Such are the provisions which consti tute what is popularly called, by reference to their most prominent feature, " the ten pound householder qualification." But as in the settling of the places which were thenceforward to elect, and in apportioning the members, the new act made a large compromise with the old system, so also it made no inconsiderable one, for a season at least, in sparing to a certain extent the rights to the parlia mentary franchise grounded on the old titles to borough freedom. In all such cases, however, it imposes the very impor tant condition of residence. It provides that every person who would have been entitled to vote in the election of members for any city or borough as a burgess or freeman, or in the city of London as a freeman and liverrnan, shall be entitled to vote if duly reordered : and that every other person having, previous to the act, a right to vote in the election for any city or borough by virtue of any other quali fication than those already mentioned. shall retain such right so long as he shall be qualified as an elector according to the usages and customs of such city or bo rough, or any law in force at the passing of the act, and shall be entitled to vote if duly registered ; but in both of the above cases it is enacted that no such person shall be so registered unless he shall, on the last day of July, be qualified in such manner as would entitle him then to vote if such day were the day of election ; nor unless for six calendar months previous to that day he shall have resided within such city or borough, or within seven miles from the place where the poll shall heretofore have been taken, or, in the case of a contributory borough, within seven miles of such borough. As regards the second class of voters last mentioned, it is flirther enacted that every such person shall for ever cease to enjoy such right of voting if his name shall have been omit ted for two successive years from the register of parliamentary voters for such city or borough, unless he shall have been so omitted in consequence of his having received parochial relief within twelve calendar months previous to the last day of July in any year, or of his absence on naval or military service.
The expedient to which, to serve party purposes during the agitation of the Re form measure, many of the governing bodies of corporations had resorted, of admitting unusually large numbers of freemen, occasioned the following limita tions of the above reservation of the elective franchise of freemen to be intro duced into the act, viz :—That no person who shall have been elected, made, or admitted a burgess or freeman since March 1, 1831, otherwise than in respect of birth or servitude, or who shall hereafter be so, shall be entitled to vote, § 32 ; that no person shall be entitled as a burgess or freeman in respect of birth, unless his right be originally derived from or through some person who was a burgess or freeman, or was entitled to be admitted as such, before the said 1st of March, 1831, or from some person who since that time shall have become, or shall hereafter become, a burgess or freeman hi respect of servitude, § 32 ; and that no person shall be entitled to vote for any city or borough (except it be a county of itself) in respect of any estate or interest in any burgage tenement or freehold which shall have been acquired by such person since the same 1st of March, 1831, unless it shall have come to such person previously to the passing of this act, by descent, succession, marriage, marriage settlement, devise, or promotion to any benefice or office, § 35.
It is also provided in general that no person shall be entitled to be registered in any year as a voter for any city or borough who shall, within twelve calendar mouths previous to the last day of July in that year, have received parochial relief or other alms which, according to the previously existing law of parliament, disqualified from voting.
SCOTLAND.—Owing to the previous absence of all pretence or shadow of popular suffrage in the Scottish boroughs, the revolution made in their parlia mentary constituencies by the Reform Act of 1832 was effected simply, com pletely, and at once. The franchise is taken from the members of the town councils and their delegates, in whom as such it was before exclusively vested, and a 10/. qualification, by ownership or occupancy, substituted in its place, with the like conditions, as in the English act, of twelve months' previous occupancy, payment of assessed taxes, registration, and non-receipt of parochial relief.
iIIELAND.—In the Irish cities and boroughs the change immediately worked by the Parliamentary Reform Act was relatively greater than in England, owing chiefly to the fact that the municipal corporations of the former country existed in a state yet more thoroughly anomal ous and corrupt than those of England. Here again, the actually existing and the inchoate titles to the parliamentary suffrage being reserved, as in the English act, on condition of residence within seven miles, and honorary freemen created since March 30, 1831, being ex cluded, the 10/. ownership or occupancy qualification is established as the new basis of suffrage, on condition of registra tion with six mouths' previous occupancy and payment of all rates due for more than oue half-year. Reservation was also made, as in the English boroughs, of rights by freehold under 101., when accruing before the passing of the act, by descent, marriage, &c. The clause of the Catholic Emancipation Act, which raised the freehold qualification in coun ties at large to 10/., left it at the old amount of 40s. in the several counties of cities and towns ; but the Reform Act raised it there to the same scale as in the counties at large (only reserving for life the existing 40a. rights', and at the same time gave the parliamentary franchise for such corporate counties to the same classes of leaseholders, and on the same conditions, whom it admitted in the coun ties at large.