Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/362

Rh 344 REGISTRATION only in comparatively modem times that the registration has been fully carried out. The registration of births, &c., iu the United Kingdom depends upon a large body of statutory law. Baptisms, marriages, and burials are usually registered at the time of their occurrence, births and deaths within a certain time afterwards. The English Act 35 & 36 Viet. c. 36 forbids the charging of any fee for registration of baptism. The law of registration of births and deaths is consolidated for England by 37 & 38 Viet c. 88, for Ireland by 43 & 44 Viet. c. 13. In Scotland it depends upon 17 & 18 Viet. c. 80, as amended by later Acts. The registration of marriages in England depends chiefly upon 4 Geo. IV. c. 76, and 6 & 7 Will. IV. c. 85 ; iu Ireland upon 7 & 8 Viet. c. 81 (as to Protestants), 26 & 27 Viet. c. 90 (as to Roman Catholics); in Scotland ujwn 17 & 18 Viet. c. 80. The chief official charged with the administration of the Acts is the registrar-general of births, deaths, and marriages ; in Scotland the office is held by the deputy clerk-register. In the United States the registration of births, marriages, and deaths is, with a few exceptions such as births and deaths at sea and marriages abroad, the subject of State and not United States legislation. Burials are regulated in England by the Burial Acts, especially the Registration of Burials Act, 1864, in Scotland by 18 & 19 Viet. c. 68. Chapels belonging to nonconformist bodies may be certified to the registrar-general (see NONCONFORMITY). There are few enactments dealing with the subject of this paragraph which extend to the United Kingdom. Those which do so are of a special nature, such as Acts affecting friendly societies and officers and soldiers abroad. A Registration Act embracing the United Kingdom is much needed. Companies. ---Under the Companies Act, 1862, and subsequent Companies Acts (most of which apply to the United Kingdom), commercial companies as distinguished from associations of other kinds must be registered. Any company requiring to be registered and not registered is an illegal association, and its members cannot take advantage of the limitation of liability and other benefits conferred by the Acts. The register is under the charge of the registrar-general of joint stock companies or such other registrar as the Board of Trade may appoint. The register must contain (1) the memorandum of association, including the name and objects of the proposed company and the place where its registered office is situate ; (2) the articles of association ; (3) a list of members and shareholders (or directors where there are no shareholders), and a statement of the amount held by each shareholder, and other particulars ; (4) any order of court confirming the reduction of the capital of a company ; (5) any contract duly made in writing by which a share is issued otherwise than for cash ; (6) proceedings in winding up. No trust is to appear on the register in the case of companies registered in England or Ireland. Every company must keep at its registered office a register of its members, and, if a company not divided into shares, a register of its directors or managers, and, in addition, if a limited company, a register of mortgages and charges affecting the property of the company. Friciidly Societies. A friendly society consisting of seven members at least may be registered under the Friendly Societies Act, 1875. The name of the society and of its secretary, and of every trustee or other officer authorized to sue or to be sued in the name of the society, and also a copy of its rules, are entered on the register. There is a chief registrar of friendly societies with assist- ant registrars for Scotland and Ireland. Every registered society is to have a registered office. In the same registry are now registered building societies, industrial and provident societies, and trade unions. Newspapers. By the Newspapers Libel and Registration Act, 1881, the registrar of joint stock companies is to keep a register of the titles of newspapers and the names of their proprietors (see NEWSPAPERS, PRESS LAWS). Copyrights, Patents, Designs, Trade Marks. See COPYRIGHT, PATENTS, TRADE MARK. Professions and Occupations. The effect of recent legislation has been that solicitors, medical men, dentists, veterinary surgeons, chemists and druggists, seamen, lodging-house keepers, cow keepers, milk retailers, and others must be registered in accordance with various statutory provisions. Unless duly registered they cannot as a rule recover for their services. In certain other cases registra- tion is not in name necessary, but it is practically enforced by the law regarding the entry in certain official books and documents as prima facie evidence of qualification. Thus the roll of the House of Lords is evidence that a person appearing upon it is a peer, the army list that a name contained in it is that of an officer. Among other matters of less importance which are registered arc crown debts, acknowledgments by married women, colonial stock under 40 & 41 Viet. c. 59, schemes under the Regulation of Railways Act, 1867, hospitals where lunatics are received, and (in Scotland) lunatics confined in asylums. In this place may be mentioned the peculiar privilege enjoyed by the Channel Islands : orders in council or Acts of Parliament in which they are not named do not become law in those islands until after registration in the royal courts. (j. wt.) PARLIAMENTARY REGISTRATION. England. Prior to 1832 the right of parliamentary electors was determined at the moment of the tender of the vote at the election, or, in the event of a petition against the return, by a scrutiny, n. committee of the House of Commons striking off those whose qualification was held to be insufficient, and, on the other hand, adding those who, having tendered their votes at the poll, with a good title to do so, were rejected at the time. A conspicuous feature of the Reform Act of that year was the introduction of a new mode of ascertaining the rights of electors by means of an entirely new system of published lists, subject to claims and objections, and after due inquiry and revision forming a register of voters. In forming a register the services of overseers, already existing in every parish, were called into requisition. As regards electors in counties, principally freeholders and long-lease-holders and 50 tenant farmers, under the Chandos clause, overseers have no official knowledge of the persons qualified to vote. Their duty towards providing a register of county electors consisted in giving public notice, receiving claims and objections, and making out lists of them and forwarding them to the clerk of the peace. In boroughs their primary duty was to make out lists, their rate Looks as overseers giving them tho* "knowledge of persons entitled under the Reform Act to vote as 10 rated occupiers, to which subsequent claims were added or objections made. In old boroughs where freemen were entitled, independently of the then new occupation franchise, the town clerk prepared the lists. Barristers were appointed to revise the lists, which eventually formed the register of voters for the ensuing year for counties and boroughs. This procedure still forms the basis of registration, but subject to important alterations since made. Although the Act of 1832 was most carefully drawn, its provisions minutely indicating every step to be taken for the formation of a register, accompanied by precise forms, it was found insufficient in practice ; and accord- ingly a Registration Act was passed in 1843 (6 & 7 Viet. c. 15), by which forms of precept were issued by clerks of the peace and town clerks to overseers, telling them in a compendious form what they were to do, and providing them with the necessary forms for all cases. The Representation of the People Act in 1867 introduced very important changes in the franchise, in counties by introduc- ing an occupation qualification distinct from any previous descrip- tion of franchise either in county or borough, but having somewhat closer affinity to the 10 occupation iu boroughs under the Reform Act of 1832 than to the 50 tenant occupation in counties under that Act. This county franchise was an occupation as owner or tenant of lands or tenements oithe rateable value of ]2, with the concomitants of rating to the poor rates and payment of rates; but the 12 occupation practically merged within it a large proportion of 50 tenant occupiers. The alterations effected by the Act of 1S67 in the borough franchise were much more extensive. In the first place, the franchise was given to every inhabitant occupier as owner or tenant of any dwelling house within the borough ; but rating and payment of poor rates were made essential conditions of this franchise : part of a house occupied as a separate dwelling, if separately rated, was a sufficient dwelling house to confer the franchise. Notwithstanding the apparent effect of the general enfranchisement of inhabitant occupiers, a very considerable body still depended on the former 10 franchise in consequence of the distinction between residence and inhabitancy. Secondly, the Act gave the franchise to occupiers of lodgings of a yearly value (irre- spective of furniture) of 10. A Registration Act of the following year was in several important respects defective. With respect to two of the three new classes enfranchised in 1867 many doubts were indeed removed by it. The overseers were required to make out a list of 12 occupiers in counties ; on the other hand lodgers in boroughs were required under the Act of 1867 to claim to be registered. But with respect to the third class, the most numerous of all the inhabitant occupiers in boroughs the Act contained no direction. Notwithstanding attempts to meet these and various other defects, several years elapsed without any alteration being effected. In the meantime important electoral changes occurred. The alterations effected by the Act of 1867, besides those of qualifi- cation, the redistribution of seats, and the representation of mino- rities, followed by the Ballot Act of 1872, were succeeded by the innovation of mixing up regulations for the exercise of parlia- mentary with the municipal franchise, and led up to the fusion of the registration of the two franchises and the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act of 1878, introducing important changes both as regards the definition of the franchise in boroughs and the procedure in relation to registration. As regards the latter the changes recognized the combination of borough registration for the double purpose of parliamentary and municipal registration, and also the more ready preparation of accurate registers irrespective of the combination. The legislation of 1884 and 1885 in relation to registration next requires notice. The Representation of the People Act, 1884,