shall after such election certify the same, together with such writ, according to the directions thereof.

XLIII. At every contested election of a member or members to serve in Parliament for the university of London the polling shall commence at eight o'clock in the morning of the day next following the day fixed for the election, and may continue for not more than five days (Sunday Christmas Day, Ascension Day, and Good Friday being excluded), but no poll shall be kept open later than four o'clock in the afternoon.

XLIV. At every election of a member to serve in Parliament for the university of London the vice-chancellor shall appoint the polling place, and also shall have power to appoint two or more pro-vice-chancellors, any one of whom may receive the votes and decide upon all questions during the absence of such vice-chancellor; and such vice-chancellor shall have power to appoint poll clerks and other officers, by one or more of whom the votes may be entered in the poll book, or such number of poll books as may be judged necessary by such vice-chancellor; and such vicechancellor shall, not later than two o'clock in the afternoon of the next day next following the close of the poll, openly declare the state of the poll and make proclamation of the member chosen.

XLV. All the provisions of an Act passed in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth year of Her present Majesty, entitled An Act to provide that votes at elections for the universities may be recorded by means of voting papers, shall apply to every election of a member for the university of London.

XLVI. So much of the twenty-seventh and thirty-second sections of the Act of the second year of the reign of King William the fourth, chapter forty-five, and of the seventy-ninth section of the Act of the sixth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter eighteen, as relates to the residence of electors within seven miles of any city or borough, shall be repealed in respect to electors otherwise qualified to be registered and to vote for members to serve in Parliament for the city of London: provided always, that no person shall be registered as an elector for the said city unless he shall have resided for six calendar months next previous to the last day of July in any year, nor be entitled to vote at any election for the said city unless he shall have ever since the last day of July in the year in which his name was inserted in the register then in force have resided, and at the time of voting shall have continued to reside within the said city, or within twenty-five miles thereof or any part thereof.

Miscellaneous.

XLVII. In any borough named in the Schedules (B.) and (C.) to this Act annexed, which is or includes a municipal borough, the mayor of such municipal borough shall be the returning officer, and in the other cases the returning officer shall be appointed in the same manner as if such places were included amongst the boroughs mentioned in the Schedules (C.) and (D.) of the Act of the second year of His late Majesty William

the Fourth, chapter forty-five, for which no persons are mentioned in such schedules as returning officers.

XLVIII. The following persons, that is to say, the Right Honourable Lord. Viscount Eversley, the Right Honourable Russell Gurney, Sir John Thomas Buller Duckworth, Baronet, Sir Francis Crossley, Baronet. and John Walter, Esquire, of whom not less than three shall be a quorum, shall be appointed Boundary Commissioners for England and Wales, and they shall, immediately after the passing of this Act, proceed, by themselves or by assistant commissioners appointed by them, to inquire into the temporary boundaries of every borough constituted by this Act, with power to suggest such alterations therein as they may deem expedient.

They shall also inquire into the boundaries of every other borough in England and Wales, except such boroughs as are wholly disfranchised by this Act, with a view to ascertain whether the boundaries should be enlarged, so as to include within the limits of the borough all premises which ought, due regard being had to situation or other local circumstances, to be included therein for the purpose of conferring upon the occupiers thereof the parliamentary franchise for such borough.

They shall also inquire into the divisions of counties as constituted by this Act, and as to the places appointed for holding courts for the election of members for such divisions, with a view to ascertain whether, having regard to the natural and legal divisions of each county, and the distribution of the population therein, any and what alterations should be made in such divisions or places.

The said commissioners shall, with all practicable despatch, report to one of Her Majesty's principal secretaries of state upon the several matters in this section referred to them, and their report shall be laid before Parliament.

The commissioners and assistant commissioners so appointed shall give notice, by public advertisement, of their intention to visit such counties and boroughs, and shall appoint a time for receiving the statements of any persons who may be desirous of giving information as to the boundaries or other local circumstances of such counties and boroughs, and the said commissioners or assistant commissioners shall by personal inspection, and such other means as the commissioners shall think necessary, possess themselves of such information as will enable the commissioners to make such report as herein mentioned.

XLIX. Any person, either directly or indirectly, corruptly paying any rate on behalf of any ratepayer for the purpose of enabling him to be registered as a voter, thereby to influence his vote at any future election, and any candidate or other person, either directly or indirectly, paying any rate on behalf of any voter for the purpose of inducing him to vote or refrain from voting, shall be guilty of bribery, and be punishable accordingly; and any person on whose behalf and with whose privity any such payment as in this section is mentioned is made shall also be guilty of bribery, and punishable accordingly.

L. No returning officer for any county or borough, nor his deputy, nor any partner or clerk of either of them, shall act as agent for any candidate in the management or conduct of his election as a member to

serve in parliament for such county or borough; and if any returning officer, his deputy, the partner or clerk of either of them, shall so act, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.

LI. Whereas great inconvenience may arise from the enactments now in force, limiting the duration of the Parliament in being at the demise of the crown: Be it therefore enacted, That the Parliament in being at any future demise of the crown shall not be determined or dissolved by such demise, but shall continue so long as it would have continued but for such demise, unless it should be sooner prorogued or dissolved by the crown, anything in the act passed in the sixth year of Her late Majesty Queen Anne, chapter seven, in any way notwithstanding.

LII. Whereas it is expedient to amend the law relating to offices of profit the acceptance of which from the crown vacates the seats of members accepting the same, but does not render them incapable of being re-elected: Be it enacted, That where a person has been returned as a member to serve in Parliament since the acceptance by him from the crown of any office described in Schedule (H.) to this Act annexed, the subsequent acceptance by him from the crown of any other office or offices described in such schedule in lieu of and in immediate succession the one to the other shall not vacate his seat.

LIII. Any copy of any of the said reports by the said commissioners appointed for the purpose of making inquiry into the existence of corrupt practices in any of the said boroughs of Totnes, Great Yarmouth, Lancaster, or Reigate, with the schedules thereof annexed, and purporting to be printed by the Queen's printer, shall for the purposes of this Act be deemed to be sufficient evidence of any such report of the said commissioners and of the schedules annexed thereto.

LIV. Where separate registers of voters have been directed to be made in respect of the divisions of the borough and counties divided by this Act into two divisions only, if a vacancy takes place in the representation of the said county or borough before a summoning of a future Parliament, and after the completion of such separate register, such last-mentioned registers shall for the purpose of any election to fill up such vacancy, be deemed together to form the register for the borough or county and in the case of a county divided into more than two divisions the clerk of the peace shall, from the separate registers make out a register of voters for the county or original division of the county in which the election may be about to take place, in the same manner as if no new division or divisions of such county had been made by this Act.

LV. Nothing in this Act contained shall affect the rights of persons whose names are for the time being on the register of voters for any county in which the boroughs constituted by this Act are situate to vote in any election for such county in respect of any vacancy that may take place before the summoning of a future Parliament, but after such summoning no person shall be entitled to be registered as a voter or to vote in any election for any such county who would not be entitled to be so registered or to vote in case the qualification held by him were situate in a borough other than one constituted by this Act.

In the case of a parish wholly or partly situate within the limits of a borough constituted by this Act, the revising barrister in revising at any time before the summoning of a future Parliament the list of voters for the county in which such parish is situate shall write the word "borough opposite to the name of each voter whose qualification in respect of the premises described in the list would not, after the summoning of a future Parliament, entitle such voter to vote for the county and at any election taking place after the summoning of a future Aarliament the vote of every person against whose name the word "borough is written, if tendered in respect of such qualification, shall be rejected by the returning officer.

LVI. The franchises conferred by this Act shall be in addition to and not in substitution for any existing franchises, but so that no person shall be entitled to vote for the same place in respect of more than one qualification; and, subject to the provisions of this Act, all laws, customs, and enactments now in force conferring any right to vote, or otherwise relating to the representation of the people in England and Wales, and the registration of persons entitled to vote, shall remain in full force, and shall apply, as nearly as circumstances admit, to any person hereby authorized to vote, and shall also apply to any constituency hereby authorized to return a member or members to Parliament as if it had heretofore returned such members to Parliament and to the franchises hereby conferred, and to the registers of voters hereby required to be formed.

LVII. From and after the passing of this Act, the county palatine of Lancaster shall cease to be a county palatine, in so far as respect to issue, direction, and transmission of writs for the election of members to serve in Parliament for any division of the said county or for any borough situate in the said county; and such writs may be issued under the same seal, be directed to the like officer, and transmitted in the like manner, under, to, and in which writs may be issued, directed, and transmitted in the case of divisions of counties and boroughs not forming part of or situate in a county palatine; and any writ issued, directed, and transmitted in manner directed by this section shall be valid accordingly.

LVIII. All writs to be issued for the election of members to serve in parliament, and all mandates, precepts, instruments, proceedings, and notices consequent upon such writs or relating to the registration of voters, shall be framed and expressed in such manner and form as may be necessary for the carrying the provisions of this Act into effect.

LIX. This Act, so far as is consistent with the tenor thereof. shall be construed as one with the enactments for the time being in force relating to the representation of the people and with the registration Acts; and in construing the provisions of the twentyfourth and twenty fifth sections of the Act of the second year of king William the fourth, chapter forty-five, the expressions "the provisions herein-after contained," and "as aforesaid," shall be deemed to refer to the provisions of this Act conferring rights to vote as well as to the provisions of the said Act.

LX. Notwithstanding anything in this Act contained, in the event of a vacancy in the representation of any constituency, or of a dissolution of Parliament taking place, and a writ or writs being issued, before the First day of January, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, for the election of members to serve in the present or any new Parliament, each election shall take place in the same manner in all respects as if no alteration had been made by this Act in the franchises of electors, or in the places authorized to return a member or members to serve in Parliament, with this exception, that the boroughs by this Act disfranchised shall not be entitled to return members to serve in any such new Parliament.

LXI. The following terms shall in this Act have the meanings herein-after assigned to them, unless there is something in the context repugnant to such construction; (that is to say,)

"Month" shall mean calendar month:

"Member" shall include a knight of the shire :

"Election " shall mean an election of a member or members to serve in Parliament:

"County" shall not include a county of a city or county of a town, but shall mean any county, riding, parts or divisions of a county returning a member or members to serve in Parliament: "Borough" shall mean any borough city, place, or combination of places, not being a county as herein-before defined, returning a member or members to serve in Parliament:

"Dwelling house " shall include any part of a house occupied as a separate dwelling, and separately rated to the relief of the

poor:

The Registration Acts" shall mean the Act of the sixth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter eighteen, and the Act of the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter thirty-six, and any other Acts or parts of Acts relating to the registration of persons entitled to vote at and proceedings in the election of members to serve in Parliament for England and Wales.