CHAPTER IV.

REGISTRATION-PARLIAMENTARY, MUNICIPAL,
LOCAL AND PAROCHIAL GOVERNMENT.

c. 15.

48 & 49 V. In consequence of the assimilation of the occupation franchise in boroughs and counties, and the extension of the household and lodger franchise to the counties effected by the R. P. Act, 1884, it was necessary to make considerable alterations in the existing law of registration. This was done by the Reg. Act, 1885.

This Act, while proceeding, for the most part, by adapting the existing provisions to the new conditions, contains in the schedules instructions to clerks of the peace and town clerks, together with precepts and forms adapted to the new arrangements. Sect. 18 provided that "the forms and instructions contained in the 2nd and 3rd schedules to this Act, shall be used and observed Statutes.

in all cases to which they apply

but a disregard

of any form or instruction shall not of itself invalidate

any list, notice or other thing" (a).

c. 10.

The Cy. El. Act, 1888, by sect. 3 further enlarged 51 & 52 V. the 107. occupation franchise to a burgess qualification, and has extended all burgess qualifications to county electors (vide ante, pp. 67, 68). This required a further adaptation of the precepts and forms, and sect. 13 accordingly provided that they should be altered as should be declared by Order in Council to be necessary, and it was further provided by the Local 51 & 52 V. Gov. Act, 1888, s. 76 (7) :

"It shall be lawful for her Majesty the Queen, by Order in Council, from time to time to alter the instructions, precepts, notices, and forms under the Registration of Electors Acts, in such manner as appears to her Majesty necessary for carrying into effect this Act, and the County Electors Act, 1888, and any other Act for the time being in force, amending or affecting the Acts mentioned in this sub-section, and the instructions, precepts, notices, and forms specified in any such Order in Council shall be observed and be valid in law, and clerks of the peace, and town clerks, and other officers shall act accordingly."

c. 41.

Under the provisions of this section the Order in Registration Order, Council of March 8th, 1895, was issued, which now 1895. regulates the precepts and forms. This Order, which provides that it may be cited as "The Registration Order, 1895," will be found in Appendix II. (6). So far

(a) See on this section, Wood v. Chandler, post, p. 285; Hartley v. Halse, post, p. 310; Jones v. Kent and Smith v. Chandler, post, p. 267.

(b) It should be observed that the forms and instructions in the schedules of the Reg. Act, 1885, have a statutory force, see Stribling v. Halse, (1885), 16 Q. B. D. 246, 249, ante, p. 79, n. (i). The power given to alter the precepts and forms by Order in Council is given in order to adapt them to such franchises as may from time to time exist; it does not enable the franchises to be altered by such order. Hence the new precepts and forms cannot be relied on as authoritatively expounding the various franchises.

Registra- as the directory part of that Order is concerned, the tion Order, 1895. reader is referred thereto in Appendix II., as containing

Assimilation of registration in counties and boroughs.

Joint revision of parlia

mentary

and bur

a convenient summary of the directions under which the various officials are to carry out the preliminary arrangements for the revision of voters; but as the procedure at the revising barristers' Courts is to a great extent left untouched, it will be treated of more in detail.

The Reg. Act, 1885, after reciting in the preamble that it is expedient that the assimilation of the county and borough occupation franchises should be followed by an assimilation of the registration laws applicable to them, enacts (s. 1), (1) that, subject to certain modifications, the registration of occupation voters in parliamentary counties shall be conducted in like manner as the registration of occupation voters in parliamentary boroughs, and that the Parliamentary Registration Acts (c) shall apply to counties in like manner as they apply to boroughs, and also, (2) that the provisions of Reg. Act, 1878, relating to notices, objections, and the powers and duties of revising barristers, shall apply to the registration of ownership voters in counties.

For the purpose of carrying out this application of the Registration Acts, it is provided (sect. 1 (3)) that the words "Parliamentary county" in them shall be substituted for "Parliamentary borough," and "Clerk of the Peace" for "Town Clerk."

By the Reg. Act, 1878, s. 15, it is provided that "Where the whole or part of the area of a municipal borough is co-extensive with or included in the area of a parliamentary borough, the lists of parliamentary voters and the burgess lists shall so far as practicable

gess lists
for bo-
roughs.
41 & 42 v. be made out and revised together."

c. 26.

By sect. 18, the Parliamentary Registration Acts (c), as modified by that Act, are to apply to the burgess

(c) By sect. 19 the Parliamentary Registration Acts mean the Reg. Act. 1843, and the Reg. Act, 1878, "inclusive of any Acts and enactments amending the said Acts, or otherwise relating to revising barristers or to the registration of voters, and of any Acts and enactments relating to rating, in so far as they are auxiliary to or deal with the registration of voters."

c. 26.

lists up to the completion of the revision. Under 41 & 42 V. sect. 15, where a parish is wholly or partly situated in both the parliamentary and municipal borough, the list of voters under the R. P. Acts, 1832 and 1867, and of burgesses is to be made out in three divisions :

1. Of persons entitled as parliamentary voters and burgesses.

2. Of persons entitled as parliamentary voters but not as burgesses.

3. Of persons entitled as burgesses but not as parliamentary voters.

The Reg. Act, 1885, s. 6 (2), extended these pro- 48 & 49 V. visions to every municipal borough any part of which C. 15. was then included in a parliamentary borough.

The Cy. El. Act, 1888, after, in the preamble, reciting 51 & 52 V. that it was "expedient to make provision with respect to the qualification and registration of electors of any representative bodies (in this Act referred to as 'county authorities') which may be established under any Act of the present session of Parliament for the purposes of local government in counties in England" (d), provided by sect. 4 (1) that the Registration of Electors Acts (e) Joint reshould, so far as circumstances admit, apply to the enrol- county ment of burgesses in a municipal borough to which the voters and Reg. Act, 1878, did not apply, and to the registration of county electors (vide sect. 2, ante, p. 69) and that the lists of burgesses, and of county electors, and of occupation voters for parliamentary elections, should, so far as practicable, be made out and revised together; and that the Registration of Electors Acts (e) should accordingly (a) apply to every such municipal borough in like manner as if it were a borough to which the Reg. Act, 1885, s. 6 (2) (vide supra), applied, and revising

51 & 52 V. c. 10, s. 4.

Sect. 14.

assessors for such borough should not be elected; and also (b) apply to every parish not situate in a municipal borough, in like manner as if such parish were a municipal borough to which the Reg. Act, 1878, applied, and the lists of county electors and of occupation voters for parliamentary elections in such parish should be made out in divisions, as provided in that Act.

By sub-sect. (2) in the construction of the Registration of Electors Acts (f) for the purpose of their application to a parish not situate in a municipal borough, the following variations are to be made, and such other variations as may be necessary for carrying into effect the application, viz. :-(a) where such parish is not within a parliamentary borough, "parliamentary county" shall be substituted for "parliamentary borough"; (b) where such parish is not within a parliamentary borough, the clerk of the peace shall perform the duties of and be substituted for the town clerk; but any notice required to be given to the town clerk by the Reg. Act, 1878, s. 27, relating to the withdrawal and revival of objections, shall be given to the overseers and not to the clerk of the peace (vide infra); (c) county elector shall be substituted for burgess.

By sect. 14, that "the expression 'clerk of the peace' means, in the event of the establishment of a county authority" (vide infra), "the person acting as clerk of that authority, and such person shall act as clerk of the peace throughout the whole county of such authority, both for the purposes of this Act and of the Registration of Electors Acts (f).

And now in all Acts relating to registration "clerk of the County Council" must be substituted for "clerk of 51 & 52 V. the peace," for the Local Gov. Act, 1888, which established the county authority, by sect. 83, provides (1) that the clerk of the peace of a county, besides acting as such, shall also be the clerk of the County Council; and