§ SIR JAMES FERGUSSONsaid, he would beg to ask the Lord Advocate, Whether, as under the provisions of the Representation of the People (Scotland) Bill the only persons to be qualified to vote in the Election of Members of Parliament are—1, Proprietors of lands or houses worth £5 a year; 2, Tenants of lands and houses held under the same landlord, and rented at £10 a year, provided they reside in the county for six months in each year; it is intended to disfranchise the following descriptions of existing voters:—1, The old freeholders; 2, Joint life-renters; 3, Liferent tenants who have sublet their farms; 4, Tenants not resident in the county; 5, Tenants of lands who live in houses belonging to separate proprietors; 6, Tenants of minerals, quarries, fisheries, &c. which have no houses attached to them; 7, Joint proprietors or tenants, where there are more than two on the same property; and, whether new voters may under this Bill be registered upon such qualifications as entitle persons to vote under the existing Acts?
§ THE LORD ADVOCATEsaid, he thought the questions of his hon. Friend 729 would have been put on Monday next, when the Bill would come on for a second reading. Most of the questions in his (the Lord Advocate's) opinion might have been answered by a study of the Bill itself, and he would recommend his hon. Friend to adopt that course. The only explanation he thought it necessary to make was in regard to the tenancy franchise. It was not intended that the residency clause should apply to any of the old tenancy franchises under the Reform Act. They were all arranged by reference to the valuation roll, and if there was any ambiguity in regard to residence it would be put right. It was not intended that the residence clause should apply to the old franchises, but only to the new franchises.