corruption, and also established a maximum scale of expenses (in addition to the scale prescribed for Returning Officers' expenses by the Act of 1875) in proportion to the population of the constituencies. The payment of the travelling expenses of voters, with the single exception of a sea journey, was expressly forbidden, as was the employment of paid canvassers, the exact number and description of agents, clerks, and messengers to be employed being also fixed. The Act, like the Act of 1854, and the Ballot Act, 1872, is temporary only.

The Representation of the People Act, 1884, although it was Representation intended to be, and was followed by an Act dealing with Act, 1884. electoral areas, deals with electoral qualification only. Its main object is to assimilate the qualification for the county vote with that established already for the borough vote, and with that object, by a few words of incorporation by reference, the Act establishes in the counties exactly the same dwelling-house and lodgings qualification as that established by the Act of 1867 in the boroughs; and further, for the sake of uniformity, reduces the county occupation qualification from £12 to £10, preserving, however, the conditions of the qualifications, which had been annexed in the case of boroughs by the Act of 1832, and in the case of counties by the Act of 1867, which conditions varied, and still vary, in the two cases. There is also an enactment that the tenure of a qualification by virtue of service of an office only, which tenure not being in law a tenancy was hitherto insufficient, should confer the right to be registered and to vote.

In the direction of restriction, the Act provides that qualification by rent-charge, except by a tithe rent-charge, shall be abolished, and that where two or more men possess the property qualification either in counties or boroughs, only one man be entitled to be registered in respect of it, the Act omitting to state which of the two is to be entitled in priority to the other, in case of conflict between them. All existing rights are saved, and the new qualifications are made subject to the same conditions as to rating, length of residence, and the like which were attached to the analogous qualifications under the Acts of 1867 and 1832.

The Registration Act, 1885, is a corollary of the Representa- Registration tion of the People Act, 1884, assimilating the procedure for Act, 1885. registration in counties to that for boroughs, in like manner as the qualification of electors had already been assimilated. For this purpose the dates of doing certain things are made the same, and the whole system of borough registration established by the Act of 1878 is, with few exceptions as to voters having the property qualification only, applied to county registration. Occasion is also taken to amend the law of revision in various small points, and to provide new precepts to overseers, of a very full and elaborate character, with a new and complete set of forms of lists of voters, notices of claim, and objection, and the like.

Seats Act, 1885.

The Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, unlike its predecessors of 1832 and 1867, which dealt with electoral qualifications and electoral areas together, deals solely (excepting temporary clauses accelerating registration in 1885, and clauses re-enfranchising or disfranchising certain particular persons) with electoral areas (a), and also, unlike them, deals with the electoral areas of Scotland and Ireland, as well as with those of England (b).

Seventy-nine boroughs lose the right of returning a member altogether, not having a population of 15,000; 36 boroughs, not having a population of 50,000, are for the future to return one member only instead of two; 14 boroughs, as Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, gain additional members; 35 boroughs, as Croydon, St. Helen's, and West Bromwich, are newly created. The counties are completely re-arranged, being divided into divisions in proportion to their population, each division to return one member only. This "single-seat system" of division, as it is called, which is also carried out to a great, though not so great, an extent in boroughs, 26 of which are divided on the same system (Liverpool being split up into as many as nine divisions), is one of the main features of the Act, and one in which it makes the chief departure from the old system of representation, which, as we have seen, was, as a rule, by two members for each electoral area. The net result is that the Act gives the counties 253 members instead of 187, and the boroughs 237 instead of 297, the proportion to population being one to 52,800 in counties instead of one to 70,800, and one to 52,700 in boroughs instead of one to 41,200, the increased representation of the counties being necessitated by the increase in the number of county electors caused by the Act of 1884. The boundaries of the various areas, so far as it was necessary to alter them, had been mapped out by Commissioners nominated for the purpose shortly after the introduction of the Bill; and such altered boundaries, which comprise all divisional boun-. daries in the counties of England, are now legally fixed by the Act, which became law on the 25th June, 1885, the Registration Act having become law on the 21st May, 1885, and the Representation of the People Act on the 6th of December, 1884.

With the view of rendering the general election upon the 1885 register possible earlier than usual, special acceleration clauses of the Redistribution of Seats Act provide that in the year 1885 the revision of the register shall take place between the 8th of September and the 8th of October, instead of between the 15th of September and the 31st of October, and also that the

(a) The House of Lords consented to pass the Representation of the People Act, in 1884, upon the understanding that a Redistribution of Seats Bill should be introduced in 1885.

(b) The Scotch Reform Acts were 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 65 (1832), and 31 & 32 Vict. c. 48 (1868), and the Irish Acts were 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 88 (1832), and 31 & 32 Vict. c. 49 (1868).

register formed by such revision shall come into effect after the 7th of November instead of after the 31st of December-the Act, however, providing that any election not consequent upon a dissolution, between 7th November, 1885, and 1st January, 1887, shall take place upon the old registers.

In 1885 were also passed an Hours of Poll Act, extending the Minor Acts of hours of poll to 8 P.M. at all elections; a Medical Relief Removal 1885. of Disqualification Act, providing that parochial relief given by way of medicine or medical attendance should not disqualify an elector; a Parliamentary Elections (Corrupt Practices) Act, providing that employers might, without being subject to the charge of corruption, allow their workmen leave of absence for the purpose of voting without deducting from their wages; a Parliamentary Elections (Returning Officers) Act, by which the security which might be demanded from a candidate at an uncontested election was reduced, and the fee payable in counties to presiding officers and poll clerks was raised; a Revising Barristers Act, by which a flaw in the appointments of revising barristers was corrected; and finally an Expiring Laws Continuance Act, by which the Ballot Act and other temporary statutes relating to the subject of parliamentary elections were continued until the 31st December, 1886. During the last twelve months, therefore, no less than nine statutes upon the subject have received the Royal Assent.

Such is a short historical outline of the statutes relating to parliamentary elections in England. It will have been seen that they deal sometimes separately and sometimes together with the many parts of their subject, and it may be stated here that where new qualifications have been created, or new restrictions imposed, the old qualifications have been retained, and the new restrictions have been expressly declared to be prospective only. It is now proposed to give a summary of the various enactments in six parts, relating to

I. Qualification of Electors.

II. Registration of Electors. III. Electoral Areas.

IV. Disqualification of Candidates.

V. The Election.

VI. Election Petitions.

SUMMARY.

QUALIFICATIONS AND DISQUALIFICATIONS OF ELECTORS.

General disqualifications attach to women, infants, aliens, peers, convicted felons not having served a sentence of penal servitude or imprisonment with hard labour, or for more than twelve months, constables, persons employed for hire at an election, and persons convicted of corrupt practices at an election; also to persons having received parochial relief (not being by way of relief from school fees, or by way of medical relief, or vaccination, or treatment in a metropolitan hospital for infectious diseases) at any time during the twelve months preceding the annual registration (see p. 36).

A further general disqualification attaches to any person whose name is not upon the register at the time of an election; the register being in every case conclusive against the elector, but not conclusive for him if he be disqualified on the ground of alienage or some, for the time, irremovable quality in himself (see p. 436). The register is made up annually in September and October, and the 15th of July preceding terminates the "qualifying period" by occupation residence and otherwise, where any condition of which length of time is the essence, is attached to the qualification.

The particular electoral qualifications will now be set out in order, stating first those which are precisely similar both for counties and boroughs; secondly, those which contain conditions peculiar to, or are in essence peculiar to counties; and thirdly, those which are peculiar to boroughs.

Counties and Boroughs.

1. The dwelling-house qualification. This is constituted by the person having been on the 15th July and for twelve months previously an inhabitant occupier of a dwelling-house, or part of a house separately occupied as a dwelling, and having been rated by himself or his landlord during such twelve months to all poor rates made for such dwelling-house, and having paid by himself or his landlord, on or before the 20th July following, all sums due for such dwelling-house on account of any poor rate made and allowed during the twelve months before the 5th January preceding.

No person can possess this qualification for any one dwellinghouse or part of a dwelling-house jointly with another (Act of 1867, s. 3, p. 35; Act of 1884, s. 2, p. 59).

A person occupying more dwelling-houses than one in immediate succession in the same electoral area possesses the qualification in respect of the last occupied dwelling-house (p. 42).

A person inhabiting a dwelling-house by virtue of any office or service possesses the qualification of an inhabitant occupier unless the dwelling-house be also inhabited by some person under whom he serves (Act of 1884, s. 3, p. 60).

2. The lodger's qualification. This is constituted by the person having occupied as a lodger for twelve months before the 15th July lodgings in the same dwelling-house of the clear yearly value, if let unfurnished, of £10 or upwards, and having resided in such lodgings during such twelve months, and having claimed to be registered (Act of 1867, s. 4, p. 37; Act of 1884, 8. 2, p. 59).

Two lodgers, but no more, may possess this qualification jointly if the value give £10 or more for each.

Successive lodgings in the same house qualify (Act of 1878, s. 6, p. 56).

Counties.

3. The freeholder's qualification. This is constituted by the person having possessed by right of purchase for six months prior to the 15th July, or by right of descent, devise, or marriage settlement, or by promotion to a benefice, for any time prior to the 15th July, any freehold land or tenement within the electoral area of the clear yearly value of forty shillings or upwards (see pp. 3, 16). If the freehold be held for a life, it inust be either occupied by the owner, or be of the yearly value of £5, or have come to the voter by descent, &c. (see p. 13).

4. The copyholder's qualification. This is constituted by the person having possessed by right of purchase for six months prior to the 15th July, or by right of descent, &c., for any time prior to the 15th July, any copyhold land within the electoral area of the clear yearly value of £5 or upwards (see p. 38).

5. The leaseholder's qualification. This is constituted by the person having possessed by right of purchase for twelve months prior to the 15th July, or by right of descent, &c., for any time prior to the 15th July, a lease originally created for not less than sixty years of any land or tenement of the clear yearly value of £5 (see p. 38), or originally created for not less than twenty years of the clear yearly value of £50 (see p. 14).

6. The £50 rental qualification. This, which is reserved only as a vested right, is constituted by the person having been registered in 1884 in respect of the occupation of any land or tenement held by him at a rent of not less than £50 (see pp. 14, 177). [The only distinction between this qualification and that of the £10 occupier next stated is that it is not conditional on rateability and the payment of rates.]

7. The £10 occupation qualification. This is constituted by the person being on the 15th July, and having been for twelve months the occupier of any land or tenement of the clear