The following are the conditions to be satisfied by claimants for registration in burghs:

1st. The payment, previously to the 20th July, of all asSESSED TAXES payable by the claimant in respect of the premises claimed on, and due before the 6th of April then next preceding.

2nd. The previous RESIDENCE of the claimant or voter within the burgh, or within seven miles of some part of it, for six months before the 31st July in any year. 3rd. That the party has not received parochial relief within twelve months previous to the 31st July in any year.* It will be observed that the 11th section expressly enfranchises life-renters' in burghs; while there is no such direct and substantive enactment in the sections conferring the county franchise. They are only incidentally mentioned, and that in the 8th section; and it is on that section that the registration courts have proceeded, in sustaining the claims of life-renters, in counties. The 11th section also confers the franchise on 'the husbands of such owners,' i. e. 'true owners;' and the general opinion of the registration courts has been, that such true owners consist only of proprietors in fee-simple, in their own right, to the exclusion of joint proprietors, life-renters, and tenants on long leases: thus excluding the husbands of all such. The decisions, however, in the Scotch registration courts, have not been unanimous on this point. The 11th section, again, confers the franchise on 'tenants,' simpliciter, with no subordinate classification, as in the case of tenants in counties. Whence seem to be deducible two conclusions: first, that no tenants in burghs can be admitted, unless they be in occupancy, however long may be the term of their lease; and secondly, that the present existence and previous endurance of that occupancy, and of the character of tenancy along with it, are alone contemplated,—the qualification not being at all affected by the shortness of the prospective term for which the claimant may hold, provided he hold for that term indefeasibly.§

Finally, the seventh and eleventh sections, respectively conferring the new county and burgh franchise, restrict it to persons not subject to any legal incapacity:" words which are

66

understood to be generally applicable, though not repeated in the ninth section, to all cases of county and burgh claims. It has not been considered necessary to specify particularly in the act those disqualifications; but except in the case of the eldest sons of Scots peers, which will be presently noticed, they remain unaltered, as appears distinctly from section 47 of the act, which provides that all laws, statutes, and usages respecting the rights of electing, the qualifications of electors, and the actual election of members to serve in parliament for Scotland, shall be repealed in so far as they are inconsistent, or at variance with the provisions of this act; provided always that the same shall be in force in all other respects whatsoever.

For the general rules of the old law in regard to personal disqualifications of electors, reference may be made to the works of Wight, c. iii.; Bell on Elections, p. 336 to 349; Connell on Elections, p. 256; to the statutes 22 Geo. 3, c. 41, and 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 53, s. 9; and to the decisions and statutes quoted in the above authorities. They may be classed generally under five heads, namely,—

Objections that arise,

1. From legal disability; as in the case of minors and fatuous persons.

2. From danger to the state; aliens seem the only persons now liable to this objection.

3. From being previously represented; as in the case of

peers.

4. From dependency on government, embracing the disqualifications under 22 Geo. 3, c. 41; 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 53, s. 9.t

5. From bribery and perjury; by statute 2 Geo. 2, c. 24.‡ In comparing the rules of the old law with those introduced by the Reform Act, it is material to observe that the disqualifications were of two kinds. Some were absolutely exclusive, so that a person labouring under any of them could not even have his name put upon the rolls of the court of freeholders; which was a court anciently exercising functions besides that of electing members of parliament. Persons incapable of acting in matters requiring judgment and discretion, such as minors

The act, 1707, c. 8, declares" that none shall be capable to elect, or be elected, for any of the said estates, but such as are twenty-one years of age complete." Post, p. 188, A.

Post, pp. 198, ▲, 219, ▲.

and fatuous persons, were in this situation; being unfit to decide on any of the business intrusted to the Court.

The other class of disqualifying enactments being specially directed against the exercise of the franchise, and introduced solely for the purpose of securing the purity of the representation of the commons, left the parties affected by them at liberty to be enrolled as freeholders, to the effect of performing all the other duties, and enjoying any other privileges connected with that office. Hence persons holding disqualifying offices under government, were entitled to be enrolled, and to vote in regard to the assessment, collection, and distribution of the rogue money, &c.; and although the power of exercising the franchise was suspended during the subsistence of the office, and, in certain cases, for twelve months thereafter (22 Geo. 3), it revived at the expiry of the statutory period.*

The thirty-seventh section expressly entitles the eldest sons of Scotch peers' to be registered, to vote, and to be elected, for either counties, cities, burghs, or district of burghs, in Scotland. By a peculiarity in the election law of Scotland, the eldest sons of peers were formerly disqualified from holding the franchise, or being elected for any place in Scotland, although they might represent any county or burgh in England; while the son of any British peer might represent a county or burgh in Scotland, as might any Irish peer. By the above clause the disqualification of the eldest sons of Scotch peers is now entirely done away. A question, however, has been raised upon the clause, whether its effect is to be limited to the removal of this disqualification, or whether it is not, in fact, a qualifying clause, giving the franchise to the eldest sons of Scotch peers in their character as such, and independently of any other qualification whatever. Several claims have been given in by the eldest sons of peers founded' upon their status alone, and though opinions in the registration courts seem somewhat divided, the claims appear generally to have been rejected.†

II. The mode of ascertaining and enrolling those entitled to exercise the franchise is by registration and appeal: processes carried on in counties and burghs through the agency of claimants, objectors, the parish schoolmasters, sheriff-clerks, town clerks, and sheriffs, at and during periods fixed by the † Id. 27, 28.

* Cay, 13, 14.

Reform Act. In consequence of its not passing till the 17th of July, the periods for the year 1832 were fixed by the early sections of the act provisionally; those which were permanent, by later sections. The sheriffs hold open courts for deciding on claims and objections. No written pleadings are allowed: but there is no prohibition, as in the acts for England and Ireland, of the attendance of counsel. The judgments of the sheriffs, admitting or refusing registration, or expunging or refusing to expunge names already on the register, are subject to an appeal to the sheriffs, or three of them, liable in attendance at the circuit court of justiciary: their courts to be held between the 15th and 25th September, and their appeals to be determined before the 20th October; but the courts are not now dependant upon the holding, or duration, of the circuit court of justiciary, and they may assemble their courts whether the circuit courts shall have been held prior to those dates or not.* The judgments then given are final and conclusive; but these provisions do not limit or restrain the powers of election committees to consider the validity of any vote or claim for registration admitted or rejected by the sheriff, or the judges of appeal. The new system of registration is to be found in sects. 13-25, both inclusive,† and statute 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 88. It is to be regretted, as intimated in the foregoing chapter, that hitherto the legislature has not thought fit to secure consistency and uniformity in the electoral law of Scotland, by constituting one of the superior courts of justice a final court of appeal, as was lately done in Ireland, and had been previously done in England. It is impossible to read the elaborate and extensive work of Mr. Cay, entitled 'An Analysis of the Scottish Reform Act, with the Decisions of the Courts of Appeal,' without feeling the necessity of no longer delaying so salutary an improvement of the law. In the meantime, the work in question, together with Mr. Swinton's excellent Digest of Decisions in the Registration Appeal Court at Glasgow,' for the years 1835 to 1841, both inclusive, may be advantageously referred to by those desirous of full information on questions of Scottish election law.

III. The new method of voting is contained in section 10, and those from the twenty-sixth to the fortieth section of the

• Stat. 4 & 5 Will. 4, c. 88, s. 1, post, p. 38, a., 41, a., and 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 78, s. 12.

Post, pp. 15, ▲.—25, a.

Post, p. 38, s.

Reform Act, both inclusive; and statute 5 & 6 Will. 4, c. 78.* A glance at the former mode of conducting elections in Scotland shows the necessity which existed for a change, and the great improvement effected in the system, in the year 1832.

According to the former system, the sheriff having received and published the writ, the freeholders in the case of a county election assembled; and, after electing a preses and clerk, proceeded to correct the roll, and to call the names of the freeholders, who gave their votes: and the result having been intimated to the sheriff, he made his return accordingly. In the case of a burgh election, the sheriff issued precepts to the different burghs, by virtue of the writ of election. The magistrates of each burgh then elected a delegate, or commissioner. These commissioners afterwards assembled at one of the burghs, in rotation, and proceeded to elect the member, returning the name of the person elected to the sheriff, who again returned it to the crown office.

This procedure was encumbered with a variety of difficulties. In counties it was necessary to scrutinize the claims of the persons proposing to be enrolled for that election, as well as the rights of parties already on the roll, which often created lengthened discussion. After these matters were disposed of, there were two preliminary elections, namely, of a PRESES and a clerk; which often gave rise to much discussion and delay; besides which, there were a variety of nice technical and statutory regulations to be attended to, the neglect of which might vitiate the election, and questions and protests as to the due observance of some one or other of them often gave rise to long debates and subsequent litigation. In burghs, again, these sources of delay and discussion were multiplied, because four or five separate meetings to elect delegates were necessary before the meeting for electing the member took place.

By the Reform Act of 1832, all discussion, or scrutiny, at the time of election, is now entirely done away, with the single exception of the power of putting to intending voters the oaths contained in schedules (I.) and (K.) of the statute. No one can now demand to be enrolled at the time of election. The whole discussions as to the franchise must have been disposed

Post, p. 14, A., 25, ▲.—32, a., 39, a.