as the directory part of that Order is concerned, the reader is referred thereto in Appendix II., as containing 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 be made out and revised together."

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 parlia

mentary 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.

c. 10.

vision of

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

(d) These county authorities were constituted by the Local Gov. Act, 1888, 51 & 52 V. c. 41 ; vide ante, p. 67.

(e) In this Act, by sect. 1, the Reg. Act, 1885, and the Parliamentary Registration Acts, within the meaning of that Act (vide sect. 19, ante, p. 238, n. (c)), are referred to as the Registration of Electors Acts.

electors.

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

Sect. 14.

Clerk of

the County Council.

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 (ƒ).

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

c. 41.

(f) Vide ante, p. 239, n. (e).

(6) when acting under the Acts relating to the registra- 51 & 52 V. c. 41, s. 83. tion of parliamentary voters, or to any registration matters, shall act under the direction of the county council, and all enactments relating to such business or registration shall be construed as if the clerk of the county council were therein substituted for clerk of the peace.

The Local Gov. Act, 1894, vide ante, p. 70, further provided for the formation of a register of parochial electors.

The result of these enactments is that the duties of clerks of county councils, town clerks, overseers, and revising barristers, are to a considerable extent the same in regard to both the parliamentary occupation and the county electors' lists, and they are here treated of together.

There are points in which the duties of clerks of the county council differ from those of town clerks, and are not defined in the instructions in the schedule of the Reg. Order, 1895. These duties will now be described.

THE

COUNTY

For the purpose of forming a register of parliamentary CLERKS OF voters for counties, and of county and parochial electors, the clerk of the county council (vide supra) for every county COUNCILS. (or person executing that office, Reg. Act, 1843, s. 101)(g), To issue is, by sect. 3, extended by Reg. Act, 1885, s. 7 (1), and precepts the Cy. El. Act, 1888, s. 4, on or within seven days before the 15th of April in every year, to transmit to the overseers of every parish or township in the county (h)

(g) The town clerk of Newport acts for the Isle of Wight, Reg. Act, 1843, s. 101; Reg. Act, 1885, s. 7 (2), as deputy to the clerk of the county council: Cy. El. Act, 1888, s. 14 (b). The Local Gov. Act, 1888, s. 92, makes special provision for the purpose of making out and revising the list of voters, &c., where, in the case of the County of London, or any urban sanitary district, situate partly within and partly without a county, a place situate in a parliamentary county, becomes part of the county of a council, other than that having authority over the greatest part of the parliamentary county, and applies the Reg. Act, 1885, s. 7 (3). See these sections in Appendix I., post, pp. 594, 550.

(h) Places having no overseers are to be deemed to be within the parish or township adjoining thereto, and sharing in the right of election with it; and if any such place adjoins two or more parishes er townships sharing in the right of election, then it shall be deemed to be within the least populous: Reg. Act, 1843, s. 22.

R.

M

and forms.

THE COUNTY

CLERKS OF his precepts (i), which he must sign, together with a sufficient number of copies of such part of the register COUNCILS. of voters then in force as relates to such parish or township; Reg. Act, 1865, s. 8; and such copies of forms, and of the corrupt and illegal practices list (if any), as he is directed to send by the instructions contained in the 1st and 2nd schedules to the Reg. Order, 1895 (see Appendix II.).

What is precept.

To send abstracts.

To give

notice of courts of

Where a registration officer has been appointed under the Cy. El. Act, 1888, s. 4 (2, h), the precept is directed to him instead of to the overseers. See Reg. Order, 1895, Sched. 1, § 8; Sched. 2, § 18; Sched. 3, § 23.

The precept is a form of instruction to overseers, informing them of the nature of their duties in the county registration, and how to discharge them, and the form of precept given in the Reg. Order, 1895, gives minute and full directions as to all the duties of overseers, and a chronological table of them beginning in April.

On receiving notification of the appointment of the R. B., the clerk of the county council is directed, "as soon as possible," to transmit to him an abstract of the numbers of persons objected to by the overseers and others, in each parish or township in the county or division of a county: Reg. Act, 1843, s. 31(k).

On receiving notice from the R. B. of the times and places at which the courts of revision will be revision. holden, and of the several parishes, &c., to be revised

(i) In certain cases parts of a parish are to be deemed separate parishes for the purpose of the precept, and then two precepts are to be sent to the overseers. See Reg. Order, 1895, Sched. 2, §§ 3, 4, 5, following Reg. Act, 1885, Sched. 2, § 2.

(k) The words "parish or township" include "every parish, township, village, hamlet, district, or place, maintaining its own poor;" s. 101. If the parish (whether in a county or borough) form part of more than one polling district, each part "shall be deemed to be a separate parish for the purposes of the revision of voters and the lists and register of voters, and may be designated by some distinguishing addition in the list of voters for such part of a parish; Reg. Act, 1868, s. 22. See also as to divided parishes, Reg. Act, 1885, s. 9, and Redistribution of Seats Act, 1885, s. 18.