COMMONS, HOUSE OF. 



COMMONS, HOUSE OF. 



00 



that while every knight of the shire should possess a freehold or copy- 

 hold estate of clear 600?. per annum, so also every citizen, burgess, or 

 baron of the Cinque Ports should have the like landed qualification to 

 the amount of 3001. per annum. The statute of the 1st Geo. I., com- 

 monly called the Septennial Act, which extended the legal duration of 

 parliaments from three years to seven, how cogent soever might be the 

 political motives of the chief promoters of the measure, is another 

 memorable instance of the lengths to which the House of Commons 

 could now venture in dealing in a wholesale manner with the elective 

 rights of its constituents. 



One of the most important operations of the British House of Com- 

 mons during the period above mentioned, was the enacting of the 

 statute, passed in 1800, and taking effect from January 1st, 1801, by 

 which it incorporated the parliamentary representation of Ireland with 

 that of Great Britain. For the previous history of the Anglo-Irish 

 " representation, and the degree of alteration made in it by the Act of 

 Union, we refer to PARLIAMENT OF IRELAND. Sixty-four members for 

 counties, thirty-five for cities and boroughs, and one for Dublin uni- 

 versity, were thus added to the number of the British House of 

 Commons. In this instance, as in that of the Scottish union, the 

 ancient proportion between the city and borough representation was 

 reversed, and an additional weight consequently thrown into the scale 

 of the county representation of the United Kingdom at large. 



It is needless to encumber our pages with a list of the places now 

 returning members of parliament, since these may be seen, with the 

 names of the members, published annually in a variety of shapes ; and 

 it is the less necessary, as a bill for reforming the constitution of the 

 House of Commons is promised to be introduced by ministers in 1860, 

 which will, if carried, in all probability considerably modify the 

 existing arrangements. 



Elective Franchise, Counties. Englandand Wales. Until the Reform 

 Act, the parliamentary franchise in counties had remained without 

 extension or alteration, as limited full three centuries before by the 

 statutes of the 8th and 10th of Henry VI., the former of which con- 

 fined the right to such " as had freehold land or tenement to the value 

 of 40. by the year at least above all charges ; " the latter to " people 

 dwelling and resident within the county, 4c., whereof every man shall 

 have 4-eehold to the value of 40s. by the year." In order to render a 

 man a freeholder, and complete his qualification for voting, it was 

 necessary, not only that he should have a freehold interest in his lands 

 and tenements, but that he should hold them by freehold tenure : 

 consequently copyholders, holding by what is technically termed base 

 tenure, as well as termars, having only a chattel interest in their estates, 

 were excluded from voting. Doubts having been raised as to the right 

 of copyholders, it was expressly enacted by the 31 George II. c. 14, 

 that no person holding by copy of court-roll should be thereby entitled 

 to vote. The Reform Act extends the franchise by admitting not only 

 copyholders, but leaseholders, and even occupiers, under certain limit- 

 ations ; and abridges it in some cases of freeholds not of inheritance, 

 as also in all cases of land situate in a city or borough, and which being 

 occupied by the proprietor would give him a parliamentary vote for 

 that city or borough. In establishing the right to the county franchise, 

 questions of tenure and interest have become of comparatively little 

 importance, except as they are connected with value ; for now what is 

 commonly, though improperly, called a tenant at will (that is, from 

 year to year) occupying land of the annual rent of 501. has a right to 

 vote for a county, without reference to the tenure by which the lessor 

 holds the land, or the interest that he may have hi it. By 18 Geo. II., 

 c. 18, 8. 5, it was enacted, that no person should vote for a county unless 

 he had been for twelve calendar months in actual possession of the 

 rents and profits to his own use, except in particular cases. But by the 

 statute of 1832, by s. 26 it is enacted, that no person shall be regis- 

 tered as a freeholder or copyholder, unless he was in actual possession 

 of the rents and profits for six months previous to the last day of July 

 of the year wherein he claims to be registered. Leaseholders and their 

 assignees, and yearly tenants, must have occupied for twelve months 

 before the same period, except in the cases excepted by the above- 

 mentioned statute of George II. Value, therefore, has now become 

 the criterion upon which, in many cases, the right of voting wholly 

 depends ; and in all cases it is a most material subject of inquiry, in 

 order to determine in what character, whether as freeholder, copy- 

 holder, leaseholder, or occupier, an elector should make his claim to be 

 registered. 



1. If lands or tenements are held at a yearly rent of 501., bare occu- 

 pation, as tenant from year to year, is sufficient to qualify ; no further 

 interest in the lands, &c., being necessary, and it being immaterial by 

 what tenure they are held. 2. So also is the occupation of lands, &c., 

 of uftl. yearly value, as nub-lessee or assignee of any under-lease created 

 originally for a term of not less than 20 years, how small a portion 

 soever of the original term may remain unexpired. 3. The original 

 lessee of a term created originally for 20 years, of lands of 501. yearly 

 value, or the awrignee of such term, is entitled to vote in like manner, 

 whether or not he is the occupier of such lands. 4. The occupier of 

 lands <>f IIP/, yearly value, as sub-lessee or assignee of any under-lease 

 ( a term of not less than 60 years. 5. So likewise the original lessee, 

 or tlie assignee of such a term of the lands of 101. yearly value, is 

 entitled, whether occupying or not ; nor is the nature of the tenure 

 material in any of the above cases; but twelve months' possession 



previous to the last day of July is required in all. 6. The being seised 

 of an estate whether of inheritance or for a life or lives whether 

 freehold, copyhold, or of any other tenure, to the hie yearly value of 

 101., entitles. 



Freehold lands or tenements of 40s. yearly value are still sufficient 

 to give a vote in the four following cases : 



1. If it be an estate of inheritance. 2. If not an estate of inherit- 

 ance, but only an estate for life or lives, if the elector was seised pre- 

 viously to the 7th of June, 1832 (the day on which the act received 

 the royal assent), and continues so seised at the time of registration 

 and of voting. 3. If acquired subsequently to that day, if the elector 

 be in actual and bond fide occupation at the time of registration and of 

 voting. 4. Or if acquired subsequently to that day, if it came to the 

 elector by marriage, marriage settlement, devise, or promotion to any 

 benefice or any office. 



Of freehold or copyhold estates six months' possession, and of lease- 

 hold estates twelve months', is required, previously to the last day of 

 July, in the year of registration, except they come by descent, succes- 

 sion, marriage, marriage settlement, devise, or promotion, &c. 



Now, also, it has become material to consider how the lands or 

 tenements are locally situated : for if they are freehold within a city or 

 borough, and in the freeholder's own occupation, so as to confer a 

 right to vote for such city or borough, or if copyhold or leasehold, 

 and occupied by him or any one else so as to give the right of voting 

 for such city or borough to him or any other person, they cease to 

 qualify for a county vote. 



However, by the 16th section of the act, an express reservation is 

 made of all existing rights of suffrage possessed by county freeholders, 

 provided they are duly registered according to the provisions of the 

 act itself. 



Scotland. Under George II. enactments were made which rendered 

 the proving of the old forty-shilling votes yet more difficult, so that 

 many more of them disappeared, and at the close of the last century 

 very few remained. Although the Scottish act of 1681 enacted that 

 the right of voting should be in persons publicly infeoffed in property 

 or superiority of lands of 40a. old extent, or of 400/. Scots valued rent, 

 thus making a distinction, it should seem, between property and 

 superiority, yet it was constantly interpreted to mean that superiors, 

 that is, tenants-in-chief, or persons holding immediately of the crowu, 

 were alone entitled to vote. Thus proprietors of estates, of whatever 

 value, holding from a subject, were excluded from the franchise. It is 

 computed that in several counties nearly one-half the lands were held 

 in this manner, and in the whole kingdom one-fifth of the lands were 

 so held. The class of landholders thus excluded comprised not only 

 the middling and smaller gentry, and the industrious yeomen aud 

 farmers who had inherited or acquired some portion of landed pro- 

 perty, but also some men of estates worth from 500/. to 2000?. per 

 annum ; while many persons, who had not the smallest actual interest 

 in the land, possessed and exercised the elective franchise. When a 

 person of great landed property wished to multiply the votes at his 

 command, his course was, to surrender his charter to the crown, to 

 appoint a number of his confidential friends, to whom the crown par- 

 celled out his estates in lots of 400/. Scots valued rent, and then to 

 take charters from those friends for the real property, thus leaving 

 them apparently the immediate tenants of the crown, and consequently 

 all entitled to vote. This operation being open as well to peers as to 

 great commoners, they availed themselves of it accordingly, thus de- 

 preciating or extinguishing the franchises of the smaller proprietors. 

 This legal fraud began in the last century, and was chiefly practised 

 subsequently to the accession of George III. Among the various 

 modes by which it was performed, the most common were by life-rent 

 charters, by charters on icadset or mortgage, and by charters in fee. 

 The parliamentary representation of the Scottish counties therefore 

 had, according to the expression of a learned lord, " completely slid 

 from its basis." The total number of county voters, as compared with 

 the number of persons directly interested in the property of the soil, 

 was extremely small, and of these the number of real votes scarcely 

 exceeded that of the fictitious ones. 



The basis of county suffrage was, by the Reform Act for Scotland, 

 to be assimilated, as closely as the difference between the modus of 

 possessing and occupying lands, &e.,iu the two countries would permit, 

 to the system established for Eugland and Wales. While the old class 

 of rights to the suffrage was preserved to the individuals in actual 

 possession of them before March 1st, 1831, provision was made against 

 their perpetuation ; while the body of electors newly admitted consisted 

 nf owners to the value of 101. a year, of leaseholders for 57 years or 

 for life, whose clear yearly interest was not less than 1 01. of leaseholders 

 for 19 years where such yearly interest was worth not less than 50/., of 

 yearly tenants whose rent was not less than 501. per annum, and of all 

 tenants whatsoever who had paid for their interest in their holding 

 an amount not less than 300/. The same difference was made as in the 

 English act, between the freeholder and the mere occupier, as to the 

 >iz months' proprietorship required in the former case and the tmelre 

 months' occupancy in the latter; aud the like exceptions from tlii.s 

 condition as to the length of possession in favour of cases wherein 

 either ownership or lease came to a person by inheritance, marriage, 

 marriage settlement, " mortis causd disposition," or appointment to any 

 place or office. 



