of being registered as an elector, or voting at any elec- PENALTIES. tion, whether parliamentary or for a public office (m) held for or within the borough where the illegal practice was committed: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 7.

An Election Court is required to report whether any candidate has been guilty, by himself or his agents, of any illegal practice. If the report is that any illegal practice has been committed by any candidate or his agents, he is to be incapable of being elected to or of holding any corporate office in the borough during the period for which he was or might have been elected to serve, and if elected, his election is to be void; and if the report is that he has himself been guilty, he is also to be subject to the same incapacities as if he had been convicted of such illegal practice: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 8 (2).

It will be noticed that a candidate is thus rendered liable for the illegal practices of all persons who may, on the trial of an election petition, be held to be his agents. To this liability an exception is made by section 6, which provides that a candidate shall not be liable, nor shall his election be avoided, for illegal practices committed without his knowledge and consent, under that section, viz., voting (if prohibited) or procuring any prohibited person to vote, or publishing false statements of the withdrawal of a candidate for the purpose of procuring the election of another. So also a payment in contravention of section 21, unless made by the candidate, or with his sanction or connivance: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 21 (1). And certain offences are not illegal practices unless committed by the candidate himself. Thus, the offences of publishing placards without the name and address of the printer and publisher, of failure to make a return of expenses (47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, ss. 14, 21), and the offences of illegal payment,

(m) This is defined by sect. 64, post, p. 457.

PENALTIES. employment or hiring, are made illegal practices only if done by the candidate or with his knowledge and consent: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 17 (2).

Extensive illegal practices.

As to when a candidate may be exempted from the consequences of an illegal practice, see ante, p. 263. And as to the power of excepting an act from being an illegal practice, see ante, p. 259.

It is to be noticed that the very serious consequences that are attached to the report of illegal practices committed with the knowledge and consent of a candidate seem inconsistent with the omission to attach any penalties, as regards the candidate, to the corrupt practices of treating and undue influence similarly committed: ante, p. 317.

Every person guilty of an illegal practice or of illegal employment, payment, or hiring at an election is prohibited from voting at such election, and if any such person votes his vote is to be void: Ibid. s. 22.

Upon the trial of an election petition, the Court may order a person guilty of an illegal practice to pay the costs in relation to that offence: Ibid. s. 29 (2).

Where on the trial of a petition it is found by the Election Court that illegal practices or offences of illegal payment, employment, or hiring have so extensively prevailed that they may be reasonably supposed to have affected the result of the election, the Election Court is to report such finding to the High Court, and the election of the candidate in whose behalf the illegal practices, &c., were committed, if he has been elected, is to be void, and he is not, during the period for which he was elected to serve, or for which, if elected, he might have served, to be capable of being elected to or holding any corporate office in the borough: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70,

s. 18.

This section goes beyond the provisions with regard to illegal practices at a parliamentary election, for the

penalties may be incurred by a totally innocent candi- PENALTIES. date through the acts of any person, even though not connected with, or authorized in any way by, the candidate. In other words, this section places illegal practices in the same position as corrupt practices when extensively committed, and, in addition, incapacitates the candidate.

AGENCY.

MUNICIPAL AND OTHER ELECTIONS.

THE question of agency is one of the most important that can arise in election inquiries. It is to conceal agency, and so to relieve the candidate from the consequences of corruption practised on his behalf, that the efforts of unscrupulous men engaged in the conduct of an election have been generally directed, and it is not too much to say that an election inquiry has been more frequently baffled from a failure in the proof of agency than from all other causes put together.

It is enacted by section 100, sub-s. (3), of the Municipal Corporations Act, 1882 (45 & 46 Vict. c. 50), that, subject to the provisions of that Act, and of any rules made under it, the principles, practice, and rules for the time being observed in the case of Parliamentary Election Petitions, and in particular the principles and rules with regard to agency and evidence, are to be observed, as far as may be, in

the case of a municipal election petition (a). The AGENCY. decisions in the parliamentary election cases cited in this chapter are, therefore, applicable to municipal election petitions. The above provision is applied to petitions questioning county council elections by 51 & 52 Vict. c. 41, s. 75, school board elections by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 36, and the other elections by 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73, s. 48 (3) and (8). See further note, ante, p. 279. It is provided at parliamentary election petitions that, unless the Election Court 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: 31 & 32 Vict. c. 125, s. 17. But although it is desirable that such proof should not be given, unless there is a reasonable expectation of proving agency afterwards, Bristol, 2 O'M. & H. 29, it would seem that if a case of agency be opened, the Court has practically no discretion in the matter: Guildford, 1 ibid. 14.

OF.

This Act contains no other express provision with PRINCIPLES reference to agency, but it provides (by section 26) that the principles, (b) practice, and rules, on which Election Committees have heretofore acted in dealing with election petitions, shall be observed as far as may be in the case of election petitions under the Act; and it is satisfactory to observe that the judges. have universally applied the principles of electioneering agency, as acted upon by Election Committees, although admitting its harshness and the stringency of its operation, to trials of election petitions held since the passing of the Act: e.g. Coventry, 1 O'M. & H. 107; Taunton, ibid. 184; Blackburn, ibid. 202, 203. That is to say,

(a) The provisions as to agency apply to municipal elections in the City of London : 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 35.

(b) Keating, J., doubted whether the word "principles " meant anything more than practice or procedure. See Earl Beauchamp v. Madresfield, L. R. 8 C. P. at p. 253.