the Commons House for the whole United Kingdom, including Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, shall, from and after the 15th day of June next, be Six Hundred and Fiftyeight, whereof England shall return 442; Wales 28; Scotland, 58; and Ireland, 127. any sense contravene, or disagree with, it is hereby further enacted, that the this Act, should be wholly repealed, number of representatives to serve in and annulled, and that the manner of electing the members to serve in the Commons House of Parliament, and all matters and things respecting the same, and touching the future duration of Parliaments, be new modelled on the principles of the English Constitution, agreeably to the ancient and`unalienable rights and liberties of the people, as by this present statute those rights and liberties are declared, claimed, insisted upon and enacted. May it therefore please your Majesty, that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, and it is accordingly enacted, I. That all future elections of Representatives of the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to serve in Parliament shall be made according to the provisions and regulations of this act, and not otherwise, and that all other acts, laws, customs, and usages, now in force or practice, which are contrary to, or unaccordant with this act, or such parts or part of any such act, law, custom or practice as in respect of such elections are so contrary or unaccordant, shall be, and the same are, hereby repealed, annulled, and made void to all intents and purposes whatsoever. III. And it is hereby further enacted, that the present Parliament shall not have continuance beyond the 15th day of June, 1818, but shall by virtue of this Act on that day be dissolved and expire; any thing in any statute, usage, practice or prerogative whatsoever to the contrary, notwithstanding. IV. And it is hereby further enacted, that every male commoner, having attained the full age of eighteen years, with no other exception whatever than of infants, of the insane, and of such persons às shall by sentence of law, have forfeited the 'electoral franchise, shall be entitled to, and enjoy the right of suffrage in the election of a representative to serve his electoral district in Parliament: that is to say, in the parish or place of his residence, and where he hath regularly dwelt for the space of three months, prior to the day of election; so as to be known to the keeper or keepers of the Electoral Register of such parish or place, and to have gone through all the forms of being enregistered according to law. V. And it is hereby further enacted, that all sailors and soldiers, being .. II. And be it further enacted, and natives of the United Kingdom, and 141] there shall be a new election in the Commons House of Parliament once in every year. VII. And it is hereby further enacted, that, to the end of as equal a distribution of representation throughout England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland respectively as shall be practicable, the several Counties or Shires thereof where the inhabitants in proportion to number are entitled to more than one representative, shall be so divided (as hereinafter provided) into Electoral Districts, to be called Elec members of the state (whose duties and liberties of their country, necessarily prevent a regular residence at their respective homes) shall have a right of suffrage in the parishes or places where they shall happen to have been upon duty, for one entire month next before the day of election: but, in order to the exercise of such suffrage, when from their proper homes, it shall be necessary, that complete lists of such sailors or soldiers respectively who may be on duty in any parish, other than that of their proper home, be delivered to the keeper or keepers of the Electoral Register three days at the least prior to the day of election, by the com-torates, as that each of such districts, manding officer of such sailors or sol- in due proportion to its population, diers respectively, certifying, under compared with the entire County popu his hand and seal, the correctness of lation, shall be entitled to, and shall such list, and the truth respecting such separately elect one representative, and nativity and such residence; and, every such county or shire the inhabiwith regard to sailors, it shall make tants of which shall be entitled to no no difference whether they shall be more than one representative, shall of serving in the public or the private itself constitute, for the purposes of marine of the United Kingdom. And, this Act, only one Electorate. at the time of election, such lists of sailors or soldiers, or both, shall be in the nature of occasional supple-enacted, that where, by reason of an ments to the Electoral Registers; and the parties being called over by such supplemental lists, next after the regular inhabitants, as hereinafter directed, shall have their suffrage accordingly. VI. And it is hereby further enacted, that for effectually securing to the rising generations in all time to come, their sacred and indefeasible right of inheriting, as they successively attain to manhood, that most valuable of all properties-their property in the Constitution, and in the rights VIII. And it is hereby further insufficiency of inhabitants, or other cause, a tolerably equal division into Electorates of proper numbers cannot otherwise be effected, it may in the first place be lawful to view two more adjoining counties as one grand district, divisible into Electorates, and so to divide them accordingly. or IX. And it is hereby further enacted, that by the royal assent to this Act given, his Majesty sbali be understood to command all such of his ministers and servants, whose services shall be required in carrying the same into execution, to be diligent in the performance of that duty; wherefore, with all convenient dispatch, but within twenty-eight days at the furthest from and after the passing of this Act, the principal Secretary of State for the Home department, do transmit to the High Sheriff of each county of the United Kingdom, one copy of this Act, together with three copies of that part of the census, of the year 1811, entitled "Abstract of the answers and returns made pursuant to an Act passed in the 51st year of "H, M. K. Geo. III. entitled, An "Act for taking an account of the "population of Great Britain, and of "the increase or diminution there"of," which shall give such, sheriff the population of his county and of the several parts thereof. X. And on receipt of the said Acts and the said Abstract, such High Sheriff shall, without loss of time, give all necessary orders and instructions to his Under Sheriff, or to his Sheriff depute, and to the Clerk of the Peace, to the end of so forming his county into one or more Electorate or Electorates, and, as he shall see occasion, he shall also at his discretion require the attendance from time to time and at such place or places as to him shall appear necessary, of the justices of the peace, either of the whole county or of any part or division of the same, who are hereby required to be aiding and assisting to such High Sheriff in the premises. * XI. And it is hereby further en- of the Return. may hold any office, sinecure, commission, or place of profit under the Duke of Lancaster, or Duke of Cornwall, or under any Peer of the Realm, or under any Court of Equity or Law, or Ecclesiastical Court, or ecclesias.. tical officer, shall be, and is hereby disqualified from, and rendered and declared incapable of serving in the Commons House of Parliament, or of being thereunto elected; and if any member of the said House should accept of any such disqualifying office, or emolument aforesaid, he shall forthwith declare the same by letter to the Speaker. But if any Member shall secretly accept of any such disqualifying office or emolument, and not within three days so communicate the same to the Speaker, he shall thenceforth for ever be utterly incapable of holding any office or emolument whatever under the Crown, or a Seat in the Commons House as a Representative of the People; and shall moreover forfeit the sum of one hundred pounds for every time he shall afterwards enter the House under the pretended character of a Representative; one half of such forfeiture to go to the informer, and the other half to the Fund, for paying the wages of the members of the House. XXII. On the Third Monday of May, Writs of Election to issue to the Recorders of Electorates. XXIII. New Form of Writ. XXIV. On the 15th of June in every year, the Recorder of each Electorate to give Notice of the approaching Day of Nomination, and of the general Assembly, or Folkmote, to | Recorder empowered to administer be holden on that day; and also, oaths. Notice of the Day of Appointment, or Election. Substance of such Notice, as follows: "Take notice, that a ge. "neral assembly or Folicmote of the "electors of this Electorate will be ❝ holden at at nine o'Clock "in the forenoon of Monday, the day of this month, being the "last Monday of June, for considering "how the Parliamentary service of "this Electorate for the year, which "this day expired, has been per"formed; and likewise for the con"sideration and nomination of fit persons, out of whom one may 66 XXIX. And it is hereby further enacted, that as soon as the afore. said offices of the Electorate shall have been so organized as aforesaid, and the officers to fill them elected, the Folkmote shall immediately proceed to take into its consideration how the service of the Electorate hath been performed in Parliament for the preceding year; a discussion on which subject, for preserving the decorum becoming a free people deliberating on the conduct of retired legislators, and on the rights and liberties intended to be secured to them by the Constitution of their country, shall only be propounded with temper and "And also take notice, that on gravity in set forms of words, that is "Sunday, the day of July, being to say: That (A. B. Esq.) as Re"the second Sunday after the day of presentative in Parliament of this "nomination, the election of a Re-Electorate, during the year ending "be chosen to serve in Parliament "for the year now next ensuing. 66 6 6 presentative to serve in Parliament, on the 15th day of this month, de"will be made by taking the votes of 6 serves well of his constituents;' or, "the electors in their several parishes, that (A. B. Esq.) as Representative 66 or other places of residence." in Parliament of this Electorate, 'during the year ending on the 15th XXV. Organization of the Folk-day of this month, hath not in carred mote. XXVI. The same continued. The Recorder to be Returning Officer of Election, and President of the Court of Precognition and Redress. XXVII. The same continued. A Deputy Recorder to be appointed. XXX. And such inquiry into the past conduct of Representatives being of high import to the nation in geneXXVIII. The same continued. A ral, as well as to each Electoral body Jury of Suffrage, and a Court of Pre-in particular, it shall not in any wise cognition and Redress, to be consti- be omitted; wherefore to the end of tuted. A Chief Constable to be elected. its being with certainty brought for |