A MANUAL

OF

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARIES TO WRIT: ON A GENERAL ELECTION:
ON A VACANCY.

On a General Election.] The first requisite of a Parliamentary election is the writ, which, upon a general election, is issued out of Chancery by advice of the Privy Council. For English and Scotch elections the writs go from the Petty Bag Office by warrant of the Lord Chancellor." For Irish elections they are issued from the office of the Clerk of the Crown and Hanaper in Dublin by order of the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.3

On a Vacancy.] In every other election, a new writ, as it is called, is issued from the office of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, under the Speaker's warrant, and, if the House be sitting, by its own order. Certain preliminaries are, however, requisite, which will be noticed in the present chapter.

4

the issue of

A new writ may be rendered necessary by any Occasions for of the following causes:-1, by a death vacancy; new writs. 2, by the elevation, or succession, of a member to the peerage; 3, by his accepting an office of profit

CHAP. I. from the Crown; 4, by his accepting a merely formal office of profit, like the Chiltern Hundreds; 5, by his being disqualified when elected; 6, by his becoming bankrupt; 7, by his being returned for more than one constituency; 8, by his being unseated on petition; 9, by his expulsion. It may be convenient to consider the preliminaries to obtaining a new writ in each of the foregoing cases in the following order: first, during the sitting of the House; and, secondly, during the

New writs, how obtain

ed during

recess.

Every new writ required during the sitting of the House is applied for by a motion regularly the sitting of made and seconded; and such motions take precedence of other business, by reason of their relation to privilege of Parliament.'

the House.

When moved:

On a vacancy by death;

By peerage;

By accepting office from the Crown.

The time for making them is determined by the occasion of the vacancy.

On a death vacancy, the motion may be made

at once.

When a member has been created a peer, the motion may be made as soon as he has kissed hands; but it is sometimes deferred until the patent of his peerage is made out, or the recipi is indorsed. Thus, Lord Eddisbury sat until the 15th May, 1848, though his creation appeared in the Gazette six days previously. When, however, a member succeeds to a peerage, the motion is usually made so soon as the death of his ancestor is known.2

If a vacancy is occasioned by the acceptance of an office of profit from the Crown, the motion is usually made as soon as the appointee has kissed hands, without waiting for the formal completion of his appointment. The motion may be made, directly the assent of the Treasury is given, whenever a member3 has applied for, and obtained,

The appointment is resigned as soon as the vacancy has been effected; but, though granted as a matter of course on ordinary occasions, has sometimes been refused (Mr. Goulburns'

one of the sinecures, known as the stewardship or CHAP. I. bailiffship of her Majesty's three Chiltern Hun- By taking dreds of Stoke, Desborough, and Bonenham, or of the Chiltern the Manors of East Hendred, Northstead, or Hempholme, or the escheatorship of Munster.

Hundreds ;

the time of

Two instances have occurred in which gentle- By disqualimen returned to Parliament have vacated their fication at seats by the expedient of themselves informing election. the Speaker by letter that they were disqualified at the time of their election. In the one case where the disqualification consisted in a lack of the requisite estate, the letter was read to the House by the Speaker on the 22nd November, 1826; time was then given for the expiration of a fortnight, so as to exhaust the prescribed period for presenting election petitions; and two days afterwards, viz., on the 8th December, the letter was again read, and the Speaker was directed to issue his warrant for a new writ. In the other case, where the applicant declared his disqualification to have been that he was a party to a contract with the Queen's Stationery Office, his letter was read, and the motion made, at the end of a fortnight, when a similar direction was given.o

A new writ may also be rendered necessary if the House of Commons resolve that a person who has been returned as a member is incapable of being elected. Thus on Feb. 10, 1870, the House resolved, on the motion of the Prime Minister, that, "Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa, returned as a

letter to Viscount Chelsea, Parl. Pap. 1842, 544, cited May's Parl. Pract. ed. 7, p. 637). In the first debate on the motion for Mr. James Sadleir's expulsion, the Premier (Lord Palmerston) engaged, on the part of Government, that no application by the offending member for the Chiltern Hundreds should be granted (183 Hans. 1407).

1 Twenty-one days after the return is now the period for the presentation of election petitions; unless corruption by, or on behalf of, a member is alleged to have taken place since the return; in which case the petition may be presented within twenty-eight days after the date of the offence so alleged; 31 & 32 Vict. c. 125, s. 6.

2 May's Parl. Pract. ed. 7, p. 639.

CHAP. I. knight of the shire for the County Tipperary, having been adjudged guilty of felony, and sentenced to penal servitude for life, and being now imprisoned under such sentence, has become and continues incapable of being elected or returned as a member of this House," whereupon a new writ was ordered to issue for the election of a knight of the shire for the county Tipperary.'

By becoming bankrupt:

By being elected for

more than

In the event of a member becoming bankrupt, if the adjudication is not annulled within twelve months the same shall be certified to the Speaker, and thereupon the seat of such member shall be vacant, and a new writ for electing another member in his room shall be issued.2

When a member, before taking his seat, is returned for two or more constituencies, he must one place: elect to sit for one of them within three weeks after the returns; provided that no petition has, in the meanwhile, been presented against him. If either return has been petitioned against, he cannot make his choice until the petition is dismissed. For, supposing the petition to be well

1 It may be here observed that, although it is enacted by s. 50 of the Parl. El. Act, 1868, that "from and after the next dissolution of parliament no election or return to parliament shall be questioned except in accordance with the provisions of this act," this enactment does not take away the power of the House of Commons to inquire into or determine upon the eligibility of any person returned as a member. This appears both from O'Donovan Rossa's case (mentioned above) and also from the case of Sir Sydney Waterlow, who was unseated by a select committee of the House in April, 1869, on the ground that he was a government contractor at the time of his election. It appears probable also, that if after the trial of a petition under the Parl. El. Act there was reason to suppose that the judgment had been obtained by fraud or collusion between the parties, "the House of Commons might institute a second investigation of the matter under its general jurisdiction over the return of members," per Willes, J., in Waygood v. James, L. R. 4 C. P. 369.

252 Geo. III. c. 144, s. 2, App. viii.; this act is repealed as to England by 32 & 33 Vict. c. 83, s. 20, but similar provisions are enacted by the Bankruptcy Act, 1869, ss. 120—124, App. lxxxii.