§ MR. HARRY FOSTERI beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the number of electors on the Register, as stated in the Parliamentary Election Return, 1892, made by the Home Office, is based in all cases upon the following principle—namely, not upon the enumeration of the list, but upon a deduction therefrom of the starred or duplicate voters; and whether he will state to the House his authority for the opinion that the maximum expenditure under the Corrupt Practices Act, 1884, is regulated, not by the enumeration of the list of electors, but by the deduction therefrom of the starred or duplicate voters?
§ MR ASQUITHThe materials for the Return were supplied by the Local Authorities; but I have every reason to believe that the answer to the first paragraph is in the affirmative. As to the second paragraph, I have no authority to pronounce a decision as to the law, nor should I have presumed to express an opinion on the subject unless the hon. Member had by his question invited me to do so. My opinion was based upon what I believe to be the true construction of the material enactments in the Corrupt Practices Act, 1883, the Registration Act, 1885, and the County Electors Act, 1888.