barony of Ballinacor North (except so much as is comprised in Division No. 2, as herein described). No. 2.-EAST WICKLOW.

The baronies of Arklow, Newcastle, and Rathdown; and so much of the parish of Calary as is comprised in the barony of Ballinacor North.

Sched. 7.

30 & 31 Vict. The Representation of the Sections thirteen,

c. 102.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 21.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 25.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 38.

33 & 34 Vict. c. 54.

34 & 35 Vict. c. 77.

People Act, 1867.

An Act to disfranchise the

boroughs of Bridgwater

and Beverley.

fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen. Sections two, three,

four, and five.

BOROUGHS REPORTED ON BY ELECTION COMMISSIONERS Sect. 28.

OF 1880.

Boston, Canterbury, Chester, Gloucester, Knaresborough, Macclesfield, Oxford, Sandwich.

S.

T

MEDICAL RELIEF DISQUALIFICATION
REMOVAL ACT, 1885.

[48 & 49 VICT. c. 46.]

An Act to prevent Medical Relief disqualifying a Person from voting (a). [6th August, 1885.] Be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows; (that is to say,)

1. This act may be cited as the Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act, 1885.

2.—(1.) Where a person has in any part of the United Kingdom received for himself, or for any member of his family, any medical or surgical assistance, or any medicine at the expense of any poor rate (b), such person shall not by reason thereof be deprived of any right to be registered or to vote either

(a) as a parliamentary voter; or

(b) as a voter at any municipal election; or

(c) as a burgess; or

(d) as a voter at any election to an office under the provisions of any statute;

(a) This act has the effect of modifying the following enactments in the Registration Act, 1885:-Sect. 16, ante, p. 53; paragraph 4 of Schedule 2, Part 1, ante, p. 61; paragraph 3 of Schedule 3, Part 1, ante, p. 102; paragraph 8 of Schedule 3, Part 1, ante, p. 105.

Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act, 1885.

but nothing in this section shall apply to the election

(a) of any guardian of the poor; or

(b) of any member of any parochial board in Scotland; or

(c) of any other body acting in the distribution of relief to the poor from the poor rate.

(2.) Every person shall be qualified to be registered as a voter and to vote as aforesaid who would be so qualified if the provisions of this act had come into force on the fifteenth day of July one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four.

(b) As to what did, or did not, constitute the receipt of parochial (medical) relief, so as to disqualify before the passing of this act, see Rogers on Elections (14th ed.), p. 134.

3.—(1.) In the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-five, in England, where the overseers have entered "objected" against the names of any persons in the list of ownership voters (c) or in the old lodgers list, or have omitted the names of any voters from any list of voters made by them, and such entry or omission has been made on the ground only of those persons having received such medical or surgical assistance or medicine as in this act mentioned, and such names would not if this act had previously passed have been so objected to or omitted, the overseers shall make a list of such persons, and such list shall be published (d), revised (e), and dealt with (ƒ) in all respects as if it were part of the list of claimants in respect of the occupation of property with the qualifications following (namely) :

The revising barrister shall, without the appearance of or any proof by any such person, retain his name in the list made by the overseers under this section, unless he is objected to (g), and the

275

Sect. 2.

Provision for registration in the present

year.

276

Sect. 3.

Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act, 1885.

objector proves that such person is not entitled to be registered; and if such objection is made the revising barrister shall, notwithstanding the absence of the said person, take the evidence of the overseers as to his right to be registered. Any person whose name ought to have been inserted in the list made by the overseers under this section, and has been omitted therefrom, may claim to have his name inserted in the lists of voters by giving to the overseers, within six days after the publication of such lists, notice of such claim in the manner and form provided by law with respect to other claims (h), and the overseers shall produce all such claims to the revising barrister, and he shall revise and deal with the same in like manner as with ordinary claims (h).

(2.) The clerk of the peace or town clerk shall insert in their proper place in the register the names of the persons in the said list, when revised.

(3.) Every clerk of the peace and town clerk acting under the acts relating to the registration of parliamentary voters shall forthwith after the passing of this act issue precepts to the overseers informing them of their duties under it (i); provided that this act shall not be construed to create any disability where such disability does not now exist.

(c) It is remarkable that the duties prescribed for overseers by this sub-section are not in terms applied to ownership claimants, and yet it could not have been the intention of the legislature to exclude such claimants from its operation. It may be that, as the expression "ownership voter" is, by sect. 19 of the Registration Act, 1885, enacted to mean a person entitled to vote in respect of the ownership of property, whether of freehold, leasehold, or copyhold tenure," and as the list of ownership claimants is by virtue of sect. 6 of the Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843 (read as one with the Registration Act, 1885), to be deemed part of the list of voters, the court would hold that the words "the list of ownership voters" include

Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act, 1885.

the list of ownership claimants. However this may be, it is matter for regret that the defects of modern legislation should have received an additional illustration from the omission referred to above.

(d) As to the mode of publishing the lists of claimants here referred to, see Schedule 2, Part 1, paragraphs 19, 20, and 43 of the Registration Act, 1885, ante, pp. 66, 67, and 74, and Schedule 3, Part 1, paragraphs 19, 20, and 37 of that act, ante, pp. 110, 111, and 116.

(e) Such lists will be revised as lists of voters; see sect. 4, sub-s. 5, of the Registration Act, 1885, ante, p. 39.

(f) The mode of dealing with these lists is, subject to the qualifications contained in this section, that which is prescribed for the class of claimants coming under the provisions of sects. 37 and 38 of the Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843. In reference to the two last-named enactments, it should be observed that the claimants to whom they apply must, notwithstanding that their claims have been published by the overseers, prove to the satisfaction of the revising barrister not only their qualification to vote, but also that they gave "due notice of claim." (See In re Sale, Colt. Reg. Cas. 152; 50 L. J., C. P. D. 113; Saint's Reg. Cas. (Supplementary Cases) 298.

(g) These words are objectionable as pointing to forms of objection which do not apply to the class of persons affected by this sub-section. Throughout the acts dealing with the registration of voters, the words " 'objection" and "objected to " refer (except in the case of objections by overseers) to the written notices of objection served on the overseers and the party in August. The persons whose names are to be placed by the overseers on the Medical Relief List, pursuant to the provisions of this sub-section, will be substantially in the position of the class of persons to whom sect. 39 of the Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843, relates; that section empowers any person on the list of voters "to oppose" the claim of any person whose name has been omitted by the overseers, on giving to the revising barrister in court a notice in writing of his intention" to oppose "such claim. The section in question clearly distinguishes a notice of objection to the retention of a person's name on a list of voters from a notice of intention to oppose the insertion in such list of a claim. Probably this distinction was not present to the mind of the draftsman of the Medical Relief Disqualification Removal Act, 1885, otherwise more suitable language would, it is conceived, have been employed in framing it.

With regard to the "notice in writing" referred to above, it may be mentioned that, although the terms of sect. 39 are suggestive of such notice being a condition precedent to the admission of a voter to oppose a clain, yet an observation of Brett, L. J., in Nuth v. Tamplin (Colt. Reg. Cas. on p. 264) supports the contrary view.

277

Sect. 3.