§ Order for Committee read.
§ MR. DUNLOPsaid, he had to move an Instruction to the Committee relative to elections in burghs. By the Scotch Reform Act the time for taking the poll was confined to two days in counties, and one in boroughs. While the poll occupied two days, there was an obvious propriety in forbidding the poll to commence on a Saturday; but the time having been reduced to one day, there was no reason why it should not take place on that day.
§ MR. FORBES MACKENZIEsaid, he thought the proposal was beyond the scope and title of the Bill.
§ MR. SPEAKERsaid, the effect of the Motion would be to give the Committee power, if they thought fit, to introduce boroughs. If they did so, of course the title of the Bill would be altered.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Instruction to the Committee, that they have power to extend to Elections in Burghs the provisions for repealing so much of the Act 2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 65, as enact that no poll shall be directed to begin on a Saturday; the provision that no poll shall begin on a Monday; and the provisions as to the order and manner of polling.
§ MR. DUNLOPthen moved the insertion of words to carry his proposal into effect.
§ House in Committee.
§ Clause 1.
§ MR. ELLIOTproposed, after the word "days," in line 13, to insert so much of the twenty-seventh section of the same Act as enacts that every voter shall poll at the polling places of the district within which the premises, or any part of them in respect of which he claims to vote, may be situate, except only where such polling places shall be in an island, distant more than ten miles from the main land of any county, in which case the voters not resident in such island may poll at the polling place for the district in which the county town is included; and also so much of the same section as enacts that polling places shall in no case be more in number than fifteen for any one county.
§ MR. FORBES MACKENZIEsaid, he thought that if voters were allowed to poll out of the district in which their property was situated, the door would be opened to personation.
§ MR. ELLIOTsaid, he did not propose to go even so far as the English law went; for he confined the permission to the district in which the elector resided. He thought that that would be found a sufficient remedy against the danger of preventing personation.
§ Amendment agreed to; Clause agreed to.
§ Clause 2.
§ MR. FORBES MACKENZIEsaid, he begged to move, as an Amendment to this clause, the omission of certain words which gave the Lord Advocate power on appeal to appoint polling places, and to propose that the appeal should be vested in the Sheriff's Registration Appeal Court.
§ Amendment proposed, in page 1, lines 14 and 15, to leave out the words "with the consent of Her Majesty's Advocate for Scotland for the time being."
§ MR. CRAUFURDsaid, it was quite possible that the present Registration Appeal Courts might soon be done away with, and it would hardly be advisable to intrust to them powers of this kind.
§ MR. FERGUSlooked upon the Registration Appeal Court as a very unfit court to settle questions of this nature.
§ Question put, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the clause."
§ The Committee divided:—Ayes 64; Noes 53: Majority 11.
§ Clause agreed to; as was also Clause 3.
§ Clause 4, which directed the poll to be kept open only one day, and that there should be no polling on a Monday,
MR. HUMEsaid, he did not see why polling should not take place on Monday, or why there should be a different state of the law in Scotland from what existed in England.
§ MR. FORBES MACKENZIEthought that if Monday were to be omitted as a polling day, it would sometimes have the effect of increasing unnecessarily the period of an election contest.
§ MR. DUNLOPsaid, that if the poll commenced at eight o'clock on Monday morning, the Lord's day previous must be spent in making preparations, and even in travelling. This was no mere matter of feeling, but one of serious import, and he earnestly trusted the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Elliot) would persevere with the clause.
§ Amendment proposed, in page 3, line 19, to leave out the words "shall be directed to begin on Monday, or"
MR. LOCKHARTsaid, he must remind the Committee that in Scotland persons could not travel by railway on Sunday as they could in England.
MR. HUMEThat is your own fault. The trains had been shut up on Sunday, but in such places as Glasgow, it would be better if they would try to put down drinking. They had a monomania on this subject in Scotland; but he maintained that railways were for the general benefit of the community, and ought not to be closed at the instance of individual bigots, to the exclusion of the rights of others.
§ Question put, "That the words proposed to be left out stand part of the clause."
§ The Committee divided;—Ayes 60; Noes 71: Majority 11.
§ Clause agreed to.
§ House resumed.
§ Bill reported.