counties, and town-clerks the burghs, into polling places;1 and by a later act, the sheriff may, if required on the part of a candidate, or if it appear to himself expedient, alter the polling districts in burghs, so that no more than 300 electors may poll at each, such alteration being intimated on the church door. At the requisition of a candidate or elector paying the expense, the booths may be so divided, that not above 100 can poll in each department.3

In counties, the poll continues for two days, viz.: between the hours of nine and four of the first, and of eight and four of the second day; in burghs, for one day, viz. between eight o'clock and four o'clock. Each voter proceeds to the booth of his district (freehold voters being entitled to vote in the county town polling district), where a sheriff-substitute and clerk attend, to whom the candidates pay,-to the former a sum not exceeding three guineas, and to the latter one guinea, per day.6

A certified alphabetical copy of the register must be in possession of the clerk, who, under the sheriff's inspection, records and numbers the votes as they are given. At the termination of the poll, the books are sealed and transmitted to the returning sheriff, who proclaims the successful candidate (if there be an equality of votes, making a double return), not later than two o'clock of the day next but one, in counties, and before four o'clock of the day after the pollingbooks are received in burghs.9

In the case of riot or violence, either the nomination, or the taking of the poll at any particular place may be adjourned.10 The poll may be terminated before the expiry of the fixed period, if the candidates or their agents agree, and if a burgh poll be so closed, the sheriff may, if there is time, forthwith proclaim the successful candidate before two o'clock of the day."1

No voter can be subjected to an inquiry, except as to his identity, his still possessing the qualification, his not holding it in trust or for behoof of another, and his not having previously voted at the election, which may be put to his oath, or if he be a quaker, to his solemn affirmation. He may also be compelled to take the oath against bribery.12 A claimant whose claim has been rejected, may tender his vote

12 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 65, § 27.-2 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 78, § 3.-3 Ibid. § 4.42 & 3 Wm. IV. § 32.—5 5 & 6 Wm. IV. § 5.—6 2 & 3 Wm. IV. §§ 27, 40. 5 & 6 Wm. IV. § 9.-7 2 & 3 Wm. IV. § 32.- Ibid. § 33.-95 & 6 Wm. IV. § 8.-10 2 & 3 Wm. IV. § 32. 5 & 6 Wm. IV. § 5.-" Ibid. § 5. -122 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 65, § 26.

and have it recorded for the consideration of an election committee. The candidates, or the persons proposing them, pay the expense of all polling-booths (each of which must not cost more than £30 in counties, or £20 in burghs), and of transmitting intimations, poll-books, &c.2

SECT. 7.-Disqualifications.

The following persons are incapable of electing or being elected:-Sheriffs and their substitutes, sheriff-clerks and town-clerks, in the respective elections in which they have to officiate,3 and minors.4

6

Aliens. Aliens were disqualified by our old practice, and are so by the practice of England, unless they be made denizens by letters-patent, or naturalized by act of parliament.5 It has in general been decided in Scotland that an alien cannot qualify, but in one registration court, alien tenants were admitted, while proprietors were not, on the ground that the only foundation on which the exclusion of aliens rested, by our old law, was their inability to hold the feudal qualification, that by the new law there was no express exclusion of aliens, and that as they were entitled to hold the qualification, they must hold it with all its privileges. There is a clause in the late Alien Act which may be perhaps held to remove all doubts on the subject, and to exclude aliens from the right to vote even on tenancy, although, on the other hand, as the expressions are not absolutely exclusive, but intended to leave the law as it stood, the clause may be held only to prevent the act from interfering with the fixed law in England as to aliens. Its terms are, Every alien now residing in, or who shall hereafter come to reside in any part of the United Kingdom, and being the subject of a friendly state, may by grant, lease, demise, assignment, bequests, representations, or otherwise, take and hold any lands, houses, or other tenements, for the purpose of residence or of occupation, by him or her, or his or her servants, or for the purpose of any business, trade, or manufacture, for any term of years not exceeding twenty-one years, as fully and effectually, to all intents and purposes, and with the same rights, remedies, exemptions, and privileges, except the right to vote at elections of members of Parliament, as if he were a natural born subject of the United Kingdom."7 An alien has

66

12 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 65, § 26.-2 Ibid. § 40.—3 Ibid. § 36.- Connell on Elections, 256.-5 Wordsworth on Elections, 127. Rodgers on Elections, 81.-6 Cay, 23, d.-7 7 & 8 Vict. c. 66, § 5.

been found not entitled to be registered in right of his wife.1 Certain privileges of British subjects, and among others that of voting, accrue to foreigners in the following circumstances: -Foreign seamen, on their serving in time of war two years on board a British ship, in pursuance of royal proclamation.2 Foreign protestants and Jews, on their residing seven years in any American colony, without being absent above two months at a time, who subscribe the declaration of fidelity and affirm the effect of the abjuration oath;3 and foreign protestants serving two years in a military capacity there, or being three years employed in the whale-fishery, and not afterwards absenting themselves from the British dominions for more than one year. It is questioned whether, since the catholics' emancipation act (10th Geo. IV. c. 7) foreign Roman catholics may not, by such means, acquire the privilege.5 It would appear that Roman catholics, before being registered, require to have taken the oaths prescribed by that act.6

A person who has been cognosced as insane or an idiot cannot be registered. Whether one who has not been cognosced can be rejected, on proof of his condition, is doubtful.7 Conviction of any crime inferring infamy would appear to be a disqualification.8

Office-holders.-The following officers connected with the levying of the revenue are disqualified :-Commissioners, collectors, supervisors, gaugers, searchers, or other officers of excise or customs; officers connected with the management or distribution of stamps; collectors and managers of the assessed taxes, &c.; officers of the post-office, including the masters and mates of post-office packets," this has been held to extend to assistant postmasters, letter-carriers, keepers of receiving-boxes, &c.10 Persons voting during their tenancy of any one of the above offices, or within twelve months after having held it, forfeit £100, and their votes are void.11 A retired officer of customs enjoying a pension, a collector of cess (though by 5th and 6th Wm. IV. c. 64, § 10, his office is in the patronage of the Lords of the Treasury), and a storekeeper of a fort who held a house as part of his salary, have been found not to be disqualified.12 In terms of the act, those only "who are subject to no legal incapacity" are entitled to be registered. All the above disqualifications have been generally held, therefore, as objections to enrolment,13 and

1 Cay, 23, c.-2 13 Geo. II. c. 3.-3 Ibid. c. 7. 20 Geo. II. c. 44.- 2 Geo. III. c. 25. 22 Geo. II. c. 45, § 8-5 Wordsworth, 127, n.-6 10 Geo. IV. c. 7, § 8.-7 Connell, 256. Cay, 21.-8 Connell, 260.-9 22 Geo. III. c. 41, $1.10 Cay, 24.-22 Geo. III. c. 41, § 1.-12 Cay, 24, 1, q, t.—13 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 65, §§ 7, 11. Cay, 16.

an officer of the post-office was not allowed to be enrolled in a burgh, to the effect of voting at the municipal elections.1

SECT. 8.-Bribery and Treating.

Two acts have lately been passed for the purpose of providing more efficient remedies against these practices,-viz. 4 & 5 Vict. c. 57, and 5 & 6 Vict. c. 102. By the former it is rendered unnecessary, in prosecuting any charge of bribery before an election committee, to prove agency before proving the facts; and the committee are to receive evidence on the whole matter, stating in their report, 1st, Any facts. of bribery that are proved; and, 2d, Whether any member of the house was cognizant of them. By the other act, election committees are authorized to follow up charges of bribery, though they be abandoned by the parties, and to examine members, candidates, agents, &c. (as witnesses subject to the ordinary rules of evidence) regarding the circumstances which have occasioned the abandonment of such charges (§ 1). It is bribery if a sum of money be paid before, during, or after an election, to an elector or to his relations, in consideration either of his voting or his abstaining from voting ($ 20). The entertaining of electors with meat and drink, with the view of influencing their votes, is declared to render the party who either directly or indirectly authorizes it, incapable of sitting for the constituency to which such electors belong in the parliament in relation to which he so acts (§ 22).

SECT. 9.-Controverted Elections.

The whole arrangements for the trial of controverted elections, both in respect to the constitution of the election committee and the procedure before it, was remodelled by the temporary act 4 & 5 Vict. c. 58, and the provisions of this statute, with little alteration, were made perpetual by the 7 & 8 Vict. c. 103. As nearly all the proceedings under this act must necessarily take place in England, a full account of its provisions will not be expected to be given in a work devoted to the local laws of Scotland. Its more prominent features are, that election petitions are only to be received when coming from some person who claims to have a right to vote at the election, or claims to be returned, or

' Pow, Edinburgh, 1835. Cay, 24.

alleges himself to be a candidate. Recognizances must be entered into-by the petitioners to the extent of £1000, and by sureties for them to the same general amount, in portions not less than £250 for each individual surety. There are arrangements for enabling voters to become parties in support of a return, in the case of the sitting member declining to defend it, or otherwise ceasing to act. Six members, selected from among those who are not themselves parties in controverted elections, are to be appointed at the commencement of each session, by the speaker's warrant, to act as the "General Committee of Elections." Petitions are referred to the General Committee, who are, under the provisions of the act, to choose the Select Committee which is to try the petition. The General Committee have the nomination of certain members whose office it is during the session to act as chairmen of select committees. The members qualified to act on select committees are divided into panels, which, being ranged in order by lot, are to act in succession, as the cases present themselves.

CHAPTER III.

PRIVILEGES OF MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

THE members of the House of Lords and the peers of Scotland are privileged from arrest on civil process. In cases of treason, murder, and other crimes punishable with death, they can only be brought to trial before the peers of parliament, assembled in the Court of the Lord High Steward. (See farther on this subject, Part I., Chap. III.) Members of the House of Commons are privileged from arrest for forty days after the prorogation of parliament, and forty days before its reassembling. The privilege thus continues during the whole existence of a parliament, as it is not the practice to prorogue for more than eighty days at a time.1 It has not been decided how long the privilege lasts after a dissolution; it is said that the members should have “reasonable time to return," and privilege was successfully pleaded where arrest took place two days after a dissolution.3

1 Blackst. i. 165.- Opinion, 2 Levinz's Reports, 72.-3 Haliday v. Pitt. 2 Strange, 985.