the High Court of Justice, or a judge, may either declare the election void or direct the trial to proceed. Notice of such order shall be forthwith given by the Master to the town clerk, and if the election be declared void the office shall be deemed to be vacant from the first day (not being a dies non) after the date of such order. The court or judge may also make such order as to costs as may be just. XLVIII. The application to state a special case may be made by motion in the High Court of Justice, or by a summons before a judge thereof. XLIX. The title of the court held for the trial of a municipal election petition may be as follows: : "Court for the trial of a municipal election petition for the borough of [or as may be] between petitioner and respondent,' and it shall be sufficient so to entitle all proceedings in that court. L. An officer shall be appointed for each court for the trial of a municipal election petition by the election judges, at the time that they assign the petition to the barrister; such officer shall attend at the trial in like manner as the clerks of assize and of arraigns attend at the assizes. Such officer may be called the registrar of that court. He, by himself, or in case of need, his sufficient deputy, shall perform all the functions incident to the officer of a court of record, and also such duties as may be prescribed to him. LI. The Commissioner may appoint a proper person to act as crier and officer of the court. LII. The shorthand writer to attend at the trial of a petition shall be the shorthand writer to the House of Commons for the time being or his deputy, and the Master shall send a copy of the notice of trial to the said shorthand writer to the House of Commons. LIII. The amount to be paid to any witness whose expenses shall be allowed by the Commissioner trying the petition shall be ascertained and certified by the registrar; or in the event of his becoming incapacitated from giving such certificate, by the Commissioner. LIV. The order of the court to compel the attendance of a person as a witness may be in the following form : Court for the trial of a municipal election petition for [complete the title of day of To A.B. [describe the person]. You are hereby required to attend before the above court at [place] on at the hour of [or forthwith, as the case may be], to be examined as a witness in the matter of the said petition, and to attend the said court until your examination shall have been completed. As witness my hand, A. B., The Commissioner to whom the trial of the said petition is assigned. LV. In the event of its being necessary to commit any person for contempt, the warrant may be as follows:: At a court holden on at petition for the borough of for the trial of a municipal election before A. B., one of the barristers appointed for the trial of municipal election petitions, pursuant to "The Whereas C. D. has this day been guilty, and is by the said court adjudged to gaol for calendar £ Rule 47. Rule 55. and to be further imprisoned in the said gaol until the said fine be paid, and the court further orders that the sheriff of the borough [if any, or as the case may be], and all constables and officers of the peace of any county, borough, or place where the said C. D. may be found, shall take the said C. D. into custody and convey him to the said gaol, and there deliver him into the custody of the gaoler thereof, to undergo his said sentence; and the court further orders the said gaoler to receive the said C. D. into his custody, and that he shall be detained in the said gaol in pursuance of the said sentence. A. B. Signed the day of A. B. LVI. Such warrant may be made out and directed to the sheriff or other person having the execution of process of the High Court, as the case may be, and to all constables and officers of the peace of the county, borough, or place where the person adjudged guilty of contempt may be found, and such warrant shall be sufficient without further particularity, and shall and may be executed by the person to whom it is directed or any or either of them. LVII. All interlocutory questions and matters, except as to the sufficiency of the security shall be heard and disposed of before a judge, who shall have the same control over the proceedings under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, as a judge in the ordinary proceedings of the High Court, and such questions and matters shall be heard and disposed of by any judge of the High Court. LVIII. Notice of an application for leave to withdraw a petition shall be in writing, and signed by the petitioners or their agent. It shall state the ground on which the application is intended to be supported. The following form shall be sufficient : The petitioner proposes to apply to withdraw his petition upon the following ground [here state the ground], and prays that a day may be appointed for hearing his application. As to the withdrawal of a petition, see Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, s. 95, ante, p. 306. As to the statement of the parties negativing any corrupt arrangement, see Johnson v. Rankin, 5 C. P. D. 553; Arnold v. Shaw, 4 O'M. & H. 203; 9 T. L. R. 563; Lichfield case, 9 T. L. R. 92. LIX, The notice of application for leave to withdraw shall be left at the Master's office. LX. A copy of such notice of the intention of the petitioner to apply for leave to withdraw his petition shall be given by the petitioner to the respondent, and to the town clerk, who shall cause the same to be published in the borough to which it relates. The following may be the form of such notice : Municipal Corporations Act, 1882. In the election petition for day of Notice is hereby given, that the above petitioner has on the lodged at the Master's office notice of an application to withdraw the petition, of which notice the following is a copy [set it out]. And take notice, that by the rule made by the judges, any person who might have been a petitioner in respect of the said election may, within five days after publication by the town clerk of this notice, give notice in writing of his intention on the hearing to apply for leave to be substituted as a petitioner. (Signed) LXI. Any person who might have been a petitioner in respect of the election to which the petition relates, may, within five days after such notice is published by the returning officer, give notice in writing, signed by him or on his behalf, to the Master of his intention to apply at the hearing to be snbstituted for the petitioner, but the want of such notice shall not defeat such application if in fact made at the hearing. LXII. The time and place for hearing the application shall be fixed by a judge, and whether before the High Court, or before a judge, as he may deem advisable, but shall not be less than a week after the notice of the intention to apply has been given to the Master as herein before provided, and notice of the time and place appointed for the hearing shall be given to such person or persons, if any, as shall have given notice to the Master of an intention to apply to be substituted as petitioners, and otherwise in such manner and at such time as the court or judge directs. LXIII. Notice of abatement of a petition, by death of the petitioner or surviving petitioner, under section 96, sub-section (1), of the said Act, shall be given by the party or person interested in the same manner as a notice of an application to withdraw a petition, and the time within which application may be made to the High Court, or a judge thereof, by motion or summons at chambers, to be sustituted as a petitioner, shall be one calendar month, or such further time as upon consideration of any special circumstances the High Court or a judge thereof may allow. LXIV. If the respondent dies, any person entitled to be a petitioner under the Act in respect of the election to which the petition relates, may give notice of the fact in the borough by causing such notice to be published in at least one newspaper circulating therein, if any, and by leaving a copy of such notice signed by him or on his behalf with the town clerk, and a like copy with the Master. LXV. The manner of the respondent's giving notice that he does not intend to oppose the petition shall be by leaving notice thereof in writing at the office of the Master signed by the respondent. LXVI. Upon such notice being left at the Master's office, the Master shall forthwith send a copy thereof by the post to the petitioner or his agent, and to the town clerk, who shall cause the same to be published in the borough. LXVII. The time for applying to be admitted as a respondent in either of the events mentioned in the 97th section of the Act shall be within ten days after such notice is given as herein before directed, or such further time as the High Court or a judge thereof may allow. LXVIII. Costs shall be taxed by the Master, or at his request by any Master of the superior court upon the rule of court or judge's order by which the costs are payable, and costs when taxed may be recovered in like manner as if payable under a rule of court, judgment, or order of a judge in the ordinary proceedings in the High Court of Justice, or in case there be money Rule 60. Rule 68. in the bank available for the purpose, then to the extent of such money by order of the Lord Chief Justice of England for the time being. The office fees payable for inspection, office copies, enrolment, and other proceedings under the Act and these rules, shall be the same as those payable, if any, for like proceedings according to the present practice of the High Court of Justice. LXIX. No proceedings under the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, shall be defeated by any formal objection. LXX. Any rule made or to be made in pursuance of the Act shall be published by a copy thereof being put up at the Master's office. Dated the 17th day of April, 1883. C. E. POLLOCK, H. MANISTY, The Judges for the time being on the rota for the trial of Parliamentary Election Petitions. COUNTY ELECTORS ACT, 1888. (51 VICT. CAP. 10.) An Act to provide for the Qualification and Registration of Electors WHEREAS it is expedient to make provision with respect to the Be it therefore 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: Short title tion. 1. This Act may be cited as the County Electors Act, 1888. The Registration Act, 1885, and the Parliamentary Registration and construcActs within the meaning of that Act, are in this Act referred to 48 & 49 Vict. as the Registration of Electors Acts, and, together with this c. 15. Act, may be cited as the Registration of Electors Acts, 1843 to 1888. This Act shall be construed as one with the Registration of Electors Acts. This Act deals with the registration of county electors, and was passed with a view to the establishment of county councils under the Local Government Act, 1888. It is amended in several points (noticed infra) by that Act. electors out 2.-(1.) For the purpose of the election of county authorities in Extension of England, the burgess qualification, that is to say, the qualification franchise to burgess enacted by section nine of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, county shall extend to every part of a county not within the limits of a side municipal borough, and a person possessing in any part of a county outside boroughs. the limits of a borough such burgess qualification, shall be entitled 45 & 46 Vict. to be registered under this Act as a county elector in the parish in which the qualifying property is situate. See s. 9 of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, and the notes to that section, ante, p. 239. (2.) Sections nine, thirty-one, thirty-three, and sixty-three of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882, and any enactments of that or any other Act affecting the same, shall extend to so much c. 50. |