CHAPTER III. OF THE REVISION. THE mayor and the revision assessors, or their deputies, are to hold an open court every year, between the 1st and the 15th October, for the purpose of revising the burgess lists; of which three clear days' notice, on or near the outer door of the town hall, or in some conspicuous situation in the borough, must be given. At the opening of the court, the town clerk will produce: 1, the overseers' lists; 2, the claims and objections; 3, lists of claims and objections. The parish officers must attend and give necessary information. The mayor will insert in the burgess lists the name of every claimant substantiating his claim, and retain the names of all persons to whom no objection shall have been made. He will expunge the names of all persons properly objected to, who shall fail to establish their qualification; and, without objection, will strike out the names of all dead persons. He may also correct the lists in the following instances: 1, mistake in name; 2, place of abode; 3, description of property; and will disallow all duplicate qualifications, subject to the voter's selection of ward, and in the absence of selection is to retain such person on the ward list in which he resides. The mayor may adjourn the court from time to time, but not beyond the 15th October. He may swear or affirm all witnesses and officers. He must initial all alterations, and sign his name to each page of the lists, when the same will be delivered to the town clerk, who is to keep them, and cause them to be copied into alphabetical ward lists, with every name numbered, by the 22nd October; and these will form the burgess roll of persons entitled to vote at any election between the following and the succeeding 1st November. When a name is expunged at the revision, the party may apply for a mandamus to be placed on the burgess roll; the claimant has to prove his title in all respects (a). The first revision court in a borough is held before the barrister appointed by the charter. Copies of the roll, written or printed, are to be supplied by the town clerk on payment of a reasonable price. (a) Reg. v. Mayor of Harwich, 8 A. & E. 919. CHAPTER IV. OF THE COUNCIL-ELECTION OF COUNCILLORSMAYOR AND ALDERMEN-THE POLL-CORRUPT PRACTICES-ELECTION PETITIONS-DISQUALI FICATIONS-RESIGNATION-AMOTION. THE Council is composed of the mayor, aldermen and councillors, and the numerical strength of the council is specified in the act or charter creating the corporation. All male persons entitled to be on the burgess list, and possessed of real or personal estate, or both, to the following amount, that is to say, in all boroughs divided into four or more wards to the amount of one thousand pounds, or rated to the relief of the poor of such borough upon the annual value of not less than thirty pounds; and in all boroughs divided into less than four wards, or which shall not be divided into wards, to the amount of five hundred pounds, or rated to the relief of the poor in such borough upon the annual value of not less than fifteen pounds, and now, by the Municipal Franchise Act, 1869, resident occupiers, rated as aforesaid, if resident within fifteen miles of the borough, are eligible for councillors. If a borough, consisting of less than four wards, be at any time after 1869 divided into a greater number of wards, the qualification is not to be altered (a). The whole number of the council must be divisible by eight, as a third of the councillors retire every year, and half the aldermen every third year. Persons in holy orders, regular ministers of dissenting congregations, persons holding any office of profit under the council, and persons directly or indirectly interested in any contract or employment with or on behalf of the council, and convicts for bribery, are disqualified; shareholders in lighting, water and insurance companies contracting with the council are not disqualified (b); shareholders and persons interested in any newspaper, in which advertisements appear relating to the borough or council, are not by reason thereof to be deemed contractors (c); and persons interested in any railway company incorporated by act of parliament or royal charter, or under the Companies Act, 1862, are not to be deemed contractors having an interest in a contract or employment with, by or on behalf of the council, by reason of such interest; and are not to be dis (a) 32 & 33 Vict. c. 55, s. 4. qualified from election to municipal offices by reason thereof (d). The election of councillors takes place on the 1st of November every year (Monday supplying the place of Sunday when that occurs), when onethird of the whole number of councillors, or the councillors for each ward, go out of office, being those who shall have been longest in office without re-election, and, where the borough is divided into wards, longest in office in each ward. Persons elected to supply vacancies go out when the persons whose places they fill would have gone out. Before councillors are capable of acting as such (except for the purpose of administering the declaration) they subscribe a declaration before two aldermen or two councillors (e). Vacancies by death, resignation or removal, are to be filled up by election, to be held in ten days after notice to mayor, or town clerk, given by two burgesses. Seven clear days before a municipal election notice is to be given, by the town clerk, on the door of the town hall, and where the borough is divided into wards, in some conspicuous place in the ward for which such election is to be held; (d) 32 & 33 Vict. c. 55. |