ELECTION. 
592 
By the 30 C. II. st. 2. c. 1. and 1 Geo. T. 
c. 13. in order to prevent papists from sitting 
in either house of parliament, no person shall 
sit or vote in either till he has, in the pre- 
sence of the house, taken the oaths of allegi- 
ance, supremacy, and abjuration, &c. 
Sheriffs of counties, and mayors and bai- 
liffs of boroughs, are not eligible in their re- 
spective jurisdictions, as being returning offi- 
cers; but a sheriff of one county may be 
chosen knight of another. 1 Black.’ 175. 
By several statutes, no persons concerned 
in the management of any duties or taxes 
created since 1692, except the commissioners 
of the treasury; nor any of the officers follow- 
ing, viz. commissioners of prizes, transports, 
sick and wounded, wine licences, navy and 
victualling; secretaries or receivers of prizes; 
comptrollers of the army accounts ; agents 
for regiments; governors of plantations ; offi- 
cers ot Minorca or Gibraltar; officers of the 
excise and customs ; clerks or deputies in the 
several offices of the treasury, exchequer, 
navy, victualling, admiralty, pay of the army 
or navy, secretaries of state", salt, stamps, ap- 
peals, wine licences, hackney-coaches, hawk- 
ers, and pedlars; nor any persons that hold 
any new office under the crown, created 
since 1705, are capable of being elected. 
1 Black. 175. 
But this shall not extend to, or exclude the 
treasurer or comptroller of the navy, secre- 
taries of the treasury, secretary to the chan- 
cellor of the exchequer, secretaries of the ad- 
miralty, under secretary of state, deputy 
paymaster of the army, or any person holding 
any office tor life, or so long as he shall be- 
have himself well in his office. 15 Geo. II. 
c. 22. 
By the 6 Anne, c. 7. s. 26. if any member 
shall accept an office of profit under the 
crown, except an officer of the army or navy 
accepting a new commission, his election 
shall be void, but he shall be capable of being- 
re-elected. 
No person having a pension from the crown 
during pleasure, shall be capable of being- 
elected. 6 Anne, c. 7. s. 25. 
By the 22 Geo. III. c. 45. no contractor 
with the officers of government, or with any 
other person for the service of the public, shall 
be capable of being elected, or of sitting in 
the house; as long as he holds any such con- 
tract, or derives any benefit from it. But 
this does not extend to contracts with corpo- 
rations, or with companies, which then con- 
sisted of ten partners ; or to any person to 
whom the interest of such a contract shall ac- 
crue by marriage or operation of law, for the 
first twelve months. And if any person dis- 
qualified b\ r such a contract shall sit in the 
house, he shall forfeit 500/. for every day ; 
and if any person who engages in a contract 
with government admits any member of par- 
liament to a share of it, he shall forfeit 500/. 
to the prosecutor. 
No person shall be capable to sit or vote 
in the house of commons for a county, unless 
lie has an estate, freehold or copyhold, for 
his life, or some greater estate, of the clear 
yearly value of 600/. nor for a city or bo- 
rough, unless he has a like estate of 300/. 
and any other candidate, or two electors, may 
require him to make oath thereof at the time 
of election, or before the day of the meeting 
of parliament; and before lie shall vote in 
ihe house of commons, he shall deliver in an 
account of his qualification, and the value 
thereof under his hand, and make oath of the 
truth of the same. But this shall not extend 
to the eldest son or heir apparent of a peer, 
or of any person qualified to serve as knight 
of a shire, nor to the members of either of 
the two universities. 9 Anne, c. 5. 33 
Geo. II. c. 20. 
Qualifications of electors. No person shall 
be admitted to vote under the age of twenty- 
one years, This extends to all sorts of mem- 
bers, as well for boroughs as counties. 7 & 8 
W. c. 25. 
Every elector of a knight of a shire, shall 
have freehold to the value- of 40?. a year with- 
in the county, which is to be clear of all 
charges and deductions, except parliamen- 
tary and parochial taxes. 1 Black. 172. 
No person shall vote in right of any free- 
hold, granted to him fraudulently, to qualify 
him to vote, and every person who shah pre- 
pare or execute such conveyance, or shall 
give his vote under it, shall forfeit 40/. 10 
Anne, c. 23. 
No person shall vote for a knight of the 
shire without having been in the actual pos- 
session of the estate for which he votes, or in 
the receipt of the rents or profits thereof to 
his own use, above twelve calendar months, 
unless it come to him by descent, marriage, 
marriage-settlement, devise, or promotion to 
a benefice or office. 18 Geo. II. c. 1. 
No person convicted of perjury shall be 
capable of voting at an election. 
No person shall vote in respect of an an- 
nuity or rent-charge, unless registered with 
the clerk of the peace twelve calendar months 
before. Such annuity or rent-charge issuing 
out of a freehold estate. 
No person shall vote for a knight of a shire, 
in respect of messuages, lands, or tenements, 
which have not been charged to the land-tax 
six calendar months before. 20 Geo. III. c. 17. 
No person shall vote for any estate holden 
by copy of court-roll. 31 Geo. II. c. 14. 
In mortgaged, or trust-estates, the mort- 
gagor, cestuy que trust, shall vote, and not 
the trustee or mortgagee, unless they be in 
actual possession. 
All conveyances to multiply voices, or to 
sport votes, shall be void ; and no more than 
one voice shall be admitted for one and the 
same house or tenement. 
The right of election in boroughs is various, 
depending entirely on the several charters, 
customs, and constitutions of the respective 
places: but bv 2 Geo. II. c. 24, this right of 
voting for the future shall be allowed accord- 
ing to the last determination of the house of 
commons concerning it. And no person, 
claiming to vote-in right of his being a free- 
man ot a corporation (other than such as 
claim by birth, marriage, or servitude,) shall 
be allowed, unless he has been admitted to 
his freedom twelve calendar months before. 
3 Geo. III. c. 15. 
Of election. As it is essential to the very 
being of parliaments that election should be 
absolutely free, all undue influence whatever 
upon the electors, is illegal, and strongly 
prohibited. As soon, therefore, as the time 
and place of election within counties or bo- 
roughs are fixed, all soldiers quartered in the 
place are to remove, at least one day before 
the election, to the distance of two miles or 
more, and not to return till one day after the 
poll be ended, except in the liberty of West- 
5 minster, or other residence of the royal fa- 
mily, in respect of his majesty’s guards, and 
in fortified places. 8 Geo. II. c. 30. 
By the 7 & 8 W. c. 4. to prevent bribery 
and corruption, no candidate, after teste of 
the writ of summons, or after a place be- 
comes vacant in parliament time, shall, by 
himself, or by any other ways or means 011 
his behalf, or at his charge, before his elec- 
tion, directly, or indirectly, give, or promise 
to give, to any elector any money, meat, 
drink, provision, present, reward, or en- 
tertainment, to, or for, any such elector in 
particular; or to any county, city, town, bo- 
rough, port, or place in general, in order to 
his being elected, on pain of being incapaci- 
tated. 
To guard still more against gross and fla- 
grant acts of bribery, it is enacted by 2 Geo. 
II. c. 24. explained and enlarged by 9 Geo.II. 
c. 38. and 16 Geo. III. c. 1 1. that it any mo- 
ney, gift, office, employment, or reward, be 
given, or promised to be given, to any voter, 
at any time, in order to influence him to give 
or withhold his vote, as w T ell he that takes, as/ 
he that offers such a bribe, forfeits 500/.and is 
for ever disabled from voting and holding any 
office in any corporation, unless before con-~ 
viclion he will discover some other offender j 
of the same kind, and then he is indemnified 
for his own offence. 
If the election shall not be determined 
upon view with the consent of the freeholders 
there present, but a poll shall be demanded, ; 
the same shall commence on the day on ; 
which such demand is made, or on the next ' 
day at farthest, (if it be not Sunday, and then 
on the day after) and shall be proceeded in 
from day to day (Sundays excepted) until it 
be finished, and shall not continue more than 
fifteen days (Sundays excepted) and the poll 
shall be kept open seven hours at least each i 
day, between eight in the morning and eight 
in the evening. 25 Geo. III. c. 84. The! 
sheriff shall allow a cheque-book for every! 
poll-book for each candidate, to be kept by 1 
their inspectors at the place of taking the poll. ] 
19 Geo. II. c. 28. 
By the 34 Geo. III. c. 73. in order to ex- j 
pedite the business at elections, the returning j 
officeis are enabled, on request of the candi- ; 
dates, to appoint persons to administer to j 
voters the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, 
the declaration of fidelity, the oath of abjura- j 
tion, and the declaration or affirmation of the \ 
effect thereof, previously to their coming to I 
vote; and to grant the voters certificates of 
their having taken the said oath, without : 
which certificate they shall not be permitted 
to vote, if they are required to take the oaths, j 
And every freeholder, before he shall be I 
admitted to poll for a knight of the shire, j 
shall, if required by a candidate, or any elec- j 
tor, make oath of his qualification to vote, in ’ 
which case the sheriff and clerks shall enter ■ 
the place of his freehold, and the place of 
his abode, as he shall disclose the same at the 
time of giving his vote, and shall enter jurat J 
against the name of every such voter who 
shall have taken the oath. 10 Anne, c.2.3. s. 5. 1 
Of the return. After the election, the ; 
names of the persons chosen shall be written 
in an indenture, under the seals of the elec- I 
tors, and tacked to the writ. 
The election being closed, the returning 
officer in boroughs returns his precept to the : 
sheriff, with the persons elected by the ma- 
