OF MEMBER.

EXPULSION again refused to let him take the oath: 253 Hans. 628; 266 Hans. 1347; 284 Hans. 665, 1586. In 1888 the Act of 51 & 52 Vict. c. 46, was passed, and in 1891 the resolution of 22nd June was expunged. In this instance the question of the vote of expulsion being a disqualification does not seem to have been raised.

MEMBER

RETURNED.

A member elected and returned for one place is inALREADY eligible for any other, if he has taken the oath and his seat: Belfast, 4 O'M. & H. 105. At a General Election persons are frequently elected for more than one constituency, but they have to make their election for which of the places they will serve within the time prescribed by the sessional order of the House of Commons: see May's Parl. Prac., 10th ed., p. 614.

FORMER

Some instances of former disqualifications are given INCAPACI below:

TIES.

Residence.

Qualification by estate.

In the early ages of our parliamentary representation it was necessary that the person chosen should come from the body of the persons represented. The practice, however, fell into disuse, and the 1 Hen. 5, c. 1, was passed to enforce it. And see 23 Hen. 6, c. 14, s. 3. The restriction, having become inoperative, was at length deemed to be unconstitutional; and in 1774 a Committee reported upon this statute, and others of similar import, that they have been decided not necessary to be observed, and a constant usage has long prevailed against them. An Act was accordingly passed (14 Geo. 3, c. 58) by which the first-mentioned statute, and so much of several others (including the 23 Hen. 6, c. 14) as related to the residence of persons to be elected, was repealed.

A qualification by estate was first required in England by the 9 Anne, c. 5. By the 52 Geo. 3, c. 37, it was made sufficient if the estate was in Scotland; and by the Act of Union, if in Ireland. The qualification, however, was limited to estates in land. The 1 & 2 Vict. c. 48, s. 1, repealing the Act of Anne, made it sufficient if the

FORMER

INCAPACI-
TIES.

person elected was possessed of either real or personal
property of the requisite amount, i.e., 6001. per annum
in counties, and 300l. per annum in boroughs, free from
incumbrances. But by the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 26, all the
above Acts, together with some others on the same
subject, are repealed. Although the Act of 21 & 22
Vict. c. 26 is itself repealed by the Statute Law Revision
Act, 1875, this does not revive any of the above Acts.
Although the House, in a solitary instance, resolved Absence of
that a person absent was ineligible, it is now clear that
absence of itself is no disqualification: Simeon, 51;
1 Dougl. 241; Colchester, 3 Lud. 166; Southey's case,
82 Journ. 28, 108. The 7 Hen. 4, c. 15, which has been
repealed by 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, but which formerly
directed the mode of making returns in counties, directed
the names of the persons elected, be they "present or
absent," to be written in an indenture.

candidate.

ment.

Persons in prison for debt, at the time of the election, Imprisonwere formerly considered to be disqualified: Leinster, 8 Journ. 292. The practice of the House afterwards established a contrary doctrine: 2 Hats. 41; Vin. Abridg. "Parliament." See also 10 Journ. 356, 25th March, 1690; 2 Jac. 1, c. 13.

Catholics.

Roman Catholics, by 10 Geo. 4, c. 7, s. 2, became Roman capable of sitting and voting, being in all other respects duly qualified, upon taking and subscribing a certain oath therein given, for which the oath contained in the 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72, s. 14, is now substituted.

Jews were not disqualified, but the sitting and voting Jews. without having taken the oath of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration subjected them to penalties: Miller v. Salomons, 8 Exch. 788; 21 L. J., Ex. 161. In that case the defendant refused to take the oath with the words "on the true faith of a Christian" included therein. The form of oath now used does not contain those words.

A member who did not believe in the existence of a Persons of Supreme Being, and upon whom an oath had no binding belief." no religious effect as an oath, but only as a solemn promise, was,

INCAPACI

TIES.

FORMER Owing to his want of religious belief, incapable by law of making and subscribing the oath of allegiance: Attorney-General v. Bradlaugh, 14 Q. B. D. 667; 54 L. J., Q. B. 205. But now, by 51 & 52 Vict. c. 46, s. 3, the validity of an oath duly administered and taken is not affected by the absence of religious belief. This Act also provides that an affirmation is to be of the same force and effect as an oath, and may be made by any person objecting to being sworn on the ground that he has no religious belief or that the taking of an oath is contrary to his religious belief.

Attorney-
General.

The Attorney-General was, for the same reasons as the judges, excluded from the House of Commons. Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards Lord Nottingham, was the first exception. The King's Counsel and Serjeants were also inadmissible. Not so the Solicitor-General. See

2 Hats. 26, 27, n.

SUMMONED.

THE House of Commons is summoned by an order PARLIA(issued in pursuance of a royal proclamation) from the MENT, HOW Queen in Council to the Lords High Chancellors of Writ. Great Britain and Ireland (a) commanding them to cause writs to be issued for the election of knights, citizens, and burgesses to serve in Parliament. These writs are issued from the office of the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery: 37 & 38 Vict. c. 81, s. 5. They were formerly issued by the Clerk of the Petty Bag.

The ancient form of the writ, except so far as the Form of. 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 45, s. 77; 16 & 17 Vict. c. 68, s. 1; and 30 & 31 Vict. c. 102, s. 58, required it to be varied, was in use till the year 1872, when the 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, prescribed the form now in use. If there be any

(a) Or to the Lords Keepers or Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, if the offices of Lords High Chancellors be vacant.

MENT, HOW

PARLIA mistake in a writ, another may, perhaps, be sent: SUMMONED. Heyw. Bo. 65, 66; Heyw. Co. 29; 1 Roe, 367, 368 (2nd ed.). A separate writ is issued for each division of a county see note to form of writ in 35 & 36 Vict. c. 33, post, p. 503.

When returnable.

VACATING
OF SEATS.

Succession

By 15 & 16 Vict. c. 23, whenever a new Parliament is summoned, there are to be thirty-five days at least between the date of the proclamation and the day appointed for the meeting thereof. By the ancient custom of Parliament the usual time was reputed to be forty days, and this was the period adopted by 7 & 8 Will. 3, c. 25; but it being settled, by the 22nd Article of the Union with Scotland (5 Anne, c. 8), that the time for the meeting of the British Parliament should not be less than fifty days after the date of the proclamation, this period became the usual time.

Writs are also issued from time to time for electing members to serve in the room of those whose seats in Parliament have from any cause become vacant. As to form of writ, see post, p. 503.

Before treating of the issuing of writs upon seats becoming vacant it will be well to state how seats are vacated. The seats of members may be vacated by their becoming subject to any of the incapacities for being elected enumerated in the preceding chapter.

In the case of succession to a peerage, a question has to peerage. been raised as to whether the seat of the member is vacated unless and until a writ is issued summoning such member to the House of Lords. In 1894, upon the grant of the Chiltern Hundreds to the Honourable Bernard Coleridge, on his succession to the peerage, a Committee was appointed to consider the question, and reported that the fact of succession to a peerage disabled the person succeeding from being elected to or sitting in the House of Commons, although the practice had been to abstain from declaring the seat void until the writ of summons had issued. They further found that if a member succeeding delayed or refused to apply for