previous to and during the election of 1852, several tierces of porter were ordered and paid for by James Boland, and supplied for the use of the tenants and voters on different townlands who were the friends and supporters of Mr Maguire; and that the same James Boland was the person principally intrusted with the payment of the expenses of the election on behalf of Mr Maguire; that the order, payment and supply of this porter were without the knowledge of Mr Maguire, and neither authorized nor knowingly allowed by him." Mr Maguire's election was therefore confirmed.

Penalties.-Candidate shall forfeit L.50 and costs. Voter who receives meat and drink, shall lose his vote. If given, it shall be void.

III. UNDUE INFLUENCE.

Sec. 5. "Every person who shall directly or indirectly, by himself, or any other person on his behalf, make use of, or threaten to make use of, any force, violence, or restraint, or inflict or threaten the infliction, by himself or by or through any other person, of any injury, damage, harm, or loss, or in any other manner practice intimidation upon or against any person, in order to induce or compel such per son to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting at any election, or who shall by abduction, duress, or any fraudulent device or contrivance, impede, prevent, or otherwise interfere with the free exercise of the franchise of any voter, or shall thereby compel, induce, or prevail upon any voter either to give or refrain from giving his vote at any election, shall be deemed to have committed the offence of undue influence."

Penalties.-Fine or imprisonment, and forfeiture of L.50 and costs. Names of offenders to be struck off Register, and put in separate list. By sec. 6, It is provided, that "whenever it shall be proved before the Revising Barrister" (by interpretation clause, this term is extended to Sheriff, or Sheriff's Court of Appeal) "that any person who is, or claims to be, placed on the List or Register of Voters for any county, city, or borough, has been convicted of bribery or undue influence at an election, or that judgment has been obtained against any such person for any penal sum hereby made recoverable in respect of the offences of bribery, treating, or undue influence, or either of them, then and in that case such Revising Barrister shall, in case the name of such person is in the List of Voters, expunge the same therefrom;" or if he is claiming to have his name inserted, his claim shall be disallowed. And the names of all persons whose names shall be so expunged, and whose claims shall be so disallowed, shall be thereupon inserted in a separate list, to be entitled "The list of persons disqualified for bribery, treating, or undue influence," which list shall be appended to the List or Register of Voters, and shall be printed and published therewith whenever the same shall be or is required to be printed or published.

VOL. I. NO. IV. APRIL 1857.

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By sec. 7. Candidates are prohibited from giving, directly or indirectly, by themselves or their agents, any cockade, ribbon, or other mark of distinction, to any voter or inhabitant of the place where the election is to take place. Every person so giving or providing shall, for every offence, forfeit L.2 and costs, to any person who shall sue for the same; and all payments made for or on account of any chairing, or any such cockade, ribbon, or mark of distinction, or of any bands of music, or flags or banners, "shall be deemed illegal payments within this Act."

ACTIONS UNDER THIS ACT.

1. Civil. The pecuniary penalties are to be recovered by action or suit in the Court of Session, if the offence be committed in Scotland.

2. Criminal. No indictment for bribery or undue influence is triable before any Court of Quarter Sessions.

It is lawful for Criminal Court to order payment to prosecutor of such costs and expenses as shall appear to have been reasonably incurred in and about the conduct of the prosecution.

In cases of private prosecution, if judgment be given for the defendant, he shall recover costs from the prosecutor.

It is not, however, lawful to order payment of the costs of a prosecution, "unless the prosecutor shall, before or upon the finding of the indictment, or the granting of the information, enter a recognizance, with two sufficient sureties, in the sum of L.200 (to be acknowledged in like manner as is now required in cases of writs of certiorari, awarded at the instance of a defendant in an indictment), with the conditions following, that the prosecutor shall conduct the prosecution with effect, and shall pay to the defendant or defendants, in case he or they shall be acquitted, his or their costs." Sec. 13.

Limitation of Actions.-All actions under this Act must be commenced within one year after the offence is committed, and the summons or writ served within that time, unless the offender has absconded or withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the Court. Actions must be carried on without any wilful delay.

Evidence in Actions for Penalties.-Husbands or wives of parties in such suits are competent witnesses, and may be compelled to give evidence under the conditions contained in 14 and 15 Vict., c. 99, and The Evidence Amendment Act, 1853.

Candidates disqualified.-If any candidate has been declared by an election committee guilty of bribery, treating, or undue influence at an election for any county, city, or borough, he is incapable of being elected or sitting for such county, city, or borough, during the Parliament then in existence. Sec. 36.

It might be of material assistance to election committees, to have a judgment of a court of law against a candidate or his agent before them. Though it might not be legal evidence, it would be a moral stimulant, and electors should see to its being provided.

ELECTION EXPENSES.

A number of very minute regulations are made as to the payment of these; we can only mention a few.

No payments are to be made, except through election auditor.

All bills, charges, or claims, are to be sent in to candidate within one month of the day of the declaration of the election, otherwise, right to recover barred. In case of death of creditor, executor may send in claim within one month after confirmation.

Bills, etc., received by candidate, to be sent to election auditor within one month.

No candidate is allowed to settle any action brought against him, or to confess judgment, without the consent of election auditor.

The candidate may pay his own personal expenses, and of advertising, but must render an account of all sums so paid to election auditor.

No person can pay, or agree to pay, any part of election expenses, except to candidate or auditor, or with his authority.

Candidates or agents may pay any reasonable ready-money expenses before nomination, but must give in a full account of them on or before the nomination day.

Account of expenses incurred at election has to be made up by auditor, and to be kept in convenient place for inspection. An abstract of it is to be published.

Agents are to be appointed by candidates, in writing, and the appointment intimated to auditor.

PROOFS IN CONSISTORIAL ACTIONS.

A GRIEVANCE AND A REMEDY.

THE Law of Divorce is exciting great attention in England; and apparently the next session will not pass by without giving to the English people a code upon this subject, more consistent with humanity than that which they possess. The people of Scotland, on the other hand, have had a law which has worked so well, that, during three centuries of experience, there has never been a single proposal to change it, either in so far as it grants divorce for adultery, or for the more debateable ground of wilful desertion.

But although we are all agreed that the right of divorce a vinculo, shall not be touched, there is no one who will maintain that the forms of process by which the remedy is obtained, have acquired that perfection which they ought, with such large experience, to have come to. In regard to one particular in the form of procedure, we propose to offer a few observations, in the hope that a clamant grievance may be remedied during the course of the pending legislative changes in the Court of Session.

Where a husband is the pursuer of an action of divorce, the

whole expenses on both sides must be borne by him. There are no discussions more frequent and more keenly conducted than those which originate in motions made by the wife for a sum to account, to enable her to carry on her defence. Yet no discussions can be more useless, as every farthing of the expenses, taxed, not according to the usual scale, as between party and party, nor as between agent and client, but in a medium way-must ultimately be paid by the unfortunate husband; and so, after a wrangle of a quarter of an hour or more, to which these interesting debates often extend, the result is a deduction upon the wife's demand of L.5 or L.10, only to be made up next week, when another motion may be made for a further instalment. It is obvious, that if the wife manage her case with adroitness, she may, by simply accumulating expenses upon her husband, weary him of his action. We have known of cases, where a sum amounting to L.800 of expenses, has been paid to the wife's agents; and we have known of cases where, in consequence of the enormous amount of these expenses, the husband has abandoned his action, and consented, during the remainder of his life, rather to give his wife a separate allowance, the two parties being sent to separate homes, in that most dangerous of all positions-a husband without a wife, and a wife without a husband.

The best check that could exist against such an abuse, would be that afforded by the person taking the evidence offered by the wife, who could control her in the management of her case; and who, if it belonged to him to bear the motions for expenses, could refuse to grant them when she was protracting her proof, not for the sake of evidence, but for the purpose of exhausting her husband's resources. Unfortunately, however, there is no such check; but, on the contrary, according to the present system, there is an actual premium to the encouragement of delay. By the 6th and 7th William IV., c. 41, sec. 2, it is provided that, "where it shall be necessary to take proofs in consistorial causes, such proofs shall be taken by the sheriffs to be appointed for that purpose in the manner directed by the said recited Act." The Act here referred to is 11 Geo. IV., and 1 William IV., c. 69, by which it was enacted, that "it shall be lawful for His Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, to appoint from time to time, such number of persons, being sheriffs-depute of counties, as he shall think fit to take proofs in consistorial cases; which duty the persons so appointed shall perform, and the said persons shall not receive any remuneration on account of such duty from any party in any such case."

Although the sheriffs are thus by statute forbidden to take fees from the parties in the cause-apparently to preserve their independence they are not forbidden to receive remuneration from Government, at the rate of five guineas per day, which is their allowance.

Up to a certain stage in a case of divorce, the proceedings are of a peaceful character; but this stage is, alas! too soon passed. The

record is found relevant, and a remit is made to the sheriffs-commissaries to take proof. From that hour begin long days of weary wranglings, contentions, and dull drudgery in recording evidence, relieved at intervals by a piquant bit of the story, or a piece of perjury more startling than usual. Of course, the proof is fixed to begin at ten o'clock on Tuesday-that being the busiest hour in Court during the whole week. The defender's counsel and agent duly attend; and, if they know their duty, they commence with taking the usual objection-that notice of the witnesses names (always forgotten to be sent) has not been given, in terms of the old rule of the Commissary Court; and reference, as usual, is made to the authority of Hutchison v. Richardson, 29th May 1834. The sheriff rules that notice is requisite; and so the proceeding is adjourned. The proof afterwards commences, and drags itself on from day to day, and week to week, at all hours of the day, in a chamber which has the cheering prospect from the window of the back of a house in the Cowgate, from which hang two or three shirts in a state of humidity, vainly attempting to catch the sun; the foreground being occupied by an old cart wheel, some broken bottles, and the ruins of a Cowgate tenement.

The pursuer's counsel implores the defender's advisers to be brief, or at all events to be relevant; and when he is compelled at last to state an objection, the debate on relevancy (which is more or less transferred to the minutes of evidence) begins, and consumes (which is the game of the defender) the precious time, every hour of which must be dearly paid for with so many guineas by the husband. In general, these controversies receive a judgment from the sheriff, and are never heard of more. At other times, the whole posse, consisting of sheriff, counsel, agents, and clerk, resort to the bar of the Lord Ordinary for advice. The thing may be protracted to any length. The sheriffs do their duty well. It is a vulgar slander to say that their proceedings are influenced by their mode of payment. But they are in a strait jacket. When the wanderings of the defender's witnesses are objected to as having no bearing upon the question, the sheriff "cannot take upon myself the responsibility to stop any party in the leading of his evidence. That responsibility must be borne by my learned friend who conducts the case for the defender. To some minds a matter may be relevant, while to others it may have as much bearing upon the matter as a dissertation upon ancient metaphysics. I am not the judge here. I must leave that to the Ordinary ;" and so on, and so on, etc. etc. And the pursuer and his counsel must learn the philosophy of patience in the school of suffering. The sheriff takes down every word which the garrulity of witnesses supply him with; and the minutes of evidence run on to hundreds of pages, in which the chaff and the wheat bear but little proportion to each other.

In the case of Lockyer v. Sinclair, 3d March 1846, the mass of abomination was printed, and thus spoke the Court:-"The real