Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1871.djvu/238

 202 GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

every male person of full age, and subject to no legal incapacity, who has been for twelve months an occupier, as owner or tenant, of any dwelling, unless at any time during that period he shall have been exempted from poor-rates on the ground of poverty, or shall have failed to pav his poor-rates, or shall have been in the receipt of parochial relief within twelve months. The lodger franchise in Scotland consists in the permission of any lodger to vote who has occupied in the same burgh separately, and as sole tenant, for twelve months, a lodging of the clear annual value, if let unfurnished, often pounds or upwards, and has claimed to be registered as a voter. In Scottish counties, the ownership franchise is five pounds, clear of any deduction in the shape of burdens, with a residential qualifica- tion of not less than six months. The Reform Act for Ireland made no alteration in the county franchise, but reduced that of boroughs to a 41. rating occupation, qualified as in England.

The Reform Bill of 1867-68 left in force all the old legal require- ments for electors. Under them, aliens, persons under twenty-one years of age, of unsound mind, in receipt of parochial relief, or convicted of felony and undergoing a term of imprisonment, are incapable of voting. No one can be a member of Parliament who has not attained the age of twenty-one years, and no excise, custom, stamp, or other revenue officer is eligible. All the judges of the United Kingdom, except the Master of the Rolls in England, priests and deacons of the Church of England, ministers of the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic clergymen, government contractors, and sheriffs and returning officers for the localities for which they act, are also disqualified. No English or Scottish peer can be elected to the House of Commons, but Irish peers are eligible. No foreigners, and no persons convicted of treason or felony, are eligible for seats in Parliament.

To preserve the independence of members of the House of Com- mons, it was enacted, by statute 6 Anne, that, if any member shall accept any office of profit from the Crown, his election shall be void, and a new writ issue ; but he is eligible for re-election if the place accepted be not a new office, created since 1705. This provision has been made the means of relieving a member from his trust, which he cannot resign, by his acceptance of the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, a nominal office in the gift of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

At the commencement of the session of 1870, the House of Commons numbered 658 members, but in the course of it, by Acts 33 & 34 Vict., c 21 and 38, two English boroughs, each returning two mem- bers, and two Irish boroughs, each returning one member ; were dis- franchised, thus reducing the total to 652. The 652 members are returned as follows by the three divisions of the United Kingdom : —