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qualify a voter, unless the estate has been assessed to some land-tax aid, at least twelve months before the election (32).

greater estate. It is part of the freeholder's oath that the estate has not been granted to him fraudulently on purpose to qualify him to give his vote. The one vote I presume was intended for the part retained by the grantor, for if the whole had been granted out thus fraudulently, no vote at all could have been given for it. See this subject treated fully in Mr. Heywood's Law of Elect. 99. It cannot, I should think, be considered a fraudulent grant under any statute, if a person should purchase an estate merely for the sake of the vote, if he buys it absolutely, and without any reservation, or secret agreement between the grantor and himself.

But it never has been supposed that this statute extends to cases which arise from operation of law, as devises, descents, &c. as if an estate should descend to any number of females, the husband of each would have a right to vote, if his interest amounted to 40s. a year.

A husband may vote for his wife's right of dower without an actual assignment of it by metes and bounds. 20 Geo. III. c. 17. s. 12. But it has been determined that a member of a corporation aggregate cannot vote in right of an estate belonging to the corporation. Heyw. 71. Two or more votes may be given successively for the same estate or interest at the same election; as where a freeholder votes and dies, his heir or devisee may afterwards vote at the same election. And it seems to be generally true, that where no length of possession is required by any act of parliament, the elector may be admitted to vote, though his right accrued since the commencement of the election. 1 Doug. 272. 2 Lud. 427.

(32) This is altered by 20 Geo. 3. c. 17. The estate shall be assessed to the land-tax six months before the election, either in the name of the voter or his tenant; but if he has acquired it by marriage, descent, or other operation of law, in that case it must have been assessed to the land-tax within two years before the election, either in the name of the predecessor, or person through whom the voter derives his title, or in the name of the tenant of such person.

And to remove a doubt which had arisen upon the construction of 20 Geo. III. c. 17. the 30 Geo. III. c. 35. expressly declares, that it is sufficient if either the name of the proprietor, or of the occupier, be specified in the assessment.

This requisite of assessment was intended to prevent fraud and confusion, by having a ready proof of the existence of the estate of the

10. That no tenant by copy of court roll shall be permitted to vote as a freeholder. Thus much for the electors in counties (33).

As for the electors of citizens and burgesses, these are supposed to be the mercantile part or trading interest of this kingdom. But as trade is of a fluctuating nature, and seldom long fixed in a place, it was formerly left to the crown to summon, pro re nata, the most flourishing towns to send representatives to parliament. So that as towns increased in trade, and grew populous, they were admitted to a share in the legislature. But the misfortune is, that the deserted boroughs continued to be summoned, as well as those to whom their trade and inhabitants were transferred; except a few which petitioned to be eased of the expense, then usual, of maintaining their members: four shillings a day being allowed for a knight of the shire, and two shillings for a citizen or burgess: which was the rate of wages established in the reign of Edward III. P (34)

p 4 Inst. 16.

Hence the members for

voter, and some measure of its value; but it is itself perhaps a greater evil than it was intended to remove; for an omission or irregularity in the assessment operates as a disfranchisement. Every freeholder, who wishes to preserve the important privilege of voting, must carefully examine every year the assessment, when it is stuck upon the church door, to see that he is duly assessed; and if he is not, he may appeal to the commissioners, and he may any time afterwards apply to the clerk of the peace, and upon payment of 1s. may examine the duplicate returned to the sessions; but it seems that he is then too late to correct an error, unless he has previously appealed to the commissioners; but from the judgment of the commissioners an appeal lies to the next quarter sessions.

(33) By 22 Geo. III. c. 41. no person employed in managing or collecting the duties of excise, customs, stamps, salt, windows, or houses, or the revenue of the post-office, shall vote at any election, and if such person presumes to vote, he shall forfeit 1001. This act does not extend to freehold offices granted by letters patent.

(34) Lord Coke, in the page referred to by the learned Judge, says, that this rate of wages hath been time out of mind, and that it is ex

boroughs now bear above a quadruple proportion to those for counties, and the number of parliament men is increased

pressed in many records; and for example, refers to one in the 46 Ed. III. where this allowance is made to one of the knights for the county of Middlesex: But Mr. Prynne's fourth Register of Parliamentary Writs, is confined almost entirely to the investigation of this subject, and contains a very particular chronological history of the writ de expensis militum, civium, et burgensium, which was framed to enforce the payment of these wages. Mr. Prynne is of opinion that these wages had no other origin than that principle of natural equity and justice qui sentit commodum, debet sentire et onus. (p. 5.)

I shall endeavour to prove upon a future occasion, that representation at the first was nothing more than the attendance of a part of a number, who were individually bound to attend, and where the attendance of the rest was dispensed with; and as all were under the same obligation to render this service, and it was left to themselves to determine which of them should undertake it, it became equitable that all should contribute to the expense and inconvenience incurred. And what Mr. Prynne informs us is remarkable: "that the first writs of "this kind extant in our records are coeval with our king's first writs "of summons to elect and send knights, citizens, and burgesses, to "parliament, both of them being first invented, issued, and recorded "together in 49 Hen. III. before which there are no memorials nor "evidences of either of those writs in our historians or records." (p. 2.) The first writs direct the sheriff to levy from the community, i. e. the electors of the county, and to pay the knights, rationabiles expensas suas in veniendo ad dictum parliamentum, ibidem morando, et exinde ad propria redeundo. And when the writs of summons were renewed in the 23d of Ed. I. these writs issued again in the same form at the end of the parliament, and were continued in the same manner till the 16 Ed. II. when Mr. Prynne finds the "memorable writs,” which first reduced the expenses of the representatives to a certain sum by the day, viz. 4s. a day for every knight, and 2s. for every citizen and burgess; and they specified also the number of days for which this allowance was to be made, being more or less according to the distance between the place of meeting in parliament and the member's residence. When this sum was first ascertained in the writ, the parliament was held at York, and therefore the members for Yorkshire were only allowed their wages for the number of days the parliament. actually sat, being supposed to incur no expense in returning to their

since Fortescue's time, in the reign of Henry the sixth, from 300 to upwards of 500, exclusive of those for Scotland. The

respective homes; but, at the same time, the members for the distant counties had a proportionate allowance in addition. Though from this time the number of days and a certain sum are specifically expressed in the writ, yet Mr. Prynne finds a few instances after this, where the allowance is a less sum; and in one, where one of the county members had but 3s. a day, because he was not, in fact, a knight. But with those few exceptions, the sum and form continued with little or no variation. Mr. Prynne conjectures, with great appearance of reason, that the members at that time enjoyed the privilege of parliament only for the number of days for which they were allowed wages, that being considered a sufficient time for their return to their respective dwellings. (p. 68.) But this allowance, from its nature and origin, did not preclude any other specific engagement or contract between the member and his constituents; and the editor of Glanville's Reports has given in the preface, p. 23, the copy of a curious agreement between John Strange the member for Dunwich and his electors, in the 3 Ed. IV. 1463, in which the member covenants, "whether the parliament hold long "time or short, or whether it fortune to be prorogued, that he will take "for his wages only a cade and half a barrel of herrings, to be delivered "by Christmas."

In Scotland the representation of the shires was introduced or confirmed by the authority of the legislature, in the seventh parliament of Ja. I. anno 1427, and there it is at the same time expressly provided, that "the commissares sall have costage of them of ilk schire, that awe "compeirance in parliament." Murray's Stat.

As the peers of parliament, who sat in their own right, were not benefited by this representation, it was not reasonable that they should contribute any thing to the expenses of the knights of the shire; but by 12 Ric. II. c. 12. it was enacted, that lords and spiritual persons, who purchased lands which were contributory to the expenses of the knight, should contribute in respect of such lands.

It is said that Andrew Marvell, who was member for Hull in the parliament after the restoration, was the last person in this country that received wages from his constituents. Two shillings a day,

the allowance to a burgess, was so considerable a sum in ancient times, that there are many instances where boroughs petitioned to be excused

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universities were in general not empowered to send burgesses to parliament; though once, in 28 Edw. I. when a parliament was summoned to consider of the king's right to Scotland, there were issued writs which required the university of Oxford to send up four or five, and that of Cambridge two or three, of their most discreet and learned lawyers for that purpose¶. But it was king James the first who indulged them with the permanent privilege to send constantly two of their own body; to serve for those students who, though useful members of the community, were neither concerned in the landed nor

q Prynhe parl. writs. 1. 345.

from sending members to parliament, representing that they were engaged in building bridges or other public works, and therefore unable to bear such an extraordinary expense. (Pryn. on 4 Inst. 32.) And it is somewhat remarkable, that from the 33 Ed. III. and uniformly through the five succeeding reigns, the sheriff of Lancashire returned, non sunt aliquæ civitates seu burgi infra comitatum Lancastriæ, de quibus aliqui cives vel burgenses addictum parliamentum venire debent seu solent, nec possunt propter eorum debilitatem & paupertatem. But from these exemptions in ancient times, and the new creations by the king's charter which commenced in the reign of Ed. IV. (who in the 17th year of his reign granted to the borough of Wenlock the right of sending one burgess to parliament,) (Sim. 97.) the number of the members of the house of commons perpetually varied till the 29 Car, II. who in that year granted, by his charter, to Newark, the privilege of sending representatives to parliament, which was the last time that this prerogative of the crown was exercised. (1 Doug. El. 69.) Since the beginning of the reign of Hen. VIII. the number of the representatives of the commons is nearly doubled; for in his first parliament the house consisted only of 298 members: it does not appear that any place has lost its right of sending representatives since that time; and 260 have since been added by act of parliament, or by the king's charter either creating new or reviving old boroughs. The legislature added 27 for Wales by 27 Hen. VIII. c. 26.; 4 for the county and city of Chester by 34 Hen. VIII. c. 13.; 4 for the county and city of Durham by 25 Car. I. c. 9.; and 45 for Scotland by the act of

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