REGISTRATION OF ELECTORS. (Hansard, 2 March 1836)

Mr. Miles

presented a Petition from the Electors of a Hundred in East Somerset, complaining that by the decision of the Revising Barristers there they had been disfranchised, though in every respect entitled to the right of voting. This petition was only one of a class, as his hon. colleague was intrusted with a great number of petitions from the same division of the county, containing the same complaints. Indeed, so complete and general had been 1133 the disfranchisement of the electors in that county in consequence of the decision alluded to, that he thought a clause should be introduced into the Registry Bill at present before the House, with an ex post facto operation, so as to make the list of 1834 answer there. Not less than 1,200 qualified electors had been disfranchised by the decision of the Revising Barristers in that county. The case 1o which the present petition referred was this:— One overseer signed the list, and he took it to the other overseer to put his signature to it. The latter not being able at the time, owing to illness, to write his name, requested his brother overseer to do it for him, which he accordingly did in his presence and by his authority. When the list came before the Revising Barristers, they asked the usual question of the overseers, namely, whether their signatures were in their handwriting, and as one of them was obliged to answer in the negative, they rejected the list.