OCCUPIERS, after six months' occupation, of any house, warehouse, counting-house, or shop, of the clear yearly value of not less than £10. The rights of forty-shilling freeholders then being, were saved, so long as they continued owners of the same tenements. Cities and Boroughs. OCCUPIERS-after six months' occupation-of any house, warehouse, counting-house, or shop, of the clear yearly value of £10. FREEMEN-freeholders, and persons who by reason of any corporate law or other right, were, at the time of the Reform Act, by law entitled to vote, and all who by birth, marriage, or service, or by virtue of any statute then in force should thereafter be admitted to their freedom, if duly registered, and so long as they reside within seven statute miles of the borough ;-and not being honorary freemen admitted after 30th March, 1831. The act of 1850 altered the Reform Act as to occupiers in cities and boroughs, by reducing the qualification from £10 to £8 as follows: OCCUPIERS, as tenant or owner, rated under the last act for the relief of the poor, as occupier at a net annual value of £8, or upwards, if duly registered as having occupied for twelve months. All other qualifications by occupation in boroughs should cease, save and except forty-shilling freeholders, or £5 inhabitant householders, who might be qualified under the Reform Act. This act repealed all previous enactments as to registration in Ireland, and substituted a revised system.1 The Reform Acts were followed by others to improve its working system; and it is no inconsiderable part of its success that it has enabled contested elections, as well in counties as in cities and boroughs, (with some exceptions,) to be carried through in one day. This was effected by dividing the counties and boroughs into polling-districts, each pro1 13 & 14 Vict., cap. 69, s. 55. vided with polling-booths so arranged that not more than a limited number of voters should poll at each booth, in England not more than 300,-in Ireland not more than 100,and in the former not more than 100, if a candidate should require that arrangement and pay the expenses. In England and Wales, at city and borough elections, the poll commences at 8 A.M., and continues till 4 P.M.;1 in county elections, it commences at 8 A.M., and is kept open until 5 P.M.2 In Scotland, at elections for cities or burghs, the sheriff must within two days after the receipt of the writ announce the day for the election, which must be not less than four nor more than ten days after the day on which the writ was received (except with regard to certain districts of burghs, as to which the old law remains, as not less than ten nor more than sixteen days), the poll to be kept open for one day only between the hours of 8 and 4.3 In counties the poll is limited to one day, between the same hours, except in the counties of Orkney and Shetland, where the poll may be kept open for two consecutive days.4 In Ireland the same law was applied to cities and boroughs, by a statute passed in 1847, which reduced the time of polling from five days to one. A later statute shortened the time for taking the poll at contested elections for counties, as well as for cities and boroughs, which it divided into polling-districts with a separate polling-place to each. It enacted that in counties the polling shall commence on the day next but two after the day fixed for the election (the nomination-day), and shall continue for two successive days only from 9 A.M. of the first, and 8 A.M. of the second day, until 4 in the afternoon. At elections for cities and boroughs the polling shall commence at 8 A.M., of the day next but one after the nomination-day, and be continued open until 5 P.M.6 These proceedings have been facilitated by enactments declaring that in England the oaths of allegiance, abjuration, 2 16 & 17 Vict., cap. 15, 1853. 4 16 & 17 Vict., cap. 28, 1853. 6 13 & 14 Vict., cap. 68. 1 5 & 6 Wm. IV., cap. 36, 1835. 35 & 6 Wm. IV., cap. 78, 1835. 5 10 & 11 Vict., c. 81, 1847. CH. V.] DISPOSAL OF SOLDIERS. 523 and supremacy shall not be taken by any voter, nor any oath in lieu thereof;1 and that no Roman Catholic in Ireland shall be required to take the Roman Catholic oath, previously to voting at elections, but shall be admitted to vote on the same conditions, and taking the same oaths, as are taken by Protestants in Ireland.2 The first of these acts defined the duty of the returning officer in case of riot or open violence, whether on the day of nomination of candidates, or on the day of polling. He shall not terminate the business, but shall adjourn until the following day; and, if necessary, until the interruption or disturbance shall have ceased; Sunday, Good-Friday, or Christmas-day, intervening, to be passed over. It was formerly a matter of great constitutional jealousy if soldiers were allowed to remain in the vicinity of elections, whilst they were going on. An old laws required that soldiers billeted or quartered in a city or borough, should be removed to the distance of at least two miles; but when the polling was reduced to one day, the removal of soldiers was discontinued; and now, no soldier within two miles of the place of election, is permitted to go out of his barracks or quarters, unless to mount or relieve guard, or to give his vote; and he is to return with all convenient speed. It is the duty of the clerk of the crown in chancery, or of the officer making out the writs for the elections, with all convenient speed, to give notice to the secretary-at-war, who must give notice to the general commanding the district, who must give orders for enforcing compliance with the law.* The constitution requires that all elections, of whatever nature, shall be made with the utmost freedom. This was declared as early as in the Statute of Westminster 1. "And because elections ought to be free, the king commandeth, upon great forfeiture, that no man, by force of arms, nor by malice, or menacing, shall disturb any to make free elections." The Declaration of Rights also provided "that elec 5 & 6 Wm. IV., cap. 36, s. 6. 38 Geo. 2, cap. 20. 53 Edw. I., cap. 5, anno 1275. 26 & 7 Vict., cap. 28. tion of members of parliament ought to be free." To prevent the influence of the crown, statutes passed soon after the Revolution, enacted that officers engaged in managing and collecting the revenue, who should by word, message, or writing, or in any other manner, endeavour to persuade an elector to give, or to dissuade any elector from giving his vote for the choice of any person as a member of parliament, should forfeit £100, to be recovered by any informer, and be disabled from holding any office of trust under the crown. The house of commons, by a resolution against the interference of peers in elections, declares-"That it is a high infringement of the liberties and privileges of the commons of the United Kingdom, for any lord of parliament, or other peer or prelate, to concern himself in the election of members to serve for the commons in parliament; or for any lord-lieutenant or governor of any county, to avail himself of any authority derived from his commis sion, to influence the election of any member." Protection has been still further extended to the voters, by a recent statute, in analogy to the old Statute of Westminster 1, which has made it a misdemeanour, punishable with fine or imprisonment, besides the forfeiture of £50, recoverable by any person who shall sue for the same,-for any person, "directly or indirectly to make use of, or threaten to make use of any force, violence, or restraint, or to inflict, or threaten the infliction of any injury, damage, harm, or loss, —or in any manner to practise intimidation upon or against any person,-in order to induce or compel such person to vote or refrain from voting, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting at any election."4 1 Ante, p. 431. 25 & 6 Wm. and Mary, cap. 20 and 48. 12 & 13 Wm. and Mary, cap. 10. 10 Anne, cap. 19. 3 May's Parliamentary Practice, p. 464. An Irish peer, elected and not having declined to serve for any county, city, or borough, in Great Britain, is expressly exempted from the operation of the resolution. 4 17 & 18 Vict., cap. 102, s. 5. CHAPTER VI. THE PEOPLE. PETITIONS AND PUBLIC MEETINGS. Right to Petition.-Necessary to Representative System.-Importance of the Right.-Parliamentary Regulations.-Public Meetings.-Riot Act. THE right and practice of petitioning the king, in his council or his parliament, have been before shown to have existed at a very early period. The statute of Charles II.,1 upon the ground of preventing "tumultuous and disorderly. soliciting of hands to petitions," imposed restrictions upon the exercise of the right, by enacting that no person should procure the hands, or consent, of above twenty persons to any petition to the king, or both or either houses of parliament, for alteration of matters established by law in church or state, unless the matter thereof had been first consented to and ordered by three justices of the county, or by the major part of the grand jury at the assizes or quarter sessions; or, if arising in London, by the lord mayor, aldermen, and commons in common council assembled ; nor should any such petition be presented to the king or houses of parliament, accompanied with excessive number of people, nor at any one time above the number of ten persons." The Bill of Rights confirmed the general right of petitioning, by declaring "that it is the right of the subject to petition the king; and all commitments and prosecutions for such petitioning are illegal."2 It has been decided in the courts that the Bill of Rights 1 113 Car. II., cap. 5, ante, p. 381. 2 Ante, p. 431. |