Page:EB1911 - Volume 23.djvu/61

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44
REGIUM

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.)


REGIUM (Gr. Ῥήγιον: in Latin the aspirate is omitted), a city of the territory of the Bruttii in South Italy, on the east side of the strait between Italy and Sicily (Strait of Messina).