it was satisfied that the malady was incurable, nor would it interfere in more recent times except in such a malady as Insanity. insanity, which would make the request and acceptance of the Chiltern Hundreds impossible.

In the case of Mr. Alcock his constituents petitioned1 the House complaining that the insanity of their member deprived them of his services. He had been found a lunatic upon commission, and was in confinement. A committee was appointed,

which, after taking evidence and searching for precedents, reported that his case was not so hopeless of cure as to justify the House in declaring the seat vacant.

In the more recent case of Mr. Stewart, attention was called, as a matter of privilege, to the fact that he had attended the House and voted in a division while under medical treatment for insanity as a certified lunatic. A motion for a committee to inquire into the circumstances of the case was rejected 2.

The disqualification of a member on the ground of insanity might thus be brought before the House in two ways: by petition from the constituency which is deprived of the services of its member, if the member is in confinement: or by a question of privilege being raised if a person certified to be of unsound mind should take part in the business of the House.

But a third and more effectual way of dealing with the matter is provided by 49 Vict. c. 16. Any authority concerned in the committal or reception of a member into any house or place as a lunatic must certify the same, as soon as may be, to the Speaker. The Speaker must obtain a report from specified authorities in lunacy, at once, and again after an interval of six months. If the member is still of unsound mind the two reports must be laid on the table of the House, and the seat is then vacated.

§ 3. Aliens are incapable of sitting in Parliament both by Aliens. common law and by statute.

Previous to the year 1700 an alien could acquire capacity

166 Com. Journ. 226.

2 Hansard, vol. 162, p. 1941.

Aliens.

Peers.

Clergy.

for election by becoming naturalised; but 12 & 13 Will. III, c. 2 disqualified all persons born out of the king's dominions, even though naturalised or made denizens, unless they had been born of English parents. 33 & 34 Vict. c. 14, s. 2 excepts political capacity (together with the right to own the whole or any part of a British ship) from the general concession which it makes to aliens of equal rights with natural-born British subjects. But the same Act (s. 7) enables an alien to acquire by naturalisation the political rights and obligations of a British subject, and thus to qualify for Parliament.

§ 4. A peerage is a disqualification 1. An English peer may not sit in the House of Commons, nor may a Scotch peer, although he be not one of the representative peers of Scotland.

But an Irish peer may sit for any county or borough of Great Britain so long as he is not one of the twenty-eight representatives of the Irish peerage in the House of Lords 2.

The sons of English peers have been eligible since an order made by the House on the 21st January, 1549, but the eldest sons of Scotch peers, not having been eligible to the Scotch Parliament, were held to be ineligible to the Parliament of Great Britain 3. Their disability was removed by the Scotch Reform Bill of 1832, 2 & 3 Will. IV, c. 65, s. 37.

§ 5. Clergy of the Established Church and ministers of the Church of Scotland were disqualified in 18014, and clergy of the Roman Catholic Church in 1829 5.

Until 1801 the capacity of the clergy to be elected to Parliament was a matter of doubt. In that year the question was raised by the election of the Rev. J. Horne Tooke for the

It has been contended that a peer of the United Kingdom is not disqualified as such, and that until he has received a writ of summons as a Lord of Parliament he may sit in the House of Commons. In 1895 this point was raised by Lord Wolmer, member for West Edinburgh, on succeeding to the Earldom of Selborne; but the House, upon receiving a report from a Select Committee that Lord Wolmer had succeeded to a peerage of the United Kingdom, at once directed that a new writ should be issued. Hansard 4th Series, xxxiii. 1058, 1728.

borough of Old Sarum. On inquiry it seemed that the authorities were not clear: in 1785 a committee of the House had decided in favour of the eligibility of a person in deacon's orders, and elections already made were therefore excepted from the operation of the Act, and Mr. Horne Tooke was allowed to retain his seat.

vested of

An Act of 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. 91) makes it possible for Unless dithe clergy of the Church of England, whether priests or orders. deacons, to divest themselves of their orders, and thereby to free themselves from this disqualification.

§ 6. Office of various kinds is a disqualification at common Office. law or by statute.

mon law.

Sheriffs appear to have been excluded generally by the Sheriff's terms of the old form of writ, which directs that neither you (a) at Comnor any other sheriff of our said kingdom be in anywise elected.' But the restriction was in practice confined to the county for which the sheriff held office, so that the sheriff of Hampshire was held eligible to sit for the borough of Southampton, which was a county of itself2; it was extended by a resolution of the House, passed in the case of the borough of Thetford3, so as to exclude any officer of a borough to whom the writ or precept might be directed.

The disqualification of the sheriff was narrowed by 16 & 17 Vict. c. 68, s. 1, by which writs for cities and boroughs are no longer addressed to the sheriff of the county in which they are situated, but directly to their returning officers; one may now say shortly that at Common Law no returning officer in England or Ireland may sit for the place where he is bidden to cause an election to be made, and that the Scotch Reform Act of 1832 enforces the same rule in Scotland.

&

The Judges of the three Common Law courts were declared Judges. to be disqualified by a resolution of the House in 1605, they being 'attendants as Judges in the Upper House.' (b) by But recent legislation has taken the place of this rule 5.

Statute.

The history of the statutory disqualifications is voluminous and intricate. They begin soon after the Revolution, when the strength and irresponsibility of the House of Commons. made the Crown as anxious to obtain some influence over its members as the House was to exclude persons who held office at pleasure of the Crown.

Commissioners of Stamps and of Excise were excluded by Acts of 1694 and 1699, and in 1700 came the sweeping provision in the Act of Settlement that no person who has an office or a place of profit under the king shall be capable of serving as a member of the House of Commons.'

Fortunately this clause in the Act of Settlement was repealed, The Act of before it could take effect, by 4 Anne, c. 8, s. 28. Two years later was passed the statute which forms the groundwork of the present law upon the subject.

Anne.

New office.

Old office.

Commissions in army and navy.

6 Anne, c. 7 (41 in revised statutes), s. 24, enacts firstly that no one shall be capable of being elected who has accepted from the Crown any new office created since the 25th October, 1705; secondly, that the holders of certain specified offices are incapable of election; and thirdly, it extends the incapacity to persons having pensions from the Crown during pleasure.

S. 25 enacts that the acceptance of any office of profit under the Crown by a member of the House of Commons shall avoid his election, but that he may be re-elected. This section must be construed to refer to old offices, otherwise it would repeal a part of s. 24.

S. 27 excepts from the operation of the statute commissions in the army and navy.

Since the Act of Anne many statutes have been passed subjecting old or new offices to the total disqualification of § 24, or the partial disqualification of § 25. I have endeavoured to summarise the disqualifying statutes, and, up to a certain point, to divide them into groups, but, inasmuch as the extent of the disqualification and not the nature of the office is the matter which it is important to have in mind, I will confine myself in the text to a general statement of the law.

(a) There are certain offices the acceptance1 of which is wholly (a) Offices incompatible with a seat in the House of Commons.

Such are new offices under the Crown within the meaning of the Act of Anne. Among these we must include all offices under the Crown created since 1705, and not specially exempted by statute. In the case of many new offices the disqualification has been reimposed by statute. A paid Charity Commissionership or a place on the Council of India would afford an instance of such offices.

Such are also certain old offices which fall under the 25th section, and which by subsequent statutes have been made to carry with them a total instead of a partial disqualification. Instances of such an office are afforded by the Mastership of the Rolls, or the offices about court abolished in Burke's measure of economical reform with a provision that, if revived, they were to be regarded as new offices 2.

Such, lastly, are offices not technically under the Crown, but made into statutory disqualifications. Such an office would be that of a fifth Under Secretary of State, when four Under Secretaries are already in the House 3.

which disqualify.

(B) There are certain offices the acceptance of which vacates (8) Offices a seat, but leaves the holder of the office re-eligible.

which necessitate

tion.

Such are all old offices, that is, offices in existence before re-elec. the 25th of October, 1705, except those which have been made an absolute disqualification by subsequent statutes. And such are certain new offices created by statutes, which contain provisions that their acceptance shall vacate a seat, but that the holder is re-eligible. An instance of such a provision is to be found in the case of the President and one of the secretaries of the Local Government Board 4.

It has been doubted whether 'acceptance' in this sense means the completion of the formalities of an appointment-or kissing hands-or the informal notification of an intention to accept, by letter or word of mouth. It would seem that a vacancy is created by any proof, however informal, of an intention to accept. Report on Vacating of Seats. House of Commons, 1894 [278].

4 & 28 Vict. c. 34.

34 & 35 Vict. c. 70, s. 4.

G