appoint fuch number of clerks as to him fhall feem meet and convenient, for taking thereoft Which clerks fhall all take the faid poll in the prefence of the faid fheriff, or his undersheriff, or fuch as he fhall depute. And before they begin to take the said poll, every clerk fo appointed, fhall by the faid fheriff, or his underfheriff as aforefaid, be fworn truly and indifferently to take the fame poll, and to set down the names of each freeholder, and the place of his freehold, and for whom he shall poll; and to poll no freeholder who is not fworn, if fo required by the candidates or any of them: (which oath of the faid clerks, the faid fheriff, or his underfheriff, or fuch as he fhall depute, are hereby impowered to adminifter) And the fheriff, or in his abfence This undersheriff as aforefaid, fhall appoint for each candidate fuch one person as shall be nominated to him by each candidate, to be inspectors of every clerk who shall be appointed for taking the poll.”

This provifion is enforced by the feventh fection of 18 Geo. II. ch. 18. which requires a certain number of booths to be erected for taking the election; and by fect. 9. "The fheriff, or in his abfence, &c. (as before) fhall allow a cheque-book for every poll-book, for each candidate, to be kept by their respective inspectors, at every place where the poll fhall be taken or carried on."

P. 389. (E.) This cafe was determined in Michaelmas term, 1783. The claims of the parties had been directed by the court, to be tried upon the iffue, "Which of them had been duly elected;" At the trial, the defendant admitted, that, in fact, a majority had elected the plaintiff; but contended, that, according to an agreement of the parties before the election, the right of

yoting was confidered for that time, to be in residents only, and that of them he had a majority. The judge rejected the defendant's witnesses as incompetent from intereft; but on a motion for a new trial in the court of King's Bench against the judge's decifion, all the judges there agreed (though they differed upon other confiderations, as to the propriety of granting a new trial) that the witneffes were competent; that, the election being over, and the agreement pro hâc vice only, they had no interest but such as related to their future right on another election, with which their past right had no connection.

The counfel who fupported this fide of the question, relied upon the case of the King and Bray, which they cited from the law of Nifi Prius *. Mr. Juftice Buller' in delivering his opinion, faid, "The rule laid down by Lord Hardwicke, in that case, should be always followed, viz. That if the interest be doubtful, the objection goes to the credit only; and this rule extends to all cafes, where it is uncertain whether there is an intereft." Mr. Juftice Ashhurft who had tried the cause, retracted his former opinion. Lord Mansfield faid, "Competency in our law has been carried to an extravagant length; as in the cafes of commoners and others, where the intereft is hardly discernible: I would not draw this line tighter, but incline to the rule of Lord Hardwicke

The words of Lord Hardwicke, ftated in the book above referred to are these, " In doubtful cafes, he said, it was his cuftom to admit the evidence, and to give fuch directions to the jury as the nature of the case might require."

P. 390. (F.) Lord Hardwicke, in p. 360. of the Reports of Cafes in his time, fays, (after diftinguishing between an office and an authority in the Elifor's cafe) "I know no instance, where a man by having a bare authority, which gives him no intereft, will be hindred from being a witness, if he is not a party in the cause ; fo a bailiff who executed a writ may be a witness, if he is not a party; but an office always gives an interest.If we should allow of fuch doctrine, (i. e. that the being fubject to an information affected the witness's competency) it would go too far; for it is daily experience, that perfons who have executed offices in corporations, when that office has been afterwards called in queftion, have been allowed as witneffes to prove, if it depends on custom, what has been usually done; Yet they are liable to informations in quo warranto, if the custom should not warrant the office,