VII. On presentation of the petition the prescribed officer shall send a copy thereof to the returning officer of the county or borough to which the petition relates, who shall forthwith publish the same in the county or borough, as the case may be.

VIII. Notice of the presentation of a petition under this Act, and of the nature of the proposed security, accompanied with a copy of the petition, shall, within the prescribed time, not exceeding five days after the presentation of the petition, be served by the petitioner on the respondent; and it shall be lawful for the respondent, where the security is given wholly or partially by recognizance, within a further prescribed time, not exceeding five days from the date of the service on him of the notice, to object in writing to such recognizance, on the ground that the sureties, or any of them, are insufficient, or that a surety is dead, or that he cannot be found or ascertained from the want of a sufficient description in the recognizance, or that a person named in the recognizance has not duly acknowledged the same.

IX. Any objection made to the security given shall be heard and decided on in the prescribed manner. If an objection to the security is allowed it shall be lawful for the petitioner, within a further prescribed time, not exceeding five days, to remove such objection, by a deposit in the prescribed manner of such sum of money as may be deemed by the court or officer having cognizance of the matter to make the security sufficient.

If on objection made the security is decided to be insufficient, and such objection is not removed in manner herein-before mentioned, no further proceedings shall be had on the petition; otherwise, on the expiration of the time limited for making objections, or, after objection made, on the sufficiency of the security being established the petition shall be deemed to be at issue.

X. The prescribed officer shall, as soon as may be, make out a list of all petitions under this Act presented to the court of which he is such officer, and which are at issue, placing them in the order in which they were presented, and shall keep at his office a copy of such list, hereinafter referred to as the election list, open to the inspection in the prescribed manner of any person making application.

Such petitions, as far as conveniently may be, shall be tried in the order in which they stand in such list.

Trial of a Petition.

XI. The following enactments shall be made with respect to the trial of election petitions under this Act:

1. The trial of every election petition shall be conducted before a puisne judge of one of Her Majesty's Superior Courts of common law at Westminster or Dublin, according as the same shall have been presented to the court at Westminster or Dublin, to be selected from a rota to be formed as herein-after mentioned.

2. The members of each of the Courts of Queen's Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer in England and Ireland shall respectively, on or before the third day of Michaelmas term in every year,

select, by a majority of votes, one of the puisne judges of such court, not being a member of the House of Lords, to be placed on the rota for the trial of election petitions during the ensuing year. 3. If in any case the members of the said court are equally divided in their choice of a puisne judge to be placed on the rota, the chief justice of such court (including under that expression the Chief Baron of the Exchequer) shall have a second or casting

4.

vote.

Any judge placed on the rota shall be re-eligible in the succeeding or any subsequent year.

5. In the event of the death or the illness of any judge for the time being on the rota, or his inability to act for any reasonable cause, the court to which he belongs shall fill up the vacancy by placing on the rota another puisne judge of the same court.

6. The judges for the time being on the rota shall, according to their seniority, respectively try the election petitions standing for trial under this Act, unless they otherwise agree among themselves, in which case the trial of each election petition shall be taken in manner provided by such agreement.

7. Where it appears to the judges on the rota, after due consideration of the list of petitions under this Act for the time being at issue, that the trial of such election petitions will be inconveniently delayed unless an additional judge or judges be appointed to assist the judges on the rota, each of the said courts (that is to say,) the Court of Exchequer, the Court of Common Pleas, and the Court of Queen's Bench, in the order named, shall, on and according to the requisition of such judges on the rota, select, in manner hereinbefore provided, one of the paisne judges of the court to try election petitions for the ensuing year; and any judge so selected shall, during that year, be deemed to be on the rota for the trial of election petitions.

8.

Her Majesty may, in manner heretofore in use, appoint an additional puisne judge to each of the Courts of Queen's Bench, the Common Pleas, and Exchequer in England:

9. Every election petition shall, except where it raises a question of law for the determination of the court, as hereinafter mentioned, be tried by one of the judges herein-before in that behalf mentioned, herein-after referred to as the judge sitting in open court without a jury.

10. Notice of the time and place at which an election petition will be tried shall be given, not less than fourteen days before the day on which the trial is held, in the prescribed manner.

11. The trial of an election petition in the case of a petition relating to a borough election shall take place in the borough, and in the case of a petition relating to a county election in the county: Provided always, that if it shall appear to the court that special circumstances exist which render it desirable that the petition should be tried elsewhere than in the borough or county, it shall be lawful for the court to appoint such other place for the trial as shall appear most convenient: provided also, that in the case of a petition relating to any of the boroughs within the metropolitan district,

the petition may be held at such place within the district as the court may appoint.

12. The judge presiding at the trial may adjourn the same from time to time and from any one place to any other place within the county or borough, as to him may seem expedient.

13. At the conclusion of the trial the judge who tried the petition shall determine whether the member whose return or election is complained of, or any and what other person, was duly returned or elected, or whether the election was void, and shall forthwith certify in writing such determination to the Speaker, and upon such certificate being given such determination shall be final to all intents and purposes.

14. Where any charge is made in an election petition of any corrupt practice having been committed at the election to which the petition refers, the judge shall, in addition to such certificate, and at the same time, report in writing to the Speaker as follows: (a.) Whether any corrupt practice has or has not been proved to have been committed by or with the knowledge and consent of any candidate at such election, and the nature of such corrupt practice:

(c.)

(b.) The names of all persons (if any) who have been proved at the trial to have been guilty of any corrupt practice: Whether corrupt practices have, or whether there is reason to believe that corrupt practices have, extensively prevailed at the election to which the petition relates. 15. The judge may at the same time make a special report to the Speaker as to any matters arising in the course of the trial, an account of which in his judgment ought to be submitted to the House of Commons.

16. Where, upon the application of any party to a petition made in the prescribed manner to the court, it appears to the court that the case raised by the petition can be conveniently stated as a special case, the court may direct the same to be stated accordingly, and any such special case shall, as far as may be, be heard before the court, and the decision of the court shall be final; and the court shall certify to the Speaker its determination in reference to such special case.

XII. Provided always, that if it shall appear to the judge on the trial of the said petition that any question or questions of law as to the admissibility of evidence or otherwise require further consideration by the Court of Common Pleas, then it shall be lawful for the said judge t postpone the granting of the said certificate until the determination of such question or questions by the court, and for this purpose to reserve any such question or questions in like manner as questions are usually reserved by a judge on a trial at nisi prius.

XIII. The House of Commons, on being informed by the Speaker of such certificate and report or reports, if any, shall order the same to be entered in their journals, and shall give the necessary directions for confirming or altering the return, or for issuing a writ for a new election, or for carrying the determination into execution, as circumstances may require.

XIV. Where the judge makes a special report the House of Commons may make such order in respect of such special report as they think proper.

XV. If the judge states in his report on the trial of an election petition under this Act that corrupt practices have, or that there is reason to believe that corrupt practices have, extensively prevailed in any county or borough at the election to which the petition relates, such statement shall for all the purposes of the Act of the session of the fifteenth and sixteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter fifty-seven, intituled an Act to provide for more effectual inquiry into the existence of corrupt practices at elections of members to serve in Parliament, have the same effect and may be dealt with in the same manner as if it were a report of a committee of the House of Commons appointed to try an election petition, and the expenses of any commission of inquiry which may be issued in accordance with the provisions of the said Act shall be defrayed as if they were expenses incurred in the registration of voters for such county or borough.

XVI. The report of the judge in respect of persons guilty of corrupt practices shall for the purpose of the prosecution of such persons in pursuance of section nine of the Act of the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter twenty-nine, have the same effect as the report of the election committee therein mentioned that certain persons have been guilty of bribery and treating.

XVII. On the trial of an election petition under this Act, unless the judge otherwise directs, any charge of a corrupt practice may be gone into and evidence in relation thereto received before any proof has been given of agency on the part of any candidate in respect of such corrupt practice.

XVIII. The trial of an election petition under this Act shall be proceeded with notwithstanding the acceptance by the respondent of an office of profit under the Crown.

XIX. The trial of an election petition under this Act shall be proceeded with notwithstanding the prorogation of Parliament.

Proceedings.

XX. An election petition under this Act shall be in such form and state such matters as may be prescribed.

XXI. An election petition under this Act shall be served as nearly as may be in the manner in which a writ or summons is served, or in such other manner as may be prescribed.

XXII. Two or more candidates may be made respondents to the same petition, and their case may for the sake of convenience be tried at the same time, but for all the purposes of this Act, such petition shall be deemed to be a separate petition against each respondent.

XXIII. Where, under this Act, more petitions than one are presented relating to the same election or return, all such petitions shall in the election list be bracketed together, and shall be dealt with as one petition

but such petitions shall stand in the election list in the place where the last of such petitions would have stood if it had been the only petition presented, unless the Court shall otherwise direct.

XXIV. On the trial of an election petition under this Act the shorthand writer of the House of Commons or his deputy shall attend and shall be sworn by the judge faithfully and truly to take down the evidence given at the trial, and from time to time as occasion requires to write or cause the same to be written in words at length; and it shall be the duty of such shorthand writer to take down such evidence, and from time to time to write or cause the same to be written at length, and a copy of such evidence shall accompany the certificate made by the judge to the Speaker; and the expenses of the shorthand writer shall be deemed to be part of the expenses incurred in receiving the judge.

Jurisdiction and Rules of Court.

XXV. The judges for the time being on the rota for the trial of election petitions in England and Ireland may respectively from time to time make, and may from time to time revoke and alter, general rules and orders (in this Act referred to as the rules of court), for the effectual execution of this Act, and of the intention and object thereof, and the regulation of the practice, procedure, and costs of election petitions, and the trial thereof, and the certifying and reporting thereon.

Any general rules and orders made as aforesaid shall be deemed to be within the powers conferred by this Act, and shall be of the same force as if they were enacted in the body of this Act.

Any general rules and orders made in pursuance of this section shall be laid before Parliament within three weeks after they are made if Parliament be then sitting, and if Parliament be not then sitting, within three weeks after the beginning of the then next session of Parliament.

XXVI. Until rules of court have been made in pursuance of this Act, and so far as such rules do not extend, the principles, practice, and rules on which committees of the House of Commons have theretofore acted in dealing with election petitions shall be observed so far as may be by the court and judge in the case of election petitions under this Act.

XXVII. The duties to be performed by the prescribed officer under this Act shall be performed by such one or more of the masters of the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster as may be determined by the chief justice of the said Court of Common Pleas, and by the master of the Court of Common Fleas at Dublin, and there shall be awarded to such masters respectively, in addition to their existing salaries, such remuneration for the performance of the duties imposed on them in pursuance of this Act as the chief justices of the said Courts of Common Pleas at Westminster and Dublin may respectively, with the consent of the commissioners of the treasury, determine.

Reception, Expenses, and Jurisdiction of Judge.

XXVIII. The judge shall be received at the place where he is about to try an election petition under this Act with the same state, so far as