1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Registration

by Lionel Lancelot Shadwell

REGISTRATION. In all systems of law the registration of certain legal facts has been regarded as necessary, chiefly for the purpose of ensuring publicity and simplifying evidence. Registers, when made in performance of a public duty, are as a general rule admissible in evidence merely on the production from the proper custody of the -registers themselves or (in most cases) of examined or certified copies. The extent to which registration is carried varies very much in different countries. For obvious reasons, judicial decisions are registered in all countries alike. In other matters no general rule can be laid down, except perhaps that on the whole registration is not as fully enforced in the United Kingdom and the United States as in continental states. The most important uses of registration occur in the case of judicial proceedings, land, ships, bills of sale, births, marriages and deaths, companies, friendly and other societies, newspapers, copyrights, patents, designs, trade marks and professions and occupations. In England registrars are attached to the privy council, the Supreme Court and the county courts. In the king's bench division (except in its bankruptcy jurisdiction) the duty of registrars is performed by the masters. Besides exercising limited judicial authority, registrars are responsible for the drawing up and recording of various stages of the proceedings from the petition, writ or plaint to the final decision.1 With them are Bled affidavits, depositions, pleadings, &c., when such filing is necessary. The difference between filing and registration is that the documents filed are filed -without alteration, while only ang epitome is usually registered. The judicature Act 1873 created district registries in the chief towns, the district registrar having an authority similar to that of a registrar of the Supreme Court. In the admiralty division cases of account are usually referred to the registrar and merchants. The registration in the central office of the supreme court of judgments affecting lands, writs of execution, recognizances and lites pendent es in England, and the registration in Scotland of abbreviates of adjudications and of inhibitions, are governed by special legislation. All these are among the encumbrances for which search is made on investigating a title. Decisions of criminal courts are said to be recorded, not registered, except in the case of courts of summary jurisdiction, in which, 'by the Summary Jurisdiction Act 1879, a register of convictions is kept. Probates of wills and letters of administration, which are really judicial decisions, are registered in the principal or district registries of the probate division. In Scotland registration is used for giving a summary remedy on obligations without action by means of the fiction of a judicial decision having been given establishing the obligation. See also the separate articles LAND Rsorsrmrion; SHIPPING; BILL or SALE; COMPANIES; FRIENDLY Socrnrins; BUILDING Socrsrras; PRESS LAWS; Corvnronr; TRADE MARKS; PATENTS, &c.

Registration of Voters.-Prior to 1832 the right of parliamentary electors in England was determined at the moment of the tender of the vote at the election, or, in the event of a petition against the return, by a scrutiny, a committee of the House of Commons striking oi those whose qualification was held to be insufficient, and, on the other hand, adding those who, having tendered their votes at the poll, with a good title to do so, were rejected at the time. A conspicuous feature of the Reform Act of that year was the introduction of a new mode of ascertaining the rights of electors by means of an entirely new system of published lists, subject to claims and objections, and after due inquiry and revision forming a register of voters. Registration was not altogether unknown in Great Britain in connexion with the parliamentary franchise before the Reform Acts of 1832. Thus in the Scottish counties the right to vote depended on the voter's name being upon the roll of freeholders established by an act of Charles II.; a similar register existed in Ireland of freeholders whose freeholds were under £20 annual value; and in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge the rolls of members of Convocation and of the Senate were, as they still are, the registers of parliamentary voters. But 'except in such cases as the above, the right of a voter had to be determined by the returning officer upon the evidence produced before him when the vote was tendered at a poll. This necessarily took time, and the result was that a contested election in a large constituency might last for weeks. The celebrated Westminster election of 1784, in which the poll began on the 1st of April and ended on the 17th of May, may be mentioned as an illustration. Moreover, the decision of the returning officer was not conclusive; the title of every one who claimed to vote was liable to be reconsidered on an election petition, or, in the case of a rejected vote, in an action for damages by the voter against the returning officer.

The inconvenience of such a state of things would have been greatly aggravated had the old practice continued after the enlargement of the franchise in 1832. The establishment of a general system of registration was therefore a necessary. and important part of the reform then effected. It has enabled an election in the most populous constituency to be completed in a single day. It has also been instrumental in the extinction 1 The antiquity of registration of 'this kind is proved by the age of the Registrurn Brevium, or r<§ ister of writs, called by Lord Coke “ a most) ancient book of the ommon Law ” (Coke upon Littleton, 159a . of the “ occasional voter, ” who formerly gave so much trouble to returning officers and election committees-the person, namely, who acquired a qualifying tenement with the View of using it for a particular election and then disposing of it. The period of qualification now required in all cases, being fixed with reference to the formation of the register, is necessarily so long anterior to any election which it could effect, that the purpose or intention of the voter in acquiring the qualifying tenement has ceased to be material, and is not investigated. England.-The reform of parliamentary representation in 1832 was followed in 1835 by that of the constitution of municipal corporations, which included the creation of a uniform qualification (now known as the old burgess qualification) for the municipal franchise. In 1888 the municipal franchise was enlarged, and was at the same time extended to the whole country for the formation of constituencies to elect county councils; and in 1894 parochial electors were called into existence for the election of parish councils and for other purposes. Inasmuch as provision was made for the registering of persons entitled to votes for the above purposes, there are now three registers of voters, namely, the parliamentary register, the local government register ('i.e. in boroughs under the Municipal Corporation Acts, the burgess rolls, and elsewhere the county registers) and the register of parochial electors. Under the Municipal Corporations Act 1835 the registration of burgesses, though on similar lines to that of parlia.mentary voters, was entirely separate from it. Since, however, the qualincation for the municipal franchise covered to a great extent the same ground as that for the parliamentary franchise in boroughs which sent members to parliament, a considerable number of voters in such boroughs were entitled in respect of the same tenement to be upon both parliamentary register and burgess roll. The waste of labour involved in settling their rights twice over was put an end to in 1878, when the system of parliamentary registration was extended to the boroughs in question for municipal purposes, and the lists were directed to be made out in such a shape that the portion common to the two registers could be detached and combined with the portion peculiar to each, so as to form the parliamentary register and the burgess roll respectively. This system of registration was extended to the non-parliamentary boroughs and to the whole country in 1888, the separate municipal registration being completely abolished. .

The procedure of parliamentary registration is to be found in its main lines in the Parliamentary Registration Act 1843, which superseded that provided by the Reform Act of 1832,

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JN and has itself been considerably amended by later legislation.

The acts applying and adapting the system to local government and parochial registration are the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act 1878, the County Electors Act 1888, and the Local Government Act 1894. Registration is carried out by local machinery, the common-law parish being taken as the registration unit; and the work of preparing and publishing the lists, which when revised are to form the register, is Committed to the overseers. The selection of these officers was no doubt due to their position as the rating authority, and to their consequent opportunities for knowing the ownership and occupation of tenements within their parish. They do not always perform the duties themselves, other persons being empowered to act for them in many parishes by general or local acts of parliament; but in all or almost all cases they are entitled to act personally if they think fit, they sign the lists, and the proceedings are conducted in their name.

In order to render intelligible the following summary of the procedure, it will be necessary to divide the voters to be registered into classes based on the nature of their rgualification, since the practice differs in regard to each class. he classes are as follows: (1) Owners, including the old forty-shilling freeholders, and the copy holders, long leaseholders and others entitled under the Reform Act of 1832 to vote at parliamentary elections for counties; (2) occupiers, including those entitled to (a) the £10 occupation qualification, (b) the household qualification and (c) the old burgess qualification; (3) lodgers, subdivided into (a) old, i.e. those on the previous register for the same lodgings, and (b) new; (4) those entitled to reserved rights, Le. in addition to those (if any still remain) who were entitled to votes before the Reform Act of 1832 in respect of qualifications abolished by that act, (a) freehold and bur a e tenants in Bristol, Exeter, Norwich, and Nottingham, and (lg hverymen of the City of London and freemen of certain old cities and boroughs, whose right to the parliamentary franchise was permanently retained by the same act. In regard to these classes it may be said that the general scheme is that owners must make a claim in the first instance before they can get their names upon the register, but that, once entered on the register, the names will be retained from year to year until removed by the revising barrister; that the lists of occupiers and of freehold and burgage tenants are made out afresh every year by the overseers from their own information and inquiries, without any act being required on the part of the voters, who need only make claims in case their names are omitted; that lodgers must make claims every year; and that liverymen and freemen are in the same position as occupiers, except that the lists of liverymen are made out by the clerks of the several companies, and those of freemen by the town clerks, the overseers having nothing to do with these voters, whose qualifications are personal and not locally connected with any parish.

The overseers and other officers concerned are required to perform their duties in connexion with registration in accordance with the instructions and precepts, and to use the notices and forms prescribed by Order in Council from time to time. The Registration Order, 1895, directs the clerk of every county council, on or within seven days before the 15th of April in every year, to send to the overseers of each parish in his county a precept with regard to the registration of ownership electors, and to every parish not within a parliamentary or municipal borough a precept with regard to the registration of occupation electors (which expression for this purpose includes lodgers as Well as occupiers proper). The town clerk of every borough, municipal or parliamentary, is to send to the overseers of every parish in his borough a precept with regard to the registration of occupation electors. These precepts are set out in the Registration Order, and those issued by the town clerks differ according as the borough is parliamentary only, or municipal only, or both parliamentary and municipal; in the cases of Bristol, Exeter, Norwich and Nottingham they contain directions as to freehold and burgage tenants. The duties of the overseers in regard to registration are set out in detail in the precepts. Along with the precepts are forwarded forms of the various lists and notices re uired to be used, and with the ownership precept a certain number of copies of that portion of the parliamentary register of the county at the time in force which contains the ownership voters for the parish, the register being so printed that the portion relating to each parish can be detached. It is the duty of the overseers to publish on the 20th'of June, in manner hereinafter described, the portion of the register so received, together with a notice to owners not already registered to send in claims by the 20th of July. Meanwhile the overseers are making the inquiries necessary for the preparation of the occupier list. For this purpose they may require returns to be furnished by owners of houses let out in separate tenements, and by employers who have servants entitled to the service franchise. The registrars of births, deaths and marriages are required to furnish the overseers with returns of deaths, as must the assessed tax collectors with returns of defaulters; the relieving officers are to give information as to recipients of parochial relief. On or before the 31st of Jul the overseers are to make out and sign the lists of voters. These are the following: the list of ownership electors, consisting of the portion of the register previously published with a supplemental list of those who have sent in claims by the 20th of July; the occupier list; and the old lodger list, the last being formed from claims sent in by the 25th of July. The overseers do not select the names in the first and last of these lists; they take themas supplied in the register and claims. It is, however, their dut'y to write “ dead ” or “ objected " in the margin against the names of persons whom they have reason to believe to be dead or not entitled to vote in respect of the qualification described. The ownership and old lodger lists will be divided into two parts, if the register contains names of owners entitled to a parochial vote only, or if claims by owners or old lodgers have been made limited to that franchise. The occupier list contains the names of persons whom the overseers believe to be qualified, and no others, and therefore will be free from marginal objections. Except in the administrative county of London, it is made out in three divisions-division 1 giving the names of occupiers of property qualifying for both parliamentary and local government votes, ivisions 2 and 3 those of occupiers of property qualifying only for parliamentary and only for local government votes respectively. It happens so frequently that a tenement, if not of sufficient value to qualify for the £10 occupation franchise (parliamentary and local government), qualifies both for the household franchise (parliamentary) and for the old burgess franchise (local government), that division I would in most cases be the whole list, but for two circumstances. The service franchise is a special modification of the household franchise only; and the service occupants, being therefore restricted to the parliamentary vote, form the bulk of division 2; while peers and women, being excluded from the parliamentary vote, are consequently relegated to division 3. In the administrative county of London the local government register, being coextensive with the register of parochial electors, includes the whole of the parliamentary register. The occupier lists are consequently there made out in two divisions only, the names which would elsewhere appear in division 2 being placed in division I. The lists of freehold and burgage tenants in Bristol, Exeter, Norwich and Nottingham are to be made out and signed by the same date. The overseers have also to make out and sign a list of persons qualified as occupiers to be elected aldermen or councillors, but as non-residents disqualified from being on the local government register. By the same date also the clerks of the livery companies are to make out, sign and deliver to the secondary (who performs in the City of London the registration duties which elsewhere fall on the town clerk) the lists of liverymen entitled as such to the parliamentary vote; and the town clerks are to make out and sign the lists of freemen so entitled in towns where this franchise exists. On the 1st of August all the above lists are to be published, the livery lists by the secondary, lists of freemen by the town clerks and the rest by the overseers. In addition the overseers may have to publish a list of persons disqualified by having been found guilty of corrupt or illegal practices; this list they will receive, when it exists, from the clerk of the county council or town clerk with the precept. Publication of lists and notices by overseers IS made by affixing copies on the doors of the church and other places of worship of the parish (or, if there be none, in some public or conspicuous situation in the parish), and also, with the exception to be mentioned, in the case of a parish wholly or partly within a municipal borough or urban district, in or near every public or municipal or arochial office and every post and telegraph office in the parish. The exception is that lists and notices relating to ownership e ectors need not be published at the offices mentioned when the parish is within a parliamentary borough. Publication bg' the secondary is made by affixing copies outside the Guildhall an Royal Exchange; publication by town clerks is made by affixing copies outside their town hall, or, where there is none, in some public or conspicuous place in their borough. From the 1st to the 20th of August inclusive is allowed for the sending in of claims and objections. Those whose names have been omitted from the occupier or reserved rights lists, or the non-resident list, or whose names, place of abode or particulars of qualification have been incorrectly stated in such lists, may send in claims to have their names registered; lodgers who are not qualified as old lodgers, or who have omitted to claim as such, may claim as new lodgers; persons whose names are on the corrupt and illegal practices list may claim to have them omitted. Any person whose name is on the list of parliamentary, local governrnent or parochial electors for the same parliamentary county, administrative county, borough or parish, may object to names on the same lists. Notices of claim and objection in the case of liverymen and freemen are to be sent to the secondary and town clerk, and in other cases to the overseers; and notices of objection must also in all cases be sent to the person objected to. All notices must be sent in by the 20th of August, and on or before the 25th of August the overseers, secondary and town clerks are to make out, sign and publish lists of the claimants and ersons objected to. It remains to be added that any person on a list of voters (i.e. on one of the lists published on the 1st of August) may make a declaration before a magistrate or commissioner for oaths correcting the entry relating to him. In the case of ownership electors the correction can only deal with the place of abode; in the case of other lists it extends to all particulars stated, and is useful inasmuch as it enables the revising barrister to make corrections as to the qualification which he could not make in the absence of a declaration. The declarations must be delivered to the clerk of the county council or town clerk on or before the 5th of September. The next stage is the revision of the lists. Ifor th1s purpose revising barristers are appointed yearly. The period within which revision courts can be held is from the 8th of September Revising to the I2th of October, both days inclusive. The clerk of harris' the county council attends the first court held for each ers' parliamentary division of his county, and the town clerk the first court held for his city or borough; and they respectively produce all lists, notices and declarations in their custody, and answer any questions put to them by the revising barrister. The overseers also attend the courts held for their parish, produce the rate books, original notices of claim and objection, tgcc., and answer questions. The claimants, objectors and persons objected to appear personally or by representative to support their several contentions. Any person qualified to be an objector may also appear to oppose any claims, upon giving notice to the barrister before such claims are reached. The powers of the revising barristers are as follows: As regards persons whose names are on the lists of voters published on the 1st of August, he is to expunge the names, whether objected to or not, of those who are dead or subject to personal incapacity, such as infants and aliens, and for parliamentary purposes peers and women. If an entry is imperfect, the name must be removed, unless the particulars necessary for completing it are supplied to the barrister. All names marginally objected to by overseers must be expunged, unless the voters prove to the barrister that they ought to be retained. Objections made by other objectors must be supported by prima facie proof, and if this is not rebutted the name is struck out. Claimants must be ready to support their claims. The declaration attached to a lodger claim is indeed prima facie proof of the facts stated in it, but other claimants require evidence to make out even a prima facie case, and if they fail to produce it their claims will be disallowed. The barrister is required to correct errors in the lists of voters, and has a discretion to rectify mistakes in claims and objections upon evidence produced to him, although his power in this respect is limited. Lastly, the barrister has to deal with duplicates, as a voter is entitled to be on the register once, but not more than once, as a parliamentary voter for each parliamentary county or borough, as a burgess for each municipal orough, as a county elector for each electoral division, and as a parochial elector for each parish in which he holds a qualification. Consequently, he deals with duplicate entries by expunging or transferring them to separate parochial lists. The decision of the revising barrister is final and conclusive on all questions of fact; but an appeal lies from him on questions of law at the instance of any person aggrieved by the removal of his name from a list of voters, by the rejection of his claim or objection or by the allowance of a claim which he has opposed. Notice of the intention to a peal must be given to the barrister in writing on the day when £15 decision is given. The barrister may refuse to state a case for appeal; but if he does so without due cause he may be ordered by the High Court to state a case. The alppeal is heard by a divisional court, from whose decision an appea lies (by leave either of the divisional court gr cif the court of appeal) to the court of appeal, whose decision is na .

On the completion of the revision the barrister hands the county and borough lists (every page signed and every alteration initialled by him) to the clerk of the county council and the town clerk respectively, to be printed. With the following exceptions the revised lists are to be made up and printed by the 20th of December, and come into force as the register for all urposes on the 1st of January. In the boroughs created by the Loncffm Government Act 1899, the whole register is to be made up and printed by the 20th of October, and to come into force for the purpose of borough elections under the act on the 1st of November. In boroughs subject to the Municipal Corporations Acts, divisions I and 3 of the occupiers' list are to be made up and printed by the 20th of October, and come into force for the purpose of municipal and county council elections on the 1st of November. Corrections ordered in consequence of a successful appeal from a revising barrister are to be made by the officers having the custody of the registers, but a pending appeal does not affect any right of voting. The register in its final form will consist of the lists published on the 1st of August as corrected, with the claims which have been allowed on revision incorporated with them. It is printed in such form that each list and each division of a list for every parish can be separated from the rest for the purpose of making up the parliamentary, local government and parochial registers respectively. The alphabetical order is followed, except in London and some other large towns, where street order is adopted for all except the ownership lists and lists of liverymen and freemen. The parliament register for a parliamentary county will consist of the ownershiprfists for all parishes in the county, and of the lodger lists and divisions 1 and 2 of the occupier lists for parishes within the county and not within a parliamentary borough. The parliamentary register for a parliamentary borough will consist of the lodger lists, of the lists of freehold and burgage tenants (if any), and of divisions I and 2 of the occupier lists for all parishes within the borough, and also of the borough lists (if any) of liverymen or freemen. The local government register for an administrative county will consist of divisions I and 3 of the occupier lists for all parishes in the county, and the burgess roll for a municipal borough of divisions I and 3 of the occu ier lists for all parishes in the borough. It will be seen, therefore, tfiat, exce t in county boroughs, the burgess roll is also a part of the locai) government register of the administrative county within which the borough is situate. The register of parochial electors consists of the complete set of lists for each parish; but this does not include the lists of liverymen and freemen, which, as has been stated, are not parish lists. No one whose name is not on the register can vote at an election. The fact that a man's name is on the register is now so far conclusive of his right that the returning officer is bound to receive his vote. Only two questions may be asked of him when he tenders hIs vote, namely, whether he is the person whose name is on the register, and whether he has voted before at the election. The Reform Act 1832 allowed him to be asked at parliamentary elections whether he retained the qualification for which he had been registered; but the Registration Act 1843 disallowed the question, and made the register conclusive as to the retention of the qualification. When, however, a petition is presented against an election, the register, although conclusive as to the retention of the qualification, does not prevent the court from inquiring into the existence of personal in capacities, arising in connexion with the election or otherwise, and striking off on scrutiny the votes of persons subject thereto, e.g. aliens, infants, or in parliamentary elections peers, &c.

The City of London is not within the Municipal Corporations Acts, and 15 not subject to the general registration law in the formation of its roll of citizens for municipal purposes. But a register of parliamentary, county and parochial electors is made in the "ordinary way(The universities are also exempt from the general law of registration. At Oxford and Cambridge the members of Convocation and the Senate respectively have always formed the parliamentary constituencies; and, as has been already stated, the registers of those members were before 1832, and still are, the parliamentary registers. Similarly, the Reform Act of 1867, which gave parliamentary representation to the university of London, simply enacted that the register of graduates constituting the Convocation should be the parliamentary register of that body. Scotland.-In Scotland the qualifications for local government and parish electors are the same as those for parliamentary voters, the only difference in the registers being in respect of personal in capacities for the parliamentary franchise, incapacity for the other franchises by reason of non-payment of rates, and duplicates. The principal act regulating registration in burghs is 19 & 20 Vict. c. 58, amended in some particulars as to dates by 31 & 32 Vict. c. 48, § 20. County registration, formerly regulated by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 83, has been assimilated to burgh registration by 48 & 49 Vict. c. 3, § 8 (6). The rocedure consists, as in England, of the making and publication oi) lists of voters, the making of claims and objections and the holding of revision courts; but there are important differences of detail. Though the parish is the registration unit, parochial machinery is not used for the formation of the register. The parliamentary lists for a county are made up yearly by one or more of the assessors of the county, and those for a burgh by one or more of the assessors for the burgh, or by the clerk of the commissioners. They are published on the I5t of September; and claims and objections must be sent in by the 21st and are published on the 25th of the same month. Publication is made in burghs by posting on or near the town hall, or in some other conspicuous place, in counties by posting the part relating to each arish on the parish church door, and in both cases giving notice by newspaper advertisement of a place where the lists may be perused. The revision is conducted by the sheriff, the time within which his courts may be held being from the 25th of September to the 16th of October, both days inclusive. An appeal lies to three udges of the Court of Session, one taken from each division of the inner House, and one from the Lords Ordinary of the Outer House. The revised lists are delivered in counties to the sheriff clerk, in burghs to the town clerk, or person to whom the registration duties of town clerk are assigned. The register comes into force for all purposes on the 1st of November.

The municipal register of a ro al burgh which is coextensive, or of that part of a royal burgh which is coextensive with a parliamentary burgh, consists of the parliamentary register with a supplemental list of women who but for their sex would be qualified for the parliamentary vote. The municipal register for a burgh, or for that part of one which is not within a parliamentary burgh, consists of persons possessed of qualifications within the burgh which, if within a parliamentary burgh, would entitle them, or but for their sex would entitle them, to the parliamentary vote. The register of county electors consists of the parliamentary register for a county with the supplemental list, hereafter mentioned; but inasmuch as exemption from or failure to pay the consolidated county rate is a disqualification for the county electors' franchise, the names of persons so disqualified are to be marked with a distinctive mark on the register; as are also the names of persons whose qualifications are situated within a burgh, such marks indicating that the persons to whose names they are attached are not entitled to vote as county electors. Every third year, in preparation for the triennial elections of county and parish councils (casual vacancies being filled up by co-optation), a supplemental list is to be made of peers and women possessed of qualifications which but for their rank and sex would entitle them to parliamentaryvvotes. The register of county electors in a county and the municipal register in a burgh form the registers of parish electors for the parishes comprised in each respectively. Inasmuch, however, as a man is entitled to be registered as a -parish elector in eve parish where he is qualified, duplicate entries are, when requireldj to be made in the register, with distinctive marks to all but one, to indicate that they confer the parish vote only. These distinctive marks and those previously mentioned are to be made in the lists by the assessors, subject to revision by the sheriff. The register is conclusive to the same extent as in England, except that the vote of a parish elector who is one year in arrear in payment of a parish rate is not to be received. The clerk of the parish council is to furnish the returning officer one week before an election with the names of persons so in arrear; and the returning officer is to reject their votes except upon the production of a written receipt. Provision is made by 31 & 32 Vict. c. 48, §§ 27~41, for the formation of registers of parliamentary electors for the universities. The register for each university is to be made annually by the university registrar, with the assistance of two members of the council, from whose decisions an appeal lies to the university court. »

Ireland.-There are no parish councils in Ireland, and no parochial electors. There are therefore but two registers of voters, the parliamentary and the local government registers, the latter of which consists of the former with a local government supplement containing the names of those excluded from the parliamentary register by reason of their being peers or women, and duplicate entries relating to those whose names are registered elsewhere for the same parliamentary constituency. The principal acts regulating registration are 13 & 14 Vict. c. 69, 31 & 32 Vict. c. 112, 48 & 49 Vict. c. 17, and 61 & 62 Vict.c. 2. The lord lieutenant is empowered to make by Order in Council rules for registration, and to prescribe forms; and under this power has made the Registration (Ireland) Rules 1899, now in force. The registration unit is not the parish, but the district electoral division, except where such division is subdivided into wards, or is partly within and partly without any town or ward of a borough or town, in which cases eac ward of the division or part of a division is a separate registration unit.

The procedure is as follows, subject to variation in cases where there are clerks of unions who held office on the 31st of March 1898, and have not agreed to transfer their registration duties. The clerk of the peace sends out on the 1st of June a precept in the form prescribed for county registration to the secretary of the county council and clerks of urban district councils, . together with a copy of the existing register for their county or district; and a precept in the form prescribed for borough registration to town clerks of boroughs. As regards registration units not in a parliamentary or municipal borough, the secretary of the county council or clerk of the urban district council is to put marginal objections, “ dead " or “ objected, ” where required, to £10 occupiers and householders in the copy of the register, both in the parliamentary list and in the local government supplement. He is also to make out supplemental parliamentary and local government lists of £10 occupiers and householders not on the existing register, and to put marginal objections where required to these. He is to verify on oath before a magistrate the copy of the register and supplemental lists, and to return them to the clerk of the peace by the 8th ofjuly. As regards registration units in a parliamentary borough, but outside a municipal borough, the secretary of the county council or clerk of the urban district council is to make out lists of £10 occupiers and householders with local government supplement, and transmit them to the town clerk of time municipal borough or town. The clerk of the peace is to publish the copy of the register, after himself placing marginal objections where required to voters other than £10 occupiers and householders, and the supplemental lists as received, and also the corrupt and illegal practices list, if any, on the 22nd of July. On the same day the'town clerk will publish the lists received as aforesaid for registration units outside the municipal borough, and the lists, which he will have made out himself for the municipal borough, including the freemen's list and corrupt and illegal practices list. Freemen being entitled to the local government vote will, if resident, be placed on the list of the registration unit where they reside, and will, if non-resident, be allotted by the revising barrister among the registration units of the borough for local government purposes in proportion to the number of electors in each registration unit. Claims are to be sent in to the clerk of the peace and town clerk by the 4th of August, including old lodger claims and, in the case of the clerk of the peace, ownership claims. Lists of claimants with marginal objections, where required, are to be published by the clerk of the peace and town clerk by the 11th of August. Notices of objection to voters or claimants may be given by the 20th of August; and lists of persons objected to are to be published by the clerk of the peace and town clerk by the 24th of the same month. i Publication of lists and notices by a clerk of the peace is made by posting copies of those relating to each registration unit outside every court-house, petty sessions court, and other public offices in the unit; publication by a town clerk is made by posting copies outside the town hall, or, if there be none, in some public and conspicuous place in the borough.

Revising barristers are specially appointed for the county and city of Dublin by the lord lieutenant; elsewhere the county court judges and chairmen of quarter sessions act as such ex ojicio, assisted, when necessary, by additional barristers appointed by the lord lieutenant. The time for the holding of revision courts is from the 8th of September to the 25th of October inclusive. An appeal lies to the court of appeal, whose decision is final. The revised lists are handed to the clerk of the peace; they are to be made up b him by the 31st of December, and come into force on the 1st of jianuary.

The registrar. of the university of Dublin is to make out in December a list of the persons entitled to the parliamentary vote for the university, and to print the same in January, and to publish a copy in the university calendar, or in one or more public journals circulating in Ireland. He is to revise the list annually, and expunge the names of those dead or disqualified; but an 'elector whose name has been expunged because he was supposed to be dead is entitled, if alive, to have his name immediately restored and to vote at any election. (L. L. S.)