2 Geo. 2. c. 24. s. 1. Eng.

" of money, office, place or employment, gift or reward, or any promise or security for any money, office, em"ployment, or gift, in order to give my vote at this election, and that I have not been polled before at this 35 Geo.3. c 29. " election." The clause of the 35 Geo. 3. c. 29. s. 60. Ir. s. 60. Ir. is nearly corresponding, which enacts that if any candidate or elector shall desire it, every person offering to vote at any election shall, before he be permitted to poll, take the following oath :-"I, A. B. do swear, (or being of the people called quakers, " I, A. B. do solemnly affirm) "I have not received or had by myself or any person "whatsoever in trust for me, or for my use and benefit, "or for the use and benefit of any of my family or kin"dred, to my knowledge or belief, directly or indirectly, any sum or sums of money, office, place, or employment, gift, or reward, or any promise or security for any money, office or employment, in order to give my "vote at this election." But the 2 Geo. 2. c. 24. s. 1. Eng. further requires the officer taking the poll to administer this oath gratis, on pain to forfeit £50 to any person that shall sue by action of debt, &c. at Westminster, or if the offence be committed in Scotland, to be recovered by summary action or complaint before the court of session, or by prosecution before the court of justiciary there; and by s. 2. if any sheriff, &c. shall admit any person to be polled without taking such oath, &c. if demanded, such returning officer shall forfeit £100 with full costs; and if any person shall vote without having first taken the oath, &c. if demanded, he shall incur the same penalty; which provisions are peculiar to this English statute. This statute (s. 7.) further provides that if any person' who shall have, or claim to have, any right to vote in any election,* [shall ask, receive, or take any money or other reward, by way of gift, loan, or other device, or agree or contract for any money, gift, office, employment or other reward,] to give his vote or to forbear from giving it, or if any person by himself or by any person employed by him, shall, by any gift or reward, or by any promise,

s. 2.

3. 7.

agreement

* Instead of the words within the crotchets, the 35 Geo. 3. c. 29. s. 23. Ir. uses the following" shall directly or indirectly ask, receive, or take any money or other reward for himself or any of his family or kindred."

s. 23. Ir.

s. 9. Eug.

agreement, or security for any gift or reward, corrupt or procure any person to give his vote in any such election, or to forbear to give the same, such person shall forfeit £500, with full costs of suit, &c. to the person who shall first sue for the same, (as by s. 1. supra,) and such person shall, after judgment obtained against him in any such action, &c. for ever be disabled to vote in any election of a member to serve in parliament, and shall also be for ever disabled to hold or exercise any office or franchise which he then or afterwards may be entitled to as member of any city, borough, town corporate, or cinque port, as if naturally dead. The 35 Geo. 3. c. 29. Ir. contains a 35 Geo.3. c. 29. similar clause, (s. 23.) with such variations, however, as are noted in the margin. The 2 Geo. 2. c. 24 is by s. 9. 2 Geo. 2. c. 24. required to be read before the electors by every sheriff or other returning officer, immediately after reading the writ or precept, and it is also to be read once every year, at the quarter sessions next after Easter for any county or city, and at the election of the chief magistrate in any borough, &c. and at the election of magistrates and town counsellors for every borough in Scotland; and by s. 10. every sheriff, &c. to whom the execution of any writ or precept for the electing of members to serve in parliament doth belong, shall, for every wilful offence contrary to this act, forfeit £50 to be recovered with full costs of suit, as aforesaid. This offence of bribery is further restrained by the 7 W.3. c. 4. Eng. which enacts that 7W.3.c.4. s. I. Eng. no person to be elected to serve in parliament for any county, &c. in England, &c. shall, after the teste of the Treating clause. writ of summons, or after the teste, issuing out, or ordering of the writs of election upon the calling of any par liament, or after such place becomes vacant in time of parliament, before his election give or allow to any person having voice in such election any money, meat, drink, entertainment, or provision, or make any present, &c. or entertainment, or any promise, &c. or engagement to give or allow any money, &c. to or for any such person in particular, or to or for such place in general, in order to be elected; and by s. 2. every person so giving or allow ing, promising or engaging, &c. shall be disabled upon such election to serve in parliament for such place.

And

s. 10.

8. 2.

s. 19. Ir.

$5 Geo. 3. c. 29. And by the 35 Geo. 3. c. 29. s. 19. Ir. no person to be Treating clause, elected to serve for any county, &c. shall, after the

$. 20.

Number and payment of

agents, &c. limited.

5. 21.

Barristers excluded.

teste of the writ, or after the vacancy shall have happened, by himself, his friends, or agents, or any person employed on his behalf, directly or indirectly, give, present, or allow to any person having a vote in such election, any money, meat, drink, entertainment, or provision, cockades, ribbands, or other mark of distinction, or make any present, gift, reward, or entertainment, or make any promise, agreement, obligation, or engagement, to give or allow any money, meat, drink, provision, present, entertainment, or reward, to or for any person in particular, or to any such county in general, or to or for the use, advantage, &c. of any such person or place, in order to be elected for such county, &c. and any person so doing shall be disabled and incapable to serve in parliament upon such election for such county, &c. It seems to be with the same view of preventing expense and undue influence, and for preserving the freedom of election, that this statute (s. 20.) provides, that no candidate for a county shall employ at or for any election for such county where a poll shall take place, more hired agents or clerks than at the rate of one for each barony or half-barony in said county; and no candidate for any city, &c. where a poll shall take place, shall employ more than one hired agent or clerk for every 100 voters, who polled at the last or any previous election; and no higher sum shall be paid to any such clerk or agent, than five guineas for the first day, and two guineas for every further day which the poll shall continue; and if any candidate shall have more hired clerks, &c. than hereby allowed, or pay or promise to pay directly or indirectly, to any clerk or agent, more than the wages so specified, he shall forfeit £.1000. to any person who shall sue for the same. By s. 21. no barrister, or counsel, or friend, or adviser of the court, although an elector, shall be permitted to plead before, or be heard as counsel, by any returning officer, or any deputy, at any election, on the part of any candidate or elector, for or against the right of any person to vote at such election,

or

B. 22.

Except to be

sheriff's counsel.

&c.

s. 1. Eng.

or otherwise. But by s. 22. any returning officer may employ a barrister or counsel to assist him in the execution of his duty, and every candidate may pay any sum he thinks proper towards defraying the expense thereof. The 34 Geo. 3. c. 73. Eng. as amended by the 42 Mode of admiGeo. 3. c. 62. E. &c. in order to avoid the delay in ad- nistering oaths, ministering the several oaths required by law by the she- 34 Geo.3.c.73. riff or other returning officer during the poll at elec-42Geo. 3. c. 62. tions, enacts, that the returning officer at every election. 1. E. &c. in England, &c. after a poll shall be demanded, shall, Deputies apat the request in writing of any candidate under his pointed. hand, immediately, and before he shall proceed further in taking the poll, appoint two or more persons, severally and apart from the place where the poll shall be taken, to administer all the oaths, and take the declarations and affirmations required to be taken at elections, and to certify the names of such electors as shall take such oaths, or subscribe and make such declarations and affirmations: and if the number of persons so appointed shall appear to be insufficient, so that the poll is delayed thereby, the returning officer, by 34 Geo. 3. c. 73. s. 4. 34Geo. 3. c. 73. may appoint such further number as shall be necessary; Numbers may but before such persons take upon them to act under be increased. such appointment, they must, by 42. Geo. 3. c. 62. 42Geo. 3. c. 62, take the following oath :-" I A. B. do swear, that I ❝ will faithfully and impartially administer the oaths, and "take the declarations and affirmations, now required by "law to be taken or made by voters at elections for

members to serve in parliament, to and from such persons as shall lawfully apply to me in that behalf, in "order to qualify themselves to vote at this election; " and that I will, on being thereunto requested, fairly "and truly give to every such person, or any of them, "who shall take such oaths, or make such declarations " or affirmations respectively, or any of them, before me, "a certificate thereof; and that I will not give such cer"tificate to any person before he shall have taken such "eath or oaths, or make such declaration or declarations, "affirmation or affirmations respectively, as shall be men❝tioned in such certificate, before me and in my presence:" which oath the returning officer and his de

puty

s. 4.

s. 1.

Oath of such

Deputies.

5. 2.

s. 3.

Voters to pro

34Geo. 3.c.73. puty are required to administer. And by 34 Geo. 3. c. 73. s. 2. after such oaths shall be taken, any person claiming Certificate of to vote may, at any time before voting, apply to any taking ouths of one of such persons, who. shall thereupon administer allegiance, &c. such oaths, &c. as are required to be taken, and sign and deliver a certificate thereof, naming therein the person taking the oath, or subscribing, or affirming if a quaker, and the place of such person's abode, and his addition or occupation, and naming also the oath or oaths so administered, or the declaration or declarations, or affirmation or affirmations so made, subscribed, and taken. And every person producing such certificate shall be permitted to poll, as if the oath had been administered and taken before the returning officer at the election. By this statute (s. 3.) any person offering to vote as an elector without producing such certificate of taking duce certificates. the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, and the declaration of fidelity, and declaration or affirmation of the effect of the oath of abjuration, may be required to take such oath, &c. and shall thereupon immediately withdraw for the purpose of taking the same before one of the persons appointed and sworn as aforesaid. And returning officers are required by s. 5. to provide proper places for every person so appointed to execute said duty, so that they may act separately without interfering with each other, to which places the electors shall have free access; and such places shall be kept open at least 8 hours in each day, between the hours of 8 in the morning and 8 in the evening, until the final close of the poll. And the said oath, &c. shall be administered to as many together as can conveniently be, not exceeding 12 at one time. And the returning officers are thereby also required to provide a sufficient number of printed forms

s. 5.

Places appointed for such depu

ties.

Blank Certifi- of the declaration of fidelity, with blanks therein, for the cates to be proname of the quaker making and subscribing the same,

vided.

one

*The 42 Geo. 3. c. 62. does not prescribe any precise form of certificate, but by reference to the 34 Geo. 3. c. 73. which extended only to the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration, or the declarations or affirmations of

- the effects thereof: I have therefore stated the substance of the certificate to be collected from both acts.