Officers of the revenue prohibited to vote. 22Geo. 3. c. 41. Eng. 9. J. By the 22 Geo. 3. c. 41. Eng. no commissioner, collector, supervisor, gauger, or other person concerned or employed in the excise; nor any commissioner, collector, comptroller, scarcher, or other officer, &c. of the customs; nor any commissioner, officer, or other person concerned, &c. in collecting or managing the duties on stamped vellum, parchment and paper, nor any person appointed by the commissioners of stamps; nor any commissioner, or other person employed in collecting, &c. any of the duties on salt; nor any surveyor, collector, comptroller, inspector, or other officer or person employed in collecting, &c. the duties on windows or houses, nor any postmaster, postmaster-general, or his deputy, or any person employed under him in collecting, &c. the revenue of the post office, nor any captain, master, or mate of any ship, packet or vessel employed by the post master general, in conveying the mail to and from foreign ports, shall be capable of giving his vote for the election of any knight of the shire, commissioner, citizen, burgess, or baron, to sit in parliament for any county, stewartry, city, borough, or cinque port, or for choosing any delegate in whom the right of electing members to serve in parliament for Scotland is vested; and if any person so disqualified shall vote, during the time he shall hold, or within 12 calendar months after he shall cease to hold, any of said offices, such vote shall be void, and such person shall forfeit £.100, one moiety to the informer, and the other to be paid to the treasurer of the county, riding, or division where the offence shall be committed in England, or to the clerk of the justices of the peace of the county or stewartry in Scotland, and to be applied to such purposes as the justices at the next quarter sessions for such county, &c. shall think fit; to be recovered by any person by action of debt, &c. in any court of record at Westminster, or by summary complaint before the court of sessions in Scotland; and the person convicted on such suit, shall be thereby disabled from ever holding any office or place of trust under the crown; but by s. 5. such prosecution must be commenced within 12 months after such penalty shall shall be incurred. By s. 2. this act does not extend to the commissioners of the land tax or other persons acting by their appointment; and by s. 3. offices then held or usually granted by letters patent for any estate of inheritance or freehold are also excepted. s. 2. s. 3. revenue in Ire 43 Geo. 3. And by the 43 Geo. 3. c. 25. s. 1. I. no commissioner, Officers of the collector, surveyor, supervisor, gauger, or other person land, disquali employed in the excise in Ireland; nor any commissioner, fied. collector, surveyor, comptroller, searcher, or other per- c. 25. s. 1. 1. son employed in the customs in Ireland; nor any surveyor, collector, comptroller, inspector, or other person employed by the commissioners of the revenue in Ireland, in the collecting or managing, &c. any of the duties, taxes or impositions paid or levied under the direction of such commissioners; nor any commissioner or other person employed in collecting, &c. the duties on stamped vellum, parchment and paper in Ireland, nor any person appointed by the last mentioned commissioners for distributing of stamps in Ireland; nor any postmastergeneral or his deputy, or any person employed by him in collecting, &c. the revenue of the post office in Ireland, nor any captain, master or mate of any ship or other vessel employed by such postmaster-general in conveying the mail from and to Ireland, to or from Great Britain or other place, shall be capable of giving his vote in any election for the choice of any representative in parliament for any county, &c. in Ireland; and if any person so incapable of voting shall give his vote during the time he shall hold, or within 12 calendar months after he shall cease to hold, any of said offices; such vote shall be void, and such offender shall forfeit £. 100 Irish currency-one moiety to the informer, and the other to be paid to the treasurer of the county, &c. in Ireland where such offence shall be committed, to be applied to such charitable purposes within such county, &c. as the justices at the next quarter sessions for such county, &c. shall think fit, to be recovered within (by s. 4.) 12 calendar months after such penalty shall be incurred, by action of debt, &c. by any person who shall sue for the same, in any court of record in Dublin. But by s. 2. this act is not to extend 3. 4. $. ?. Undue influence hibited. 6. 48. Eng. to any office then held, or usually granted to be held, by letters patent for any estate of inheritance or freehold. "To the end that the great duties of excise, and of Officers pro- the powers given for collecting the same, may not be 3 W. & M. c.20. employed for the influencing of elections of members to serve in parliament, which elections ought, by the constitution of this government, to be free and uncorrupt," it is enacted by the 5 W. & M. c. 20. s. 48. Eng. that no collector, supervisor, gauger, or other officer or person employed in the excise, shall, by word, messagé, or writing, or in any other manner, endeavour to persuadé any elector to give, or dissuade any elector from giving, his vote for the choice of any knight, citizen, burgess, or baron to serve in parliament; and every person offending therein shall forfeit £.100, one moiety to the informer, the other moiety to the poor, &c. to be recovered by any person that shall sue &c. at Westminster; and every person convict on any such suit shall become disabled to bear any office relating to the duty of excise, or any other office or place of trust under the crown. 12 and 13 W3. And by the 12 & 13 W. 3. c. 10. s. 91. Eng. no commissióner, collector, comptroller, searcher, or other officer or person concerned in the customs, shall by word, message, or writing, or in any other manner, endeavour to persuade any elector to give, or dissuade any elector from giving his vote for the choice of any knight of the shire, citizen, burgess, or baron, upon pain of forfeiting £. 100, one moiety to the informer, and the other to the poor, &c. to be recovered by any person that shall sue &c. at Westminster. And by the 10 Ann. c. 19. s. 182. Eng. any commissioner, officer, or other person concerned in the collecting or managing any of the duties granted by this act, who shall by word, message, or writing, or in other manner, endeavour to persuade any elector to give, or dissuade any elector from giving his vote for any knight of the shire, commissioner, citizen, burgess, or baron, shall forfeit £. 100, one moiety to the informer, and the other to the poor of the parish, to be recovere by any person that shail sue, &. at Westminster, or in the Court of Exchequer in Scotland; and shall ba c.10. s.91.Eng. 10 Ann. c. 19. 182. Eng. disabled disabled from bearing any office or place of trust under the crown; which provisions are peculiar to the law of England. § 6. elected members, 12 & 13 W. 3. c. VI. As to the qualifications of persons to be elected mem- Qualifications of bers of the house of commons, it is one of the provisions persons to be of the Act of Settlement, 12 & 13 W. 3. c. 2. s. 3. Eng. &c. that no person born out of the kingdom of England, . 2. s. 3. Eug. Scotland, or Ireland, or the dominions thereunto belonging, although he be naturalized, or made a denizen, Aliens, &c. ezexcept such as are born of English parents, shall be cluded. capable to be a member of either house of parliament. 29. s. 2. Ir. 23 & 24 Geo.3. c. 38. Ir. And the 19 & 20 Geo. 3. c. 29. s. 2. Ir. which is an act 19 & 20 Geo.3. for naturalizing such foreign merchants as shall settle in this kingdom, (and explained or amended by the 23 & 24 Geo. 3. c. 38. & 36 Geo. 3. c. 48) also provides, that no person naturalized by this act shall be enabled to serve in parliament. in 36 Geo. 3. c.48. ir. cluded. 7 & 8 W. 3. The 7 and 8 W. 3. c. 25. s. 8. Eng. enacts, that no Minors experson shall be capable of being elected to serve parliament, who is not of the age of 21 years, and c. 25. s. 8. Eng. every return of a person under that age shall be void; and if any such minor shall sit and vote in parliament, he shall incur such penalties and forfeitures, as if 1 s. 81. Jr. 37 Geo. 3.c.47. s. 20. Ir. he had presumed to sit and vote without being chosen or returned. The 35 Geo. 3. 29. Ir. contains a corre- 35 Geo. 3. c.29. sponding provision, (s. 81.) and the 37 Geo. 3. c. 47. s. 20. Ir. also provides, that every election or return of any person to serve in parliament who shall be under the age of 21 years shall be void; and that if it shall be determined, by any committee of the house of commons who shall try any petition presented against any such election or return, that such person was under the age of 21 years on the day of such election, a new writ shall forthwith issue for the election of a person in his place. cluded. The 41 Geo. 3. c. 63. U. K. which is an act to re- Ecclesiastics exmove doubts respecting the eligibility of persons in holy 41 Geo. 3.c.65. orders to sit in the house of commons, enacts, s. 1. that s. 1. U. K. no person having been ordained to the office of priest or deacon, or being a minister of the church of Scotland, shall be capable of being elected to serve in parliament as a member of the house of commons; and by s. 2. if any s. 2. any such person shall be elected, &c. such election and return shall be void; and this act further provides, that if any person, being elected to serve in parliament as a member of the house of commons, shall after his election be ordained to the office of priest, or deacon, or become a minister of the church of Scotland, the seat of such person shall immediately become void; and if any such person shall in any of the aforesaid cases presume to sit or vote as Penalty for sit- a member, &c. he shall forfeit £.500 for every day in ting or voting. which he shall sit or vote in said house, to any person who shall sue for the same in any of his Majesty's courts at Westminster, to be recovered with full costs of suit by action of debt, &c.; and every person against whom any such penalty shall be recovered shall be from thenceforth incapable of taking, holding, or enjoying any benefice, living, or promotion ecclesiastical, or any office of honour or profit under the crown; but by s. 3. all prosecutions under this act must be commenced within for prosecuting. 12 calendar months after the forfeiture shall be incurred. The proof of the celebration of divine service, according to the rites of the church of England, or of the church of Scotland, in any church or chapel consecrated or set apart for public worship, shall by s. 4. be prima facie evidence of the fact, of such person having been ordained to the office of a priest or a deacon, or of his being a minister of the church of Scotland, within the meaning of this act. 3. 3. Time limited S. 4. Evidence on such prosecu tion. Certain place men and pen revenue, &c. With respect to placemen and pensioners, it is sioners excluded, provided by the 5 W. & M. c. 7. s. 57. Eng. that no 5 W. & M. member of the house of commons shall at any time be c. 7. s. 57. Eng. concerned, directly or indirectly, or any other in trust Farmers of the for him, in the farming, collecting, or managing any of the sums of money, duties, or other aids granted by this act, (viz. duties on salt, &c.) or to be granted by any other act of parliament, except the commissioners of the treasury, and the officers and commissioners for managing the customs and excise, not exceeding the number then 11 & 12 W. 3. in office; and the 11 & 12 W. 3. c. 2. s, 150. Eng. furc. 2.s.150.Eng. ther enacts, that no member of the house of commons, Commissioners during the time of his being a member, shall be capable of excise, &c. of being a cómmissioner or farmer of the duty of ex |