it is provided that a person convicted of an offence under that Act may be adjudged incapable of being elected to any public office for seven years from the date of his conviction, and in the event of a second conviction for a like offence, may be adjudged to be for ever incapable of holding any public office.

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