(6) Metropolitan police magistrates; (7) sheriffs of counties; (8) returning officers of boroughs; (9) recorders; (10) revising barristers; (11) any person holding an office under the Crown since 1705; (12) a government contractor.

How are persons now elected to be members of the House of Commons?

Immediately Parliament assembles the Lord Chancellor sends his warrant to the Clerk of the Crown, who issues out writs to the returning officers, the sheriff of a county and the mayor of a borough, for the elections. Within two days after he receives the writ the sheriff, and within one day the mayor, must between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. give public notice of the day and place of election, or of the poll if contested, and the time and place of nomination papers. The election must take place within the ninth and fourth days respectively; if necessary, the writ between the hours of 10 and 3. The candidate is then nominated in writing by two electors and eight others assenting, and if no more candidates are nominated within an hour there is no contest, otherwise a poll must be taken at a future date, which is now done by ballot, and the member returned by the majority, and the return made to the Clerk of the Crown. In case of equality of votes the returning officer gives the casting vote. In an election at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and London, the election is carried on by means of voting papers signed and delivered to the Vice Chancellor or his deputy at one of the appointed polling places, and the election does not continue for more than five days.

How is an election petition conducted?

An elector or candidate, within twenty-one days of the return, or twenty-eight days of any corrupt payment, presents a petition to the Court of Common Pleas which is served by the petitioner on the returned candidate. The petitioner must give security for costs to the amount of £1000. The trial then takes place before a judge without a jury in the particular borough or county. Evidence is taken on oath, and the judge decides the question and certifies the same to the Speaker-such decision is generally final.

How are laws enacted and passed?

Each House has a Speaker. In the Lords he is the Lord Chancellor; in the Commons chosen by the House and approved by the sovereign.

The Speaker in the House of Commons never votes except to give a casting vote; in the Lords he does, but he must not give a casting vote, for in the Lords a case of an equality semper præsumitur pro negante.

The mode of passing bills is much the same in both Houses. The bill is brought in by a member upon motion made to the House for leave. It is read a first time and printed; it is then read a second time, upon which the provisions are openly discussed, and the question put and ascertained as to whether the bill should proceed further. Then it is committed, that is, referred to a select committee of the House if it contains matters of a private nature, or a committee of the whole House if of a public character. After it has passed through committee the chairman reports it to the House with amendments, and it is then reprinted and read a third time. The Speaker then puts the question whether it shall pass, and if agreed to the title is settled; it is then printed fair by the Queen's printers and carried to the Lords for their concurrence, when it is either agreed to, rejected or amended; if amended, the amendments are sent down with the bill to receive the consent of the Commons. If the amendments are disagreed to, a deputation from each House meets, and settles them. If neither House gives way the bill is lost; if the bill is agreed to, it remains with the Lords, and the next step is to obtain the royal assent.

How is the royal assent given?

(1) In person, or (2) by commission, for by 33 Hen. VIII. c. 21, the sovereign may give his assent by letters patent under his great seal signed by his hand, and notified in his absence to both Houses assembled in the Upper House.

How may parliament be adjourned, prorogued or dissolved?

(i.) The Houses may adjourn themselves.

(ii.) The royal authority alone can prorogue the Parliament. (iii.) Parliament may be dissolved:—

(1.) At the sovereign's will expressed in person or proclamation.

(2.) By efflux of time, which under the Settlement Act, 1 Geo. I. stat. 2, c. 38, is the space of seven years. Formerly, Parliament used to be dissolved by demise of the Crown, that is, within six months after, but this is amended by 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102, which enacts that the demise of the Crown shall not dissolve it, but it shall continue as long as it would have continued, unless sooner dissolved or prorogued by the Crown.

CHAPTER II.

THE SOVEREIGN.

In whom is the supreme executive power of this kingdom lodged? In a single person, the king or queen.

How may this royal person be considered?

With regard to (1) his relation with his people; (2) his title; (3) his royal family; (4) his councils; (5) his prerogative; (6) his revenue; (7) his forces.

What are the duties of the sovereign?

(1.) To govern the people according to law.

(2.) To execute judgment in mercy.

(3.) To maintain the established religion.

These are the sovereign's part of the original contract between the Crown and the people founded on the nature of society, and expressed in the coronation oath.

What are the duties of the sovereign's subjects?

Allegiance, being the people's reciprocal tie with the sovereign in return for the protection he affords them; in natural-born subjects the duty of allegiance is perpetual, and in aliens it is local and temporary.

How may the rights of aliens be enlarged?

(1.) By being made denizens, or

(2.) Naturalized.

Who are natural-born subjects?

Such as are born within the United Kingdom or the Colonies, and even children born abroad if of a natural-born father or grandfather on the father's side.

What was, and what is, the position of an alien friend in this country?

Formerly he could not inherit any estate in this country, neither had he any inheritable blood, but he could only take a lease of a house, &c., for the residence or occupation of himself or his tenants for a period not exceeding twenty-one years. But by 33 Vict. c. 14, he can, after the date of the Act, 12th May, 1870, purchase and hold lands in this country, and a title to real property can be derived through or from him in the same manner as if he had been a natural-born British subject, but he cannot qualify for a franchise, hold property out of the United Kingdom, or be the owner of a British ship.

What is a denizen ?

An alien born who has obtained ex donatione regis letters patent to make him an English subject.

He could always have taken lands by purchase or devise, but not by descent, neither can he even now be a member of the Privy Council or of Parliament, or hold any office of trust or a grant of lands from the Crown, and letters of denization are not affected by 33 Vict. c. 14.

What is the position of aliens naturalized, and how can naturalization be effected?

Naturalization may be effected by (1) Act of Parliament, and (2) by the Secretary of State's certificate.

By the former the alien is put into the same position as if he had been naturally born. Naturalization by Act of Parliament is also retroactive, wherein it differs from denization; and if naturalized by the latter method, under the Acts of 1870 and 1872 in the

case of an alien resident in this country for a period of five years, upon taking the oath of allegiance the alien is entitled to all political and other rights, and subject to all the obligations of a British subject of the United Kingdom.

What is the title to the crown?

By the positive constitution of the Kingdom it has ever been descendible, and so continues in a course peculiar to itself, but subject nevertheless to limitation by Parliament, and notwithstanding such limitations the Crown retains its descendible qualities and becomes hereditary in the prince to whom it is limited.

Point out any particulars in which the descent of the crown differs from that of landed estates.

(1.) Among females the eldest and her issue only inherit.
(2.) The Crown goes to the collateral relations of the late

sovereign, provided they are lineally descended from the
blood royal, and herein there was no objection to half
blood as in case of Mary, Edward VI., and Elizabeth.

State, as briefly as possible, the descent of the crown from Egbert to Victoria.

King Egbert came to the throne of the West Saxons by an undisturbed descent from his ancestors for more than three hundred years. From his death to that of Edmund Ironside, for more than two hundred years the Crown descended regularly through a succession of fifteen princes of the same royal family without irregularity, save the illegitimacy of Edmund Ironside and Athelstan, each taking the Crown away from a legitimate brother.

Edmund Ironside was compelled to divide his kingdom with Canute, who, after the former's death, seized the whole of it. Hence the introduction of a new race in the person of the Danish kings Canute, Harold the First, and Hardicanute, when the Saxon line was again restored in the person of Edward the Confessor, son of Ethelred, then came Harold the Second, Edward the Confessor dying without issue. Then the Norman invasion; William the Conqueror succeeding by force, thus transferring the Crown of England into a new family, and all its inherent properties.

The crown then descended to his sons William Rufus and