of voting in any election. 4. That no perfon fhall vote in right of any freehold, granted to him fraudulently to qualify him to vote. Fraudulent grants are fuch as contain an agreement to reconvey, or to defeat the eftate granted; which agreements are made void, and the eftate is abfolutely vefted in the perfon to whom it is fo granted. And, to guard the better against fuch frauds, it is farther provided, 5. That every voter fhall have been in the actual poffeffion, or receipt of the profits, of his freehold to his own ufe for twelve calendar months before; except it came to him by defcent, marriage, marriage fettlement, will, or promotion to a benefice or office. 6. That no perfon fhall vote in respect of an annuity or rentcharge, unless registered with the clerk of the peace twelve calendar months before. 7. That in mortgaged or trufteftates, the perfon in poffeffion, under the above-mentioned reftrictions, fhall have the vote. 8. That only one perfon fhall be admitted to vote for any one house or tenement, to prevent the splitting of freeholds. 9. That no eftate fhall qualify a voter, unless the eftate has been affeffed to fome land tax aid, at least twelve months before the election (a). 10. That no tenant by copy of court roll fhall be permitted to vote as a freeholder [B]. Thus much for the electors in counties.

As for the electors of citizens and burgeffes, these are fupposed to be the mercantile part or trading intereft of this kingdom. But as trade is of a fluctuating nature, and feldom long fixed in a place, it was formerly left to the crown to fum

(4) By statute 20 G. III. c. 17. explained and amended by 30 Geo. III. c. 35. no perfon fhall be allowed to vote in refpect of any meffuages, lands, or tenements, which have not been affeffed to the land tax for fix calendar months next before fuch election, either in the name of the perfon claiming to vote, or of the tenant actually occupying the fame at the time of fuch affeffment made; and that no perfon fhall be allowed to vote in refpect of any meffuages, &c. to which the perfon fo claiming to vote fhall have become intitled by defcent, marriage, marriage-fettlement, devife, promotion to any benefice or office, within twelve calendar months next before fuch election, which meffuages, &c. have not been affeffed to the land-tax within two years next before fuch election in the name of the perfon through whom the perfon claiming to vote fhall derive his title.

[B] By ftatute 22 Geo. III. c. 41. no commiffioner or officer, employed in managing the duties of excife, cuftoms, ftamps, falt, windows or houses, or revenue of the poft-office, fhall be capable of voting in the election of a member of parliament,

mon,

ling; fecretaries or receivers of prizes; comptrollers of the army accounts; agents for regiments; governors of plantations and their deputies; officers of Minorca or Gibraltar; officers of the excife and customs; clerks or deputies in the feveral offices of the treasury, exchequer, navy, victualling, admiralty, pay of the army or navy, fecretaries of ftate, falt, ftamps, appeals, wine licences, hackney coaches, hawkers and pedlars) nor any persons that hold any new office under the crown created fince 1705 d, are capable of being elected or fitting as members. 6. That no perfon having a penfion under the crown during pleafure, or for any term of years, is capable of being elected or fitting. 7. That if any member accepts an office under the crown, except an officer in the army or navy accepting a new commiffion, his feat is void; but fuch member is capable of being re-elected. 8. That all knights of the fhire fhall be actual knights, or fuch notable efquires and gentlemen as have eftates fufficient to be knights, and by no means of the degree of yeomen . This is reduced to a still greater certainty, by ordaining, 9. That every knight of a fhire fhall have a clear eftate of freehold or copyhold to the value of fix hundred pounds per annu, and every citizen and burgefs to the value of three hundred pounds: except the eldeft fons of peers, and of perfons qualified to be knights of fhires, and except the members for the two univerfities": which fomewhat ballances the ascendant which the boroughs have gained over the counties, by obliging the trading intereft to make choice of landed men: and of this qualification the member must make oath, and give in the particulars in writing, at the time of his taking his feat [c]. But, sub

d Stat. 6 Ann. c. 7.

e Stat. 6 Ann. c. 7. 1 Geo. c. 56. f Stat. 6 Ann. c. 7

g Stat. 23 Hen. VI. c. 15.

h Stat. 9 Ann. c. 5.

i Stat. 33 Geo. II. c. 20.

[c] By ftatute 22 Geo. III. c. 45. every person who shall directly or indirectly, by himself or by any other to his ufe, hold any contract made with the commiffioners of the treafury, navy, or victualling-office, or the mafter-general or hoard of ordnance, or any other perfon, for, or on account of the public fervice; or fhall, in purfuance of any fuch contract, furnish any money to be remitted abroad, or any wares or merchandize to be used in the fervice of the public, fhall be incapable of being elected or fitting or voting in the house of commons, during the time that he fhall hold fuch contract.

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177 ject to these standing restrictions and difqualifications, every fubject of the realm is eligible of common right: though there are inftances, wherein persons in particular circumstances have forfeited that common right, and have been declared ineligible for that parliament by a vote of the house of commons, or for ever by an act of the legislature. But it was an unconftitutional prohibition, which was grounded on an ordinance of the houfe of lords', and inferted in the king's writs, for the parliament holden at Coventry, 6 Hen. IV, that no apprentice or other man of the law fhould be elected a knight of the shire therein " : in return for which, our law books and hiftorians have branded this parliament with the name of parliamentum indoctum, or the lack-learning parliament; and fir Edward Coke observes with some spleen, that there was never a good law made thereat.

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3. THE third point, regarding elections, is the method of proceeding therein. This is also regulated by the law of parliament, and the several statutes referred to in the margin ; all which I fhall blend together, and extract out of them a fummary account of the method of proceeding to elections.

As foon as the parliament is fummoned, the lord chancellor (or if a vacancy happens during the fitting of parliament, the speaker (e), by order of the house; and without fuch order, if a vacancy happens by death, or the member's becoming a peer,

& M. c. 20. 7 W. 111. c. 4. 7 & 8 W. III. c. 7. and c. 25. 10 & 11 W. III. c. 7. 12 & 13 W. III. c. 10. 6 Ann. c. 23. 9 Ann. c. 5. 10 Ann. c. 19. and c. 33. 2 Geo. II. c. 24. 8 Geo. II. c. 30. 18 Geo. II. c. 18. 19 Geo. II. c. 28. Io Geo. III. c. 16. 11 Geo. III. c. 42. 14 Geo. III. c. 15. 15 Geo. III. c. 36. 28 Geo. III. c. 52.

(e) [The statute 24 Geo. III. c. 26. repeals to much of 10 Geo. III. c. 41. and 15 Geo. III. c. 36. as authorifes the speaker of the houfe of commons to iffue his warrant to the clerk of the crown for making out writs for the election of members; and, inftead thereof, fubftitutes (among others) the following provifions: that the fpeaker, during any recefs, whether by prorogation or adjournment fhail iffue his warrant for mak ing out writs for electing members in the room of those who shall die or become peers of Great Britain: and that, to prevent the inconveniencies that may arife from the death of the fpeaker, or by his feat becoming vacant, or by his abfence out of the realm, the fpeaker is to nominate a certain number of members to execute the powcis given to him by that act.] VOL. 1. in

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BOOK 1. in the time of a recefs for upwards of twenty days) fends his warrant to the clerk of the crown in chancery; who thereupon. iffues out writs to the theriff of every county, for the election of all the members to ferve for that county, and every city and borough therein. Within three days after the receipt of this writ, the fherill is to fend his precept, under his feal, to the proper returning officers of the cities and boroughs, commanding them to elect their members: and the faid returning officers are to proceed to election within eight days from the receipt of the precept, giving four days notice of the fame; and to return the perfons chofen, together with the precept, to the sheriff.

BUT elections of knights of the fhire must be proceeded to by the fheriffs themselves in perfon, at the next county court that shall happen after the delivery of the writ (a). The county court is a court held every month or oftener by the sheriff, intended to try little caufes not exceeding the value of forty fhillings, in what part of the county he pleases to appoint for that purpose: but for the election of knights of the fhire it must be held at the moft ufual place. If the county court falls upon the day of delivering the writ, or within fix days after, the fheriff may adjourn the court and election to fome other convenient time, not longer than fixteen days, nor fhorter than ten; but he cannot alter the place, without the confent 9 In the borough of New-Shoreham 11 Geo. III. c. 55. the election must be in Suffex, wherein certain freeholders of within twelve days, with eight days nothe county are entitled to vote by statute tice of the fame (ƒ).

(a) By 25 Geo. III. c. 84. f. 4. the fheriff is, within two days after the receipt of the writ, to caufe proclamation to be made at the place where the election ought to be holden of a special county-court to be there holden for the purpofe of fuch election only, on any day (Sunday excepted) not later from the day of making fuch proclamation than the fixteenth, nor fooner than the tenth day, and that he fhall proceed in fuch election at fuch special county-court in the fame manner as if the election was to be held at a county-court, or at an adjourned county-court according to the laws now in being. And by the first fection of the fame act, every poll shall commence on the day upon which the fame fhall be demanded, or upon the next day at fartheft, (unlefs Sunday, and then the day after) and fhall be duly and regularly proceeded in from day to day (Sundays excepted) until the faine be finished, but fo as that no poll fhall continue for more than fifteen days at most; (Sundays excepted) and if fuch poll fhall continue until the fifteenth day, then the fame fhall be finally closed at or before the hour of three in the afternoon of the fame day.

(f) [So in the borough of Cricklade, Wiltshire, where certain freeholders are intitled to vote by ftatute 22 Geo. III. c. 31. the election must be within twelve days, and not lefs than eight days; and notice of the fame must be given forthwith.]

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of all the candidates: and, in all fuch cafes, ten days public notice must be given of the time and place of the election.

AND, as it is essential to the very being of parliament that elections should be abfolutely free, therefore all undue influences upon the electors are illegal, and strongly prohibited. For Mr Locke ranks it among thofe breaches of trust in the executive magistrate, which according to his notions amount to a diffolution of the government, "if he employs the force, "treasure, and offices of the fociety to corrupt the represent"atives, or openly to preingage the electors, and prescribe "what manner of perfons fhall be chofen. For thus to re

"gulate candidates and electors, and new model the ways of "election, what is it, fays he, but to cut up the government "by the roots, and poifon the very fountain of public fecu"rity?" As foon therefore as the time and place of election, either in counties or boroughs, are fixed, all foldiers 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 is ended. Riots likewife have been frequently determined to make an election void. By vote also of the houfe of commons, to whom alone belongs the power of determining contefted elections, no lord of parliament, or lord lieutenant of a county, hath any right to interfere in the election of commoners; and, by ftatute, the lord warden of the cinque ports fhall not recommend any members there. If any officer of the excife, cuftoms, ftamps, or certain other branches of the revenue, prefume to intermeddle in elections, by perfuading any voter or diffuading him, he forfeits 100l, and is difabled to hold any office.

THUS are the electors of one branch of the legislature fecured from any undue influence from either of the other twe, and from all external violence and compulfion. But the greatest danger is that in which themfelves co-operate, by the infamous practice of bribery and corruption. To prevent which it is enacted that no candidate fhall, after the date (ufually called the tefte) of the writs, or after the vacancy, give any money or entertainment to his electors, or promife to give any, either to particular perfons, or to the place ron Gov. p. 2. §. 222.