OF THE PROVINCE OF CANADA PASSED IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH YEARS OF THE REIGN OF HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA AND IN THE SECOND SESSION OF THE FIFTH PARLIAMENT OF CANADA. Begun and holden at Toronto on the Fifteenth of February, in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-Six. RESERVED ACT. HIS EXCELLENCY SIR EDMUND WALKER HEAD, BARONET, GOVERNOR GENERAL. TORONTO: PRINTED BY STEWART DERBISHIRE & GEORGE DESBARATS, Anno Domini, 1856. ANNO DECIMO-NONO ET VICESIMO VICTORIE REGINÆ. CAP. CXL. An Act to change the Constitution of the Legislative Reserved for the signification of Her Majesty's pleasure 16th May, 1856. WHEREAS by an Act of the Parliament of the United Preamble. Kingdom passed in the seventeenth and eighteenth Imperial Act, years of the Reign of Her Most Gracious Majesty, chaptered 17 & 18 V. one hundred and eighteen" to empower the Legislature of c. 118. "Canada to alter the Constitution of the Legislative Council "for that Province, and for other purposes," it is enacted, That the Legislature of this Province may change the Constitution of the Legislative Council of the said Province, and make other provisions relative to the same subject and to other subjects therein mentioned: Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, enacts as follows: Council shall I. The Legislative Council shall hereafter be composed of How the Le-/ the present Members thereof, and of forty-eight Members to be gislative elected, in the proportion and at the times and in the manner be constituted hereinafter provided; and to this end, the Province shall be hereafter. divided into forty-eight Electoral Divisions, twenty-four in Upper Canada and twenty-four in Lower Canada, in the manner set forth in Schedule A. tinued. II. The present Councillors shall continue to hold their seats Present Counas heretofore, subject to the conditions contained in the Impe- cillors conrial Act of the third and fourth Victoria, chapter thirty-five, "to re-unite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada and "for the Government of Canada." Term of ser III. The Elective Members shall be elected for eight years. vice of E. C. Qualification of Elective Councillors. Disqualifica IV. No person shall be eligible or shall sit or vote as a Legis lative Councillor unless he be a British Subject by birth or naturalization, resident in Canada, of the full age of thirty years, and be legally or equitably seized as of freehold, for his own use and benefit, of lands or tenements held in free and common soccage, or seized or possessed, for his own use and benefit, of lands or tenements held in fief, franc-aleu or roture in this Province, of the value of two thousand pounds currency over and above all debts, charges and dues, nor unless his residence or his lands or tenements as aforesaid to the value aforesaid be within the limits of the Electoral Division for which he shall seek to be, or shall have been, elected. V. No person shall be elected a Legislative Councillor who tion in certain is a public defaulter, or shall have been convicted of felony, or of any infamous crime. cases. Members of the other House. Forfeiture of tive Council VI. No Member of one House shall be elected a member of the other. VII. The seat of an Elective Legislative Councillor shall be Seat of Elec- forfeited in any of the following cases: if he be a public delors in certain faulter, or become a Bankrupt, or insolvent, or take the benefit of any law whatsoever in relation to insolvent debtors, or be convicted of felony or of any infamous crime, or shall cease to hold a property qualification required by the fourth clause. cases. Writs for the VIII. Upon or before the first day of September next following first Election. the day on which this Act shall receive the Royal Assent, the Governor shall issue Writs for the election of twelve Legislative Councillors to represent the twelve Electoral Divisions first entitled to return Members to the Legislative Council as hereinafter provided; and the said Writs shall be transmitted to the Returning Officers by the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, and be returnable on the first Tuesday of November following: and in every second year thereafter Writs for the periodical elections shall be issued on or before the first day of September, and returnable the first Tuesday of November. And for subsequent perio dical Elections.. Form of Governor to appoint Returning Offi cers. Place of Elec tion. IX. The Writs of Election shall be in the form of Schedule B. X. The Governor shall appoint the Returning Officers for the Electoral Divisions, from among those persons who might by law be Returning Officers at Elections of Members of the Legislative Assembly for places within the limits of such Divisions. XI. The Returning Officer for any Electoral Divisions shall fix a place as nearly as may be in the centre of such Division, for the nomination of Candidates and the proclamation of the Candidate elected. |