who have ceased to have a qualification on the 31st July often appear in such lists.

Proviso as to Boroughs.] It is further provided in sect. 79 that no person shall be entitled to vote at any borough election, unless he shall ever since the 31st day of July, in the year in which his name was inserted in the register of voters have resided, and at the time of voting shall continue to reside within the city or borough or place sharing in the election for the city or borough in the election for which he shall claim to be entitled to vote, or within seven miles thereof."

This distance is to be measured from different points according to the nature of the voter's franchise. If he be a voter under the franchise created by the Reform Act, the seven statute miles are to be measured from the city, borough, or place, or from any part thereof. 2 Wm. 4, c. 45, s. 27. But in the case of a freeman, or person voting under one of the rights reserved, he must continue to reside within seven miles from the place where the poll for such city or borough shall heretofore have been taken. 2 Wm. 4, c. 45, ss. 32, 33.

The mode of measuring is pointed out in 6 Vict. c. 18, s. 76. The distance is to be measured in a straight line on the horizontal plane from the point within any city, &c., from which such distance is to be measured. Provided that when there is an Ordnance map of the city and country surrounding, such distance may be measured and determined by the said map.

Residence.] The question, therefore, may not unfrequently arise whether a voter has ceased to reside. Residence is a matter of fact to be determined according to the particular circumstances in each case.

Where a man sleeps is, in general, his place of resi dence. R. v. Adlard, 4 B. & C. 772.

“The word ' resides' where there is nothing to shew it is used in a more extensive sense, denotes the place where an individual eats, drinks and sleeps, or where his family eat, drink and sleep. Per Bayley, J., R. v. North Curry, 4 B. & C. 959.

A great number of decisions by committees on the meaning of the word "residence" will be found in the reports of election cases. It will be of more advantage to give the decision of the Court of Common Pleas upon the construction of this word in the 27th section of the Reform Act (a). A., a freeman of the borough of Tewkesbury, resided with his wife and family, and carried on his business of wine merchant at Gloucester, more than seven miles from Tewkesbury. He paid 9d. a week for the use of a bed-room and a dark closet in the house of a friend at Tewkesbury, A. keeping the key of the closet, in which he deposited wine samples. He had slept in the bed-room twelve times in the six months before the 31st July. Tindal, C. J.—“I think the facts do not distinctly shew a residence by A., the claimant within the borough of Tewkesbury. I do not mean to say that when the object of a residence is to obtain a vote, that circumstance would detract from the right of the party; but the real question here is, whether the claimant had a real bonâ fide residence in the borough. Now, first of all it is to be observed that the mere payment of rent would not be equivalent to a residence. The residence required by the statute must mean an actual occupation for some part of the

(a) Whithorn v. Thomas, 7 M. & Gr. 1.

time specified by the party himself, or an occupation by his family or servants." Mr. Justice Coltman says,-"It is undoubtedly true that a party may have two or more residences. In this case the claimant had a separate domicil, and the question is, whether there was the animus residendi with respect to the lodging in Tewkesbury." Maule, J.,-"The meaning of the term inhabitant has been considerably extended from what it originally imported, but that is not so with the term resident. There cannot be the smallest doubt that the claimant in this case had not in ordinary language a residence in Tewkesbury." Erle, J.-"I think that in the Reform Act the intention of the Legislature was, that a party who obtained a vote by residing in a borough should have some local interest there--referring to the ordinary meaning of the word residence, as conveying the idea of home. The fact of sleeping at a place by no means constitutes a residence; though, on the other hand, it may not be necessary for the purpose of constituting a residence in any place to sleep there at all. If a man's family are living in a borough, and he is absent for six months, but with the intention of returning, he will still be considered as residing there."

It may be useful here to call attention to some recent decisions by election committees on this subject. In one case the voter was a freeman of Lancaster, a single man, by trade a cabinet maker; he had been in the habit, when work was slack in Lancaster, of going away in search of work. He had left Lancaster about the middle of August, taking his tools with him to seek for work. For several months he wandered about the country as far as Bristol, Winchester and London,

in search of employment. He passed through Lancaster on his way to Penrith, where he had left his tools, a week before the election; and hearing of the election, he took a lodging and remained till it was over, when he started off from Lancaster again. He had no house in Lancaster; when he came there he took lodgings by the week. In support of the vote it was argued, that unless the voter intended to reside somewhere else, he must have had an intention to return to the place which had been his home. The committee held the vote to be good. Wilkinson, 2nd Lane., 1848, Minutes, 20th May, 1 P. R. & D. 167. See also Attwood's case, 1st Harwich, 1 P. R. & D. 306.

It appears to have been assumed on the one side, and admitted on the other, both in the 2nd Lancaster case, 1848, and also in the 1st Harwich, 1848, that a committee has jurisdiction to inquire into the right of a voter to vote, when questioned on the ground of non-residence subsequent to the 31st July. There can be no doubt that this power existed under the Reform Act, and the question is whether it is taken away by the 6 Vict. c. 18, s. 98. There can be little doubt that the framers of the act, as it stood originally, intended to make the register conclusive evidence of the right to vote, except where there had been an express decision by the revising barrister on the particular vote, or when the voter had become subject to some incapacity. The distinction between statutable and other incapacities has been already considered (a).

Looking at the 98th section as defining the power of committees to inquire into the right to vote, where is the authority to question a vote on the ground of (a) Ante, 417.

non-residence? Residence is an ingredient of the qualification. Non-residence is not " an incapacity.' It is clear that throughout the Reform Act and the 6 Vict. c. 18, the expression incapacity is used with reference to the personal status or condition of the voter. If then a committee has a right to inquire into the loss of this ingredient of the qualification, it must be by force of the proviso to the 79th section, which was added in the House of Lords, as was also the one with regard to county voters. Unfortunately no corresponding alteration was then made in the 98th section enlarging the power of a committee on scrutiny to inquire into these two exceptions. But, as before observed, the power to inquire has never yet been questioned. In Wilkinson's, Garth's, and Norman's cases in the 2nd Lancaster, 1 P. R. & D. 167, and in Attwood's case, 1st Harwich, ib. 306, there was no objection taken on either side to the jurisdiction of the committee; and in the last case, Attwood's, the voter was struck off the poll on the ground, as it would appear from the evidence, that he had ceased to reside subsequently to the 31st July. The inconsistency here pointed out does not exist in the Irish Act.

Register conclusive in Ireland.] It is provided by the 13 & 14 Vict. c. 69, s. 85, "that the register shall be deemed and taken to be conclusive evidence that the persons therein named continue to have the qualifications which are annexed to their names respectively in the register in force at such election." And by the 104th section of the same act a select committee can only inquire into the same objections as those already mentioned in the case of English voters. There is this difference, however, that the proviso with regard to