be resigned after election, and before sitting, (See Hatsell's Prec. 2. 54.)

The former class are very numerous. They depend upon various statutory enactments. The principal of these is the 25th sec. of the 6th Anne, c. 7., which enacts, that no person who shall have, in his own or any other's name or for his benefit, any office of profit under the Crown created after the 25th October 1705, or who shall be commissioner or sub-commissioner, or secretary, or receiver of prizes, or comptroller of the accounts of the army, or commissioner of transports, or commissioner of sick and wounded, or agent for any regiment, or commissioner for wine licences, or governor or deputy-governor of any of the plantations, or commissioner of the navy employed in any of the outports, or who shall have any pension from the Crown during pleasure, shall be capable of being elected, or of sitting and voting, &c.

The disqualification as to pensions during pleasure has been extended by a subsequent statute to pensions for terms of years (but it has been decided that neither statute applies to pensions held in right of a wife). By the 15 Geo. II. c. 22., no commissioner of the revenue in Ireland, or commissioner of the navy or victualling offices, nor their deputies or clerks in those offices, nor in the offices of the commissioners of the treasury, auditor of the exchequer, tellers, or chancellor of the exchequer, or of the admiralty, or of the paymaster of the army or navy, or of the secretaries of state, or of the commissioners of salt or stamps or appeals, or of wine, hackney-coach, or hawkers' licences, nor any

person having any employment in Minorca or Gibraltar, except officers having commissions in any regiment, are capable of election. The exceptions in this act are, the treasurer and comptroller of the navy, the secretaries of the treasury, the secretary to the chancellor of the exchequer, and secretaries of the admiralty, the under secretaries of state, the deputy paymaster of the army, and all persons holding office for life, or quamdiu se bene gesserint.

By the 7 Geo. II. c. 16. 34., no judge of the Court of Session or justiciary or baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland is capable of election. The English Common-Law Judges were formerly capable of election, but they are now disqualified as it is said, because they are the advisers of the House of Lords, but in reality for other and very obvious reasons.

Many additions have been made to this list. Returning officers are of course disqualified from returning themselves. Recorders are incapable of being elected for their own boroughs. Revising barristers cannot sit for the places where they revised for eighteen months after their last revision. The judge of the High Court of Admiralty and County-Court judges are altogether excluded; so are commissioners under the tithe and inclosure, and poor-law commissions (except the president of the Poor-law Board), and the commissioners of police for the city of London: and it will be generally found that the officers acting in the execution of modern statutes, and deriving profit from their offices, are specially excluded from the House of Commons, and that the enactment.

which excludes them renders them incapable of being elected, as well as of sitting.

Government contractors are incapable of being elected. The 22 Geo. III. c. 45. enacts, that "any person who shall directly or indirectly himself or by any person whatsoever in trust for him, or for his use or benefit, or on his account, undertake, execute, hold, or enjoy, in the whole or in part, any contract, agreement, or commission, made or entered into with, under, or from the commissioners of His Majesty's treasury, or of the navy or victualling office, or with the mastergeneral or board of ordnance, or with any one or more of such commissioners, or with any other person or persons whatsoever for or on account of the public service; or shall knowingly and willingly furnish or provide, in pursuance of any such agreement, contract, or commission, which he or they shall have made or entered into as aforesaid, any money to be remitted abroad, or any wares or merchandize to be used or employed in the service of the public, shall be incapable of being elected, or of sitting or voting as a member of the House of Commons during the time that he shall execute, hold, or enjoy any such contract, agreement, or commission, or any part or share thereof, or any benefit or emolument arising from the same."

4. He must not be in holy orders. By the 41 Geo. III. c. 63., it is enacted, that the return of any priest or deacon or minister of the Kirk of Scotland to sit in Parliament shall be void. Mr. Bowyer, in his very learned Commentaries on the British Constitution, remarking upon this statute and the 10 Geo. IV. c. 7. sec. 9., says,

"It is a somewhat curious circumstance that the Act of George the Third mentions only priests, deacons, and ministers of the Kirk. It would appear, then, that a Scotch bishop, and all bishops, except Roman Catholics, not holding any see in England or Ireland, may sit in the House of Commons. Roman-Catholic bishops, priests, and deacons, are disqualified by 10 Geo. IV. c. 7., sec. 9. But the act only specifies holy orders. So it would seem that a person in minor orders in the Church of Rome might sit in the House of Commons, though he were a cardinal. It is quite clear that a monk or friar may be elected and sit in the House of Commons, and so may a prelate of the Court of Rome, provided they are not in orders. (See concerning the distinction between holy and minor orders, Catech. Concil. Trident. par. 2, secs. 26 and 52)."

5. He must not be disqualified by bribery or treating. By the 36th section of the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act 1854, continued by the 18 and 20 Vic. c. 84. to the 10th August 1857, and thence to the end of the next session, it is enacted, that "if any candidate at an election for any county, city, or borough, shall be declared by any Election Committee guilty, by himself or his agents, of bribery, treating, or undue influence at such election, such candidate shall be incapable of being elected, or sitting in Parliament for such county, city, or borough, during the Parliament then in existence."

6. He must not he attainted or an outlaw. This requires no commentary. It may be remarked, however, that outlawry in treason or felony is

equal to conviction; and see an anonymous case 1 And. 293 pl. 301. Outlawry in civil cases creates no disqualification.

7. He must not be a peer of Parliament or of Scotland. Scotch peers are represented in the House of Peers, the election taking place every Parliament. Irish peers are eligible by virtue of the Irish Act of Union.

8. He must be possessed of a property qualification. This condition does not apply to the sons or heirs-apparent of peers or Lords of Parliament (including bishops), nor to the

members of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, and Trinity College Dublin, nor to the sons and heirs-apparent of persons qualified to serve as a knight of the shire, nor to the representatives of Scotland.

The qualification requisite depends upon the 1 & 2 Vic. c. 48., which enacts," that after the passing of that act no person shall be capable of being elected a member of the House of Commons for any county, riding, part, or division of a county, within that part of Great Britain called England, the dominion of Wales, or Ireland, unless he shall be seised or entitled, for his own use and benefit, of and to an estate, legal or equitable, in lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of any tenure whatever, situate, lying, or being within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, or in the rents and profits thereof, for his own life or for the life or lives of any other person or persons then living, or for a term of years, either absolute or determinable on his own life or on the life or lives of any other person or persons then living, of