of tithe rent-charge shall have been made in respect of any portion of tithes. (2.) Where two or more men are owners either as joint tenants or as tenants in common of an estate in any land or tenement, one of such men, but not more than one (e), shall, if his interest is sufficient to confer on him a qualification as a voter in respect of the ownership of such estate, be entitled (in the like cases and subject to the like conditions as if he were the sole owner) to be registered as a voter, and when registered to vote at an election. Provided that where such owners have derived their interest by descent, succession, marriage, marriage settlement, or will, or where they occupy the land or tenement, and are bonâ fide engaged as partners carrying on trade or business (ƒ) thereon, each of such owners whose interest is sufficient to confer on him a qualification as a voter shall be entitled (in the like cases and subject to the like conditions as if he were sole owner) to be registered as a voter in respect of such ownership, and when registered to vote at an election, and the value of the interest of each such owner where not otherwise legally defined shall be ascertained by the division of the total value of the land or tenement equally among the whole of such owners. (d) Rent-charges have hitherto afforded peculiar facilities for the creation of fagot votes; hence the restrictions on that species of qualification enacted by this sub-section. For the future no tithe rent-charge will give a qualification to vote, unless it belongs to a rectory, vicarage, chapelry, or benefice to which an apportionment of tithe rent-charge shall have been made in respect of any portion of tithes; and further, it must, in order to qualify, be the whole of such apportionment. Sect. 4. Sect. 4. 66 (e) The attention of parliament was long ago directed to the abuse of the electoral franchise by the multiplication of votes in respect of one tenement. Thus it was declared by sect. 7 of 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 25, that "all conveyances" (which by 53 Geo. 3, c. 49, were made to include devises) "of any messuages, lands, tenements, or hereditaments, in any county, city, borough, town corporate, port or place, in order to multiply voices, or to split and divide the interest in any houses or lands among several persons, to enable them to vote at elections, &c.," (should) be void and of none effect, and that no more than one single voice" (should) "be admitted for one and the same house or tenement." This enactment was declaratory of the common law, and, read by the light of 10 Anne, c. 23, s. 1, was held to avoid such conveyances only as were fraudulent, i. e., for which no bonâ fide consideration was given, although the object of the parties may have been to multiply votes (Alexander v. Newman, 2 Č. B. 122). The principle of limiting the number of votes in respect of a single tenement was further illustrated by sect. 27 of the Representation of the People Act, 1867, which (subject to certain exceptions) restricted the exercise of the franchise in respect of a jointly occupied 127. rateable tenement to two persons; and again by sect. 6, sub-s. 3, of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, which, in conferring the franchise on joint lodgers, provides that not more than two of such lodgers shall be registered to vote. The legislature, therefore, in enacting sect. 4, sub-s. 2, of the Representation of the People Act, 1884, introduced no novelty into electoral law, but merely extended a principle which had received the sanction of previous parliaments. In the event of two or more joint owners of land or tenement claiming to be registered, the revising barrister may sometimes find himself in a situation of difficulty as to the selection of the particular claim for allowance. Overseers do not appear to have experienced any such difficulty with regard to their insertion of the names of joint 121. rated occupiers in the appropriate list; nor, it would seem, have revising barristers in dealing with the claims of such persons and of joint lodgers; but in all probability the occasion for selecting two joint 127. rated occupiers or two joint lodgers has seldom arisen. Cases under this sub-section, however, may be reasonably expected to be of more frequent occurrence, and the revising barrister for a parliamentary county may often find it necessary, in the absence of any statutory or judicial direction on the subject, or of arrangement between the parties, to exercise his discretion in selecting one out of several joint owners for registration. He will probably, as a rule, take the name which stands first in alphabetical order on the list. (f) Farming is a "business" within sect. 4 of the Companies Act, 1862. See Harris v. Amery, L. R., 1 C. P. 148. Assimilation of Occupation Qualification. Sect. 4. Assimila tion of occupation tion. 5. Every man occupying any land or tenement in a county or borough in the United Kingdom of a clear yearly value (g) of not less than ten pounds qualificashall be entitled to be registered as a voter and when registered to vote at an election for such county or borough in respect of such occupation subject to the like conditions (h) respectively as a man is, at the passing of this act, entitled to be registered as a voter and to vote at an election for such county in respect of the county occupation franchise, and at an election for such borough in respect of the borough occupation franchise. This section enlarges the occupation franchise both in counties and boroughs; in counties by reducing the annual value of the qualifying premises from 127. rateable, to 107. clear yearly, value; in boroughs by making land alone, independently of any building, sufficient for a qualification. The expression "land or tenement" is a departure from the general language of the Reform Act, 1832, and the Representation of the People Act, 1867, in reference to the county franchise. In those acts the expression used is "lands or tenements." Nothing, however, seems to turn on that distinction, and it would probably be held that the annual value of premises, in order to qualify for a county or borough vote, may be made up of the aggregate value of lands or other tenements occupied at the same time under different landlords. See Huckle v. Piper, L. R., 7 C. P. 193; 1 Hop. & Colt. 680; 41 L. J., C. P. 42. (g) The question what is the criterion of "clear yearly value" was determined in Colvill v. Wood (2 C. B. 210), which case was recognized as a conclusive authority on the subject (so far as the occupation franchise was concerned) by Blackburn, L., in Dobbs v. Grand Junction Waterworks Co., L. R., 9 App. Cas., H. L. (E.) on p. 59. Tindal, C. J., in delivering the judgment of the court Sect. 5. Voter not to vote for county in respect of in Colvill v. Wood, said, "Where a house is occupied by a tenant at the clear annual rent of 107., if such house is fairly worth that rent to any one wanting to occupy it, if the house would generally fetch such rent, the occupation is that of a house of the clear yearly value of not less than 107., so far as the tenant is concerned." See also per Erle, J., in Corgan v. Luckett, 1 Lutw. on p. 450. The expression "clear yearly value" has other meanings attached to it by the interpretation clause (11) in relation to Scotland and Ireland. (h) As to these conditions (some of which have been superseded by subsequent legislation), see note (k) to sect. 7, post, p. 14. Supplemental Provisions. 6. A man shall not by virtue of this act be entitled to be registered as a voter or to vote at any election for a county in respect of the occupation of of property any dwelling-house, lodgings, land, or tenement, in borough. situate in a borough. occupation Definition of household and lodger qualification and 7.-(1.) In this act the expression "a household qualification" means, as respects England and Ireland, the qualification enacted by the third section of the Representation of the People Act, 1867 (i), other fran- and the enactments amending or affecting the same, chises, and application and the said section and enactments, so far as they are consistent with this act, shall extend to counties in England and to counties and boroughs in Ireland. of enact ments relating thereto. 30 & 31 (2.) In the construction of the said enactments, as amended and applied to Ireland, the following dates shall be substituted for the dates therein mentioned, that is to say, the twentieth day of July for the fifteenth day of July, the first day of July for the twentieth day of July, and the first day of January for the fifth day of January. (3.) The expression "a lodger qualification" means the qualification enacted, as respects England, by the Vict. c. 102, fourth section (j) of the Representation of the People Act, 1867, and the enactments amending or affecting the same, and as respects Ireland, by the fourth 8. 4. Sect. 7. 31 & 32 Vict. c. 49, s. 4. 41 & 42 Vict. c. 26, ss. 5, 6, 22, 23. Vict. c. 49. section of the Representation of the People (Ireland) Act, 1868, and the enactments amending or affecting the same, and the said section of the English Act of 1867, and the enactments amending or affecting the same, shall, so far as they are consistent with this act, extend to counties in England, and the said section of the Irish Act of 1868, and the enactments amending or affecting the same, shall, so far as they are consistent with this act, extend to counties in Ireland; and sections five and six and twenty-two and twenty-three of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, so far as they relate to lodgings, shall apply to Ireland, and for the purpose of such application the reference in the said section six to the Representation of the People Act, 1867, shall be deemed to be made to the Represen- 31 & 32 tation of the People (Ireland) Act, 1868, and in the said section twenty-two of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, the reference to section thirteen of the Parliamentary Registration 6 Vict. Act, 1843, shall be construed to refer to the enactments of the Registration Acts in Ireland relating to the making out, signing, publishing, and otherwise dealing with the lists of voters, and the reference to the Parliamentary Registration Acts shall be construed to refer to the Registration Acts in Ireland, and the following dates shall be substituted in Ireland for the dates in that section mentioned, that is to say, the twentieth day of July for the last day of July, and the fourteenth day of July for the twenty-fifth day of July, and the word "overseers shall be construed to refer in a county to the clerk of the peace, and in a borough to the town clerk. (4.) The expression "a household qualification" means, as respects Scotland, the qualification enacted by the third section of the Representation of the c. 18. |