ACT FOR ASCERTAINING THE QUALIFICATION OF VOTING.

The interest of the manufacturers was also consulted in an act encouraging the growth of madder, a plant essentially necessary in dying and printing calicoes, which may be raised in England without the least inconvenience. It was judged, upon inquiry, that the most effectual means to encourage the growth of this commodity would be to ascertain the tithe of it; and a bill was brought in for that purpose. The rate of the tithe was established at five shillings an acre; and it was enacted, that this law should continue in force for fourteen years, and to the end of the next session of parliament; but wherefore this encouragement was made temporary it is not easy to determine.—The laws relating to the poor, though equally numerous and oppressive to the subject, having been found defective, a new clause, relating to the settlement of servants and apprentices, was now added to an act passed in the twentieth year of the present reign, intituled, “An act for the better adjusting and more easily recovering of the wages of certain servants, and of certain apprentices.” No country in the universe can produce so many laws made in behalf of the poor as those that are daily accumulating in England: in no other country is there so much money raised for their support, by private charity, as well as public taxation; yet this, as much as any country, swarms with vagrant beggars, and teems with objects of misery and distress; a sure sign either of misconduct in the legislature, or a shameful relaxation in the executive part of the civil administration.—The scenes of corruption, perjury, riot, and intemperance, which every election for a member of parliament had lately produced, were now grown so infamously open and intolerable, and the right of voting was rendered so obscure and perplexed by the pretensions and proceedings of all the candidates for Oxfordshire in the last election, that the fundamentals of the constitution seemed to shake, and the very essence of parliaments to be in danger. Actuated by these apprehensions, sir John Philips, a gentleman of Wales, who had long distinguished himself in the opposition by his courage and independent spirit, moved for leave to bring in a bill that should obviate any doubts which might arise concerning the electors of knights of the shire to serve in parliament for England, and further regulate the proceedings of such elections. He was accordingly permitted to bring in such a bill, in conjunction with Mr. Townshend, Mr. Cornwall, and lords North and Craysfort; and in the usual course, the bill being prepared, was enacted into a law, under the title of, “An act for further explaining the laws touching the electors of knights of the shire to serve in parliament for that part of Great Britain called England.” The preamble specified, that though, by an act passed in the eighteenth year of the present reign, it was provided, that no person might vote at the election of a knight or knights of a shire within England and Wales, without having a freehold estate in the county for which he votes, of the clear yearly value of forty shillings, over and above all rents and charges, payable out of or in respect to the same; nevertheless, certain persons, who hold their estates by copy of court-roll, pretend to a right of voting, and have at certain times presumed to vote at such elections; this act, therefore, ordained, that from and after the twenty-ninth day of June in the present year, no person who holds his estate by copy of court-roll should be entitled thereby to vote at the election of any knight or knights of a shire within England or Wales; but every such vote should be void, and the person so voting should forfeit fifty pounds to any candidate for whom such vote should not have been given, and who should first sue for the same, to be recovered with full costs, by action of debt, in any court of judicature.*

* For the more easy recovery of this forfeit, it was
enacted, that the plaintiff in such action might only set
forth, in the declaration or hill, that the defendant was
indebted to him in the sum of fifty pounds, alleging the
offence for which the suit should be brought, and that the
defendant had acted contrary to this act, without mentioning
the writ of summons to parliament, or the return thereof;
and, upon trial of any issue, the plaintiff should not be
obliged to prove the writ of summons to parliament, or the
return thereof, or any warrant or authority to the sheriff
upon any such writ; that every such action should be
commenced within nine months after the fact committed; and
that, if the plaintiff should discontinue his action, or be
non-suited, or have judgment given against him, the
defendant should recover treble costs.

So far the act, thus procured, may be attended with salutary consequences; but, in all probability, the intention of its first movers and patrons was not fully answered; inasmuch as no provision was made for putting a stop to that spirit of license, drunkenness, and debauchery, which prevails at almost every election, and has a very pernicious effect upon the morals of the people.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760