The oath. By whom administered. Penalty of perjury or subornation. son having a right to vote at the said election) first take the oath (or being one of the people called Quakers, the solemn affirmation) following, videlicet. 'You shall swear (or being one of the people called hold estate, consisting of WHICH Oath (or solemn affirmation) the sheriff by himself, his under-sheriff, or such sworn clerk or clerks, as shall be by him appointed for the taking of the poll, is hereby required to administer; and in case any freeholder or other person taking the said oath or affirmation hereby appointed, shall thereby commit wilful perjury and be thereof convicted; and if any person do unlawfully or corruptly procure, or suborn any freeholder or other person, to take the said oath or affirmation in order to be polled, whereby he shall commit such wilful perjury, and shall be thereof convicted; he and they for every such offence, shall incur such pains and penalties as are in and by two acts of parliament, the one made in the 5th year of the reign of the late queen Elizabeth, intituled, An act for punishing such persons as shall procure or commit wilful perjury, or suborn or procure any person to commit any wilful or corrupt perjury, the other made in the second year of his present majesty, intituled, An act for the more effectual preventing and further punishment of forgery, perjury, and subornation of perjury, and to make it felony to steal bonds, notes, or other securities for payment of money, contrary to the said acts. 2. AND whereas by the said act made in the 10th year of the reign of her late majesty queen Anne, it is enacted as follows: videlicet, That from and after the first day of May, 10 Annæ, c. 23. which was in the year 1712, no person shali vote for the s. 2, how far repealed. election of any knight of a shire within that part of Great Britain called England, in respect or in right of any lands or tenements which have not been charged or assessed to the public taxes, church rates, and parish duties in such proportion as other lands or tenements of forty shillings per annum within the same parish or township wherein the same shall lie or be, are usually charged; and whereas by an act of parliament made in the 12th year of the reign of her said And 12 Anna, late majesty queen Anne, for explaining the said recited st. 1. c. 5. clause, it is enacted, That the said act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend or be construed to restrain any person from voting in such election of any knight of a shire within that part of Great Britain called England, in respect or in right of any rents, tythes, or other incorporeal inheritances, or any messuages or lands in extraparochial places, or any chambers in the inns of court or inns of chancery, or any messuages or seats belonging to any offices, in regard or by reason that the same have not been usually charged or assessed to all or any the public taxes, church rates, and parish duties as mentioned in the above recited act, or in respect or right of any other messuages or lands not herein-before specified in regard or by reason that the same have not been usually charged or assessed to all and every the public taxes, church rates, and parish duties aforesaid; provided that such messuages or lands have usually been charged or assessed to some one or more of the said public taxes, rates, or duties, in such proportion as other messuages or lands of forty shillings per annum, in the same parish or township where the same shall lie or be, are usually charged to the same: Be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That so Repealed. much of the said recited act as disables any person to vote for knights of shires in respect or in right of any lands or tenements which have not been charged or assessed as therein mentioned, shall from and after the said twentyfourth day of June, be and is hereby repealed. of electors. 3. PROVIDED always, that from and after the said twenty- Qualification fourth day of June, no person shall vote for the electing of a knight or knights of the shire to serve in parliament, within that part of Great Britain called England, or the principality of Wales, in respect or in right of any messuages, Land-tax crilands, or tenements, which have not been charged or assessed towards some aid granted, or hereafter to be granted to his majesty, his heirs or successors, by a land tax in Great Britain, twelve kalendar months* next before such election. terion. Six months, 20 G. 3, c. 17. s. 1. Exception as to chambers 4. PROVIDED also, That this act, or any thing therein contained, shall not extend, or be construed to extend to re- or offices, strain any person from voting in any such election of any knight or knights of a shire within that part of Great Britain called England, or the principality of Wales, in respect or in right of any rents or any chambers in the inns of court or inns of chancery, or any messuages or seats belonging to any offices, in regard or by reason that the same have not been usually charged or assessed to the aid commonly called the land tax; and that the acting commissioners of the land tax for the time being, or any three or more of them, at their meetings for the respective divisions, shall sign and seal one other duplicate of the copies of the respective as the land-tax sessments, to be delivered to them by the several assessors after all appeals determined, and the same to deliver, or cause to be delivered, to the clerks of the peace for their respective counties, to be by them kept amongst Duplicates of the records of the sessions, to which all persons may resort ssessments to at all seasonable times and inspect the same, paying sixbe kept among pence for such inspection: and the said clerks of the peace the records of the sessions; or their deputies, are hereby required forthwith to give copies of the said duplicates or any part thereof, to any such To be inspect person or persons who shall require the same, paying after the rate of sixpence for every three hundred words, and so in proportion for any greater or lesser number. ed, or copies taken. fications of electors. 5. AND be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, Further quali- That from and after the said twenty-fourth day of June, 1745, no person shall vote in any such election without having a freehold estate in the county for which he votes, of the clear yearly value of forty shillings over and above all rents and charges payable out of or in respect of the same, or without having been in the actual possession, or in the receipt of the rents and profits thereof for his own use above twelve kalendar months, unless the same came to him within the time aforesaid, by descent, marriage, marriage settlement, devise, or promotion to any benefice in a church, or by promotion to an office, or shall vote in respect or in right of any freehold estate which was made or granted to him fraudulently, on purpose to qualify him to give his vote, or shall vote more than once at the same election, and if any person shall vote in any such election contrary to the true intent and meaning hereof, he shall forfeit to any candidate for whom such vote shall not have been given, and who shall first sue for the same, the sum of forty pounds to be recovered by him or them, his or their executors or administrators, together with full costs of suit, by action of debt in any of his majesty's courts of record at Westminster, wherein no essoin, protection, wager of law, privilege, or imparlance shall be admitted or allowed; and in every such action the proof shall lie on such person against whom the same was brought, unless the fact on which such action is grounded, be the having polled more than once at the same election. Penalty, Public tax not to be deemed a charge on a freehold. 6. AND be it declared by the authority aforesaid, That no public or parliamentary tax, county, church, or parish rate, or duty, or any other tax, rate, or assessment whatsoever, to be assessed or levied upon any county, division, rape, lathe, wapentake, ward, or hundred, is or shall be deemed or construed to be any charge payable out of or in respect of any freehold estate within the meaning and intention of this act, or of the oath or solemn affirmation herein-before directed to be administered to, and taken by, every freeholder if required as aforesaid. 7. AND be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the said twenty-fourth day of June, 1745, at every such election within that part of Great Britain called England, and dominion of Wales, the sheriff, or in his absence, the under sheriff, or such as he shall depute, shall appoint, make or erect, or cause to be appointed, made, ed at the ex point a clerk or erected, at the expence of the candidates, such number Booths erectof convenient booths or places for taking the poll as the can- pence of can didates or any of them shall three days at least before the didates; commencement of the poll desire, so as the same do not exceed the number of rapes, lathes, wapentakes, wards, or According to the hundreds, hundreds within the said county, and not exceeding in the &c. and not whole the number of fifteen; and shall affix or cause to be exceeding 15. affixed on the most public part of each of the said booths or polling places the name or names of the rape, wapentake, lathe, ward, or hundred, or rapes, wapentakes, lathes, wards, or hundreds, for which such booth or polling place is allotted or designed; and the said sheriff, under sheriff, Sheriff to apor such person as he shall depute, shall appoint a proper at each booth clerk or clerks at each of the said booths or polling places at the candidates' exto take the poll, (which said clerk or clerks shall be at the expence of the candidates, and be paid not exceeding one guinea per day each clerk), and the said sheriff or under sheriff shall also make out a list for each of the said booths or polling places respectively, of all the several towns, vil- List of towns, &c. for each lages, parishes, and hamlets, lying, or being wholly or in booth. Copies part in the rape, wapentake, lathe, ward, or hundred, or in to be given the several rapes, wapentakes, lathes, wards, or hundreds, for which such booth or polling place is allotted or designed; and shall, upon request made, deliver a true copy thereof to any of the candidates, or their agents, who shall desire the same, taking forleach of the said copies the sum of two shillings and no more. pence. 2s. each. booths regu 8. AND be it further enated by the authority aforesaid, That no sheriff, under sheriff, or clerk, appointed to take Voting at the poll at any of the said booths or polling places, shall lated by the admit any person to vote for any lands, tenements, or other list. freehold estate, sworn by the said oath to be lying and being at some parish, town, or place, or parishes, towns, or places, which parish, town, or place, or parishes, towns, or places, or any of them, or any part of them, is not or are not mentioned in the list so made out for such booths or polling places as aforesaid, unless such lands, tenements, Exception. or estate lie or be in some town, liberty, or place not mentioned in any of the lists so made out for all the said booths or polling places as aforesaid. 9. AND be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the sheriff, or in his absence the under sheriff, or such as he shall depute, shall at every such election allow a A cheque cheque book for every poll book for each candidate, to be book for every poll book alkept by the respective inspectors at every place where the lowed each poll for such election shall be taken or carried on. candidate. 10. AND whereas by an act made in the 7th and 8th years of the reign of king William the Third, entitled, an 7 & 8 W. 3. act for further regulating election of members to serve in parliament, and for the preventing irregular proceedings of sheriffs and other officers in the electing and returning such members, it is enacted, That upon every election to be made of any knight or knights of the shire, the sheriff of the county where such election shall be made, shall proceed to election at the next county court, unless the same fall out to be held within six days after the receipt of the writ, or upon the same day, and then shall adjourn the same court to some convenient day, giving ten days notice of the time and place of election: and whereas sheriffs have frequently in such cases, where the county court fell out to be held within six days after the receipt of the writ, or upon the same day, made long adjournments of the same, in order to delay proceeding to election;' for remedy thereof for the future, be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said 24th day of June, no adjourn coun- sheriff shall in such case take upon himself to adjourn such court for longer than sixteen days, any law, usage, or cus. tom, to the contrary notwithstanding. Sheriff not to ty court for longer than 16 days. 6 Geo. 2. c. 23. how far repealed. Sheriff, &c. 11. AND whereas by An act made in the 6th year of the reign of his present majesty, intituled, An act to explain and amend an act made in the 7th and 8th years of the reign of king William the Third, intituled, an act for the further regulating elections of members to serve in parliament, and for the preventing irregular proceedings of sheriffs and other officers in the electing and returning such members, so far as the same relates to holding of county courts, it is among other things enacted, that no county court whatsoever held within that part of Great Britain called England, shall be adjourned to a Monday, a Friday, or Saturday; and that all and every such adjournment and adjournments and all and every act and deed done or performed at such courts so adjourned, shall be deemed, adjudged, and taken to be utterly null and void to all intents and purposes whatsoever; and whereas the same has been found inconvenient; be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said twenty-fourth day of June, so much of the said act as is hereinbefore recited, shall be and is hereby repealed. 12. AND be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in case any such sheriff or under-sheriff, who shall preside at any election of any such knight or knights of the shire within that part of Great Britain called England, or the dominion of Wales, shall wilfully offend against, or act contrary to the true intent and meaning of this act, every such sheriff or under-sheriff shall be liable to be prooffending to be secuted by information or indictment in his majesty's court of king's bench at Westminster, or in the courts of great session in the principality of Wales, or at the sessions held for the counties palatine of Chester, Lancaster, and Durham, or at the assize for the county, city, town, or place where such offence shall be committed, in which no Noli prosequi, or Cesset processus, shall be granted; any law, custom, or usage to the contrary thereof, in any wise notwithstanding. prosecuted. 13. AND be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, Proceeding in That it shall and may be sufficient, for the plaintiff in any ase of offence action of debt given by this act, to "set forth in the decla. against this ration or bill that the defendant is indebted to him in the sum of and to allege the particular offence for which the action or suit is brought, and that the defen act. |