PARLIAMENT 



775 



to keep order. He refers all questions of import- 

 ance to the House ; but liis own position is one of 

 great influence and dignity ; he is the First 

 Commoner in the kingdom, and takes precedence 

 as such. The Chairman of Committees presides 

 in committee of the whole House ; he is also 

 empowered toactas Deputy-speaker. The Assistant 

 Clerk of Parliaments acts as clerk of the House. 

 There are two other clerks ; their chief duty is to 

 keep the Journals, which are accepted by all other 

 authorities as evidence of what is done by the 

 House. The Serjeant-at-arms is the executive 

 officer of the Commons. 



Summoning Parliament. When the sovereign is 

 advised to summon a new parliament notice of that 

 intention is given by proclamation. A writ of 

 summons is sent to eacn lord of parliament ; the 

 Scottish peers elect the representative peers. A 

 writ is also sent to the returning-officer of each 

 constituency, commanding him to hold an election, 

 and to return the name of the person elected. In 

 counties the sheriff acts as returning-officer ; in 

 Scotland he acts also for burghs within his juris- 

 diction ; in English boroughs this duty is commonly 

 performed bv the mayor. The lawful charges 

 incurred by the returning-officer are borne by the 

 candidates, an arrangement which is regarded 

 with disfavour by those who wish to make it easy 

 for poor men to enter parliament. 



I'ini-ra rc/>resentert in Parliament. The places 

 represented in the House of Commons are counties 

 and county divisions, boroughs and wards of 

 boroughs, and universities. By the plan of redis- 

 tribution adopted in 1884-85 the more populous 

 counties and boroughs are divided into districts, 

 each of which elects a single member. The plan is 

 fairly convenient, ami will probably hold its own 

 in spite of the advocates of proportional representa- 

 tion. The seats allotted to the universities have 

 lieen the cause of some controversy. In old times 

 a university was a kind of borough within a 

 borough ; Oxford and Cambridge obtained at an 

 early date the privilege of sending burgesses to 

 parliament ; Trinity College, Dublin, enjoyed a 

 similar privilege, and now sends two members to 

 Westminster; London University now elects one 

 member, and the four Scottish universities elect 

 two. The electors in all these cases are the 

 graduate members of the university. Of course 

 university men, if qualified, vote also for the places 

 where they reside or have property, and this double 

 representation is objected to as l>eing inconsistent 

 with democratic principles. There is also a con- 

 siderable iKxly of opinion hostile to all double 

 qualifications ; ' one man one vote ' has been for 

 some time a popular cry. 



Electors. The voters entitled to take part in the 

 election are those whose names are on the register. 

 Registration was introduced after the Keform Act 

 of 1832 ; and the present law affords much more 

 satisfactory means of proving and testing claims 

 to vote than the rough and ready methods formerly 

 in use. Lists of voters are made out by local 

 authorities, and carefully revised, in England by 

 barristers appointed for the purpose, in Scotland by 

 the sheriff or his substitute in a registration court. 

 The persons entitled to be placed on the register 

 an- male persons over twenty-one, not being peers, 

 not disqualified by alienage, office, or employment, 

 unsonndness of mind, conviction for crime or 

 corrupt practices, or receipt of parochial relief, and 

 ing any of the property qualifications required 

 by law. Before 1832 county members were elected 

 in England by the freeholders assembled in the 

 county court ; an act of Henry VI. restricted the 

 right of voting to those whose tenements were of 

 the yearly value of forty shillings ; in some Imroughs 

 the right of election belonged to a limited number 



of persons having freeholds or burgage tenements 

 within the boroughs ; in others the inhabitants 

 paying scot and lot voted ; in others, again, the 

 right was restricted to members or officers of the 

 corporation. In Scotland the county qualification 

 was a forty-shilling land of old extent, or land not 

 of old extent rated in valuation liooks at 400 ; in 

 Edinburgh the election was by the town-council-; 

 the member for each group of royal burghs was 

 chosen by delegates appointed by the town-councils. 

 In Gait's novel, The Provost, there is n graphic and 

 truthful description of a burgh election under the 

 old system. The Irish borough and county fran- 

 chises were modelled on the English system ; on 

 the passing of the Roman Catholic Emancipation 

 Act in 1829 it was thought prudent to disfranchise 

 freeholders under 10 a year. These old franchises 

 have been in part destroyed and in part preserved 

 by successive acts of reform. The statute law on 

 the subject is voluminous and complicated, and 

 the work of simplification is beset with difficulties ; 

 the opposition is always ready to suspect the party 

 in power of what the Americans call 'gerryman- 

 dering' i.e. of readjusting the electorate to suit 

 its own interests. See GERRY (ELBRIDGE). 



The qualifications which now entitle a person to 

 be registered and to vote are classified by Sir W. 

 Anson as follows : ( 1 ) Property. In England free- 

 hold of inheritance of forty shillings yearly value, 

 freehold for life of 5 yearly value, copyhold of 5 

 yearly value, leasehold of 5 yearly value held for 

 a term of sixty years or more, leasehold of 50 

 yearly value, if held for a term of twenty years or 

 more, will qualify a person to vote in counties, and 

 in towns which rank as counties. In Scotland 

 land or heritage of 5 yearly value, leasehold of 

 10 yearly value held for life or for fifty-seven 

 years or more, leasehold of 50 yearly value held 

 for nineteen years or more will qualify for the 

 county franchise. In Ireland freehold of 5 net 

 annual value, rent charge or leasehold for life of 

 20 annual value, leasehold of 10 value held for 

 sixty years or more, leasehold of 20 value held 

 for fourteen years or more will qualify for the 

 county franchise. Special rules have been made 



pier of land or tenements of the yearly value 

 of 10 is qualified to vote in any part of the United 

 Kingdom, but the mode of ascertaining the value 

 varies. In English and Scotch boroughs residence 

 in or within 7 miles of the borough is required ; and 

 in all parts of the United Kingdom this franchise 

 is made to depend on payment of rates. (3) Resi- 

 dence. The inhabitant occupier of a dwelling- 

 house, or of any part of a house occupied as a 

 separate dwelling, is qualified ; throughout the 

 United Kingdom this franchise is made dependent 

 on payment of rates. Lodgers occupying rooms of 

 the yearly value (unfurnished) of 10 are also 

 qualified. Certain rights of resident burgesses and 

 freemen in English uoronghi were preserved by 

 the Act of 1832, and the liverymen of the City 

 Companies retain the right to vote in the City of 

 London. 



Candidates Conduct of the Election Election 

 Petitions. On receiving the writ for an election 

 the returning-officer fixes a day to receive the 

 names of candidates. Any male British subject of 

 full age, not disqualified by peerage, office, convic- 

 tion, &c. , may become a candidate. A candidate 

 is required to have an agent for election expenses, 

 and in promoting his candidature he is bound to 

 see that no breach of the law is committed, and 

 that the total expenses are kept within the limits 

 prescribed by the Corrupt Practices Act, 1883 (see 

 BRIBERY). If more candidates come forward than 



