5 Anne, c. 8.

dignities and honours, out of their own number, and that by open election and plurality of voices of the peers present, and of the proxies for such as shall be absent, the said proxies being peers, and producing a mandate in writing duly signed before witnesses, and both the constituent and proxy being qualified according to law; declaring also, That such peers as are absent, being qualified as aforesaid, may send to all such meetings lists of the peers whom they judge fittest, validly signed by the said absent peers, which shall be reckoned in the same manner as if the parties had been present, and given in the said list; and in case of the death, or legal incapacity of any of the said sixteen peers, that the aforesaid peers of Scotland shall nominate another of their own number, in place of the said peer or peers, in mannner before and aftermentioned: And that of the said And also the forty-five representatives of Scotland in the House of Commons in the Parforty-five re- liament of Great Britain, thirty shall be chosen by the shires or steuartries, presentatives. and fifteen by the royal burrows, as follows, viz. one for every shire and steuartry, excepting the shires of Bute and Cathness, which shall choose one by turns, Bute having the first election; the shires of Nairn and Cromarty, which shall also choose by turns, Nairn having the first election; and in like manner the shires of Clackmanan and Kinross shall choose by turns, Clackmanan having the first election; and in case of the death or legal incapacity of any of the said members from the respective shires or steuarties above-mentioned, to sit in the House of Commons, it is enacted and ordained, That the shire or steuartry, who elected the said member, shall elect another member in his place; and that the said fifteen representatives for the royal burrows be chosen as follows, viz. That the town of Edinburgh shall have right to elect and send one member to the Parliament of Great Britain; and that each of the other burghs shall elect a commissioner in the same manner as they are now in use to elect commissioners to the Parliament of Scotland, which commissioners and burghs (Edinburgh excepted) being divided in fourteen classes or districts, shall meet at such time and burghs within their respective districts, as her Majesty, her heirs or successors shall appoint, and elect one for each district, viz. The burghs of Kirkwall, Week, Dornock, Dingwall, and Taine, one; the burghs of Fortrose, Inverness, Nairn, and Forress, one; the burghs of Elgin, Cullen, Banff, Inverury and Kintore, one; the burghs of Aberdeen, Inverbervy, Montrose, Aberbrothock, and Brochine, one; the burghs of Forfar, Perth, Dundee, Coupar, and St. Andrews, one; the burghs of Craill, Kilrennie, Anstruther Easter, Anstruther Wester, and Pittenweem, one; the burghs of Dysart, Kirkaldie, Kinghern, and Bruntisland, one; the burghs of Innerkithen, Dunfermline, Queensferry, Culross, and Sterling, one; the burghs of Glasgow, Renfrew, Ruglen, and Dumbarton, one; the burghs of Haddington, Dunbarr, North Berwick, Lauder, and Jedburgh, one; the burghs of Selkirk, Peebles, Linlithgow, and Lanerk, one; the burghs of Dumfries, Sunquhar, Annan, Lockmaben, and Kirkcudbright, one; the burghs of Wigtoun, New Galloway, Stranraver, and Whitehern, one; and the burghs of Air, Irvin, Rothesay, Cambletoun, and Inverary, one: And it is hereby declared and ordained, That where the votes of the commissioners for the said burghs, met to choose representatives from their several districts to the Parliament of Great Britain, shall be equal, in that case the president of the meeting shall have a casting or decisive vote, and that by and according to his vote as a commissioner from the burgh from which he is sent; the commissioner from the eldest burgh presiding in the first meeting, and the commissioners from the other burghs in their respective districts presiding afterwards by turns, in the order as the said burghs are now called in the rolls of the Parliament of Scotland; and that in case any of the said fifteen commissioners from burghs shall decease or become legally incapable to sit in the House of Commons, then the town of Edinburgh, or the district which chose the said member, shall elect a member in his or their place: It is always hereby expressly provided and declared, That none shall be capable to elect or be elected for any of the said estates, but such as are twenty-one years of age compleat, and protestant, excluding all papists, or such who being suspect of popery, and required, refuse to swear and subscribe the formula contained in the third Act made

Class I.]

The Union Acts.-Scotland.

5 Anne,

c. 8.

in the eighth and ninth sessions of King William's Parliament, intituled, Act for preventing the Growth of Popery; and also declaring, that none shall be capable to elect, or be elected, to represent a shire or burgh in the Parliament of Great Britain, for this part of the united kingdom, except such as are now capable by the laws of this kingdom, to elect, or be elected as commissioners for shires or burghs to the Parliament of Scotland: And further, her Majesty, with advice and consent aforesaid, for the effectual and orderly election of the persons to be chosen to sit, vote, and serve in the respective houses of the Parliament of Great Britain, when her Majesty, her heirs and successors, shall declare her or their pleasure for holding the first or any subsequent Parliament of Great Britain, and when for that effect a writ shall be issued out under the great seal of the united kingdom, directed to the privy council of Scotland, conform to the said twenty-second article, statutes, enacts, and ordains, That until the Parliament of Great Britain shall make further provision therein, the said writ shall contain a warrant and command to the said privy council, to issue out a proclamation in her Majesty's name, requiring the peers of Scotland, for the time, to meet and assemble at such time and place within Scotland, as her Majesty and royal successors shall think fit, to make election of the said sixteen peers, and requiring the lord clerk register, or two of the clerks of session, to attend all such meetings, and to administer the oaths that are or shall be by law required, and to ask the votes; and having made up the list in the presence of the meeting, to return the names of the sixteen peers chosen (certified under the subscription of the said lord clerk register, clerk or clerks of session attending) to the clerk of the privy council of Scotland, and in like manner requiring and ordaining the several freeholders in the respective shires and steuartries, to meet and convene at the head burghs of their several shires and steuartries, to elect their commission- 16 Geo. 2. c. ers, to conform to the order above set down, and ordaining the clerks of 11. the said meetings immediately after the said elections are over, respectively to return the names of the persons elected to the clerks of the privy council: And lastly, ordaining the city of Edinburgh to elect their commissioner, and the other royal burrows to elect each of them a commissioner, as they have been in use to elect commissioners to the Parliament, and to send the said respective commissioners at such times, to such burghs, within their respective districts, as her Majesty and successors by such proclamation shall appoint; requiring and ordaining the common clerk of the respective burghs, where such election shall be appointed to be made, to attend the said meetings, and immediately after the election to return the name of the person so elected (certified under his hand) to the clerk of privy council, to the end that the names of the sixteen peers, thirty commissioners for shires, and fifteen commissioners for burghs, being so returned to the privy council, may be returned to the court from whence the writ did issue under the great seal of the united kingdom, conform to the said twenty-second article: And whereas by the said twentysecond article it is agreed, That if her Majesty shall on or before the first day of May next declare, that it is expedient the Lords and Commons of the present Parliament of England, should be the members of the respective houses of the first Parliament of Great Britain, for and on the part of England, they shall accordingly be the members of the said respective houses, for and on the part of England; her Majesty, with advice and consent aforesaid, in that case only, doth hereby statute and ordain, That the sixteen peers, and forty-five commissioners for shires and burghs, who shall be chosen by the peers, barons, and burghs respectively, in this present session of Parliament, and out of the members thereof, in the same manner as committees of Parliament are usually now chosen, shall be the members of the respective houses of the said first Parliament of Great Britain, for and on the part of Scotland. Which nomination and election being certified by a writ under the lord clerk register's hand, the persons so nominated and elected shall have right to sit and vote in the House of Lords, and in the House of Commons, of the said first Parliament of Great Britain.

XIII. As by the said Act passed in Scotland, for settling the manner of Act aforesaid electing the sixteen peers, and forty-five members, to represent Scotland in declared valid.

5 Anne,
c. 8.

The Union Acts.-Ireland.

the Parliament of Great Britain, may appear; Be it therefore further enact[Part VIII. ed and declared by the authority aforesaid, That the said last-mentioned Act passed in Scotland for settling the manner of electing the sixteen peers, and forty-five members, to represent Scotland in the Parliament of Great Britain, as aforesaid, shall be, and the same is hereby declared to be as valid as if the same had been part of, and engrossed in the said articles of Union ratified and approved by the said Act of Parliament of Scotland, and by this Act, as aforesaid.

PART VIII.-CLASS II.

40 Geo. III. c. 67.

Preamble.

The parliaments of Eng land and Ireland have agreed upon the articles following:

That Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon Jan. 1, 1801, be unit. ed into one

40 Geo. III. c. 67.-An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.—[July 2nd 1800.]

WHEREAS in pursuance of his Majesty's most gracious recommenda

tion to the two houses of Parliament in Great Britain and Ireland respectively, to consider of such measures as might best tend to strengthen and consolidate the connection between the two kingdoms, the two houses of Parliament of Great Britain and the two houses of Parliament of Ireland have severally agreed and resolved, that, in order to promote and secure the essential interests of Great Britain and Ireland, and to consolidate the strength, power, and resources of the British empire, it will be adviseable to concur in such measures as may best tend to unite the two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland into one kingdom, in such manner, and on such terms and conditions, as may be established by the acts of the respective Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland.

And whereas, in furtherance of the said resolution, both houses of the said two Parliaments respectively have likewise agreed upon certain articles for effectuating and establishing the said purposes, in the tenor following: ARTICLE I.

That it be the first article of the Union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, that the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, and for ever after, be united into one kingdom, by the name of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and that the royal stile and titles appertaining to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom and its dependencies; and also the enappertaining to signs, armorial flags and banners thereof, shall be such as his Majesty, by the crown, &c. his royal proclamation under the great seal of the united kingdom, shall shall be such be pleased to appoint. as his Majesty

kingdom; and

that the titles

shall be pleased to appoint.

That the succession to the crown shall

continue limited and settled as at present.

That the united kingdom be represented in

oneparliament.

ARTICLE II.

That it be the second article of Union, that the succession to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom, and of the dominions thereunto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same manner as the succession to the imperial crown of the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now stands limited and settled, according to the existing laws, and to the terms of Union between England and Scotland.

ARTICLE III.

That it be the third article of Union, that the said united kingdom be represented in one and the same Parliament, to be stiled The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

ARTICLE IV.

40 Geo. III.

c. 67.

That the num

ber of lords spiritual and

That it be the fourth article of Union, that four lords spiritual of Ireland by rotations of sessions, and twenty-eight lords temporal of Ireland elected for life by the peers of Ireland, shall be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the house of lords of the Parliament of the united kingdom; and one hundred commoners (two for each county of Ireland, two temporal, and for the city of Dublin, two for the city of Cork, one for the university of of commoners, Trinity College, and one for each of the thirty-one most considerable herein specicities, towns, and boroughs), be the number to sit and vote on the part of fied, shall sit Ireland in the house of commons of the Parliament of the united kingdom: and vote on the part of Ireland

in the parliament of the united kingdom.

That such Act as shall be passed in the Parliament of Ireland previous That such Act to the Union, to regulate the mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Tem- as shall be poral, and Commons, to serve in the Parliament of the united kingdom on passed in Irethe part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parlia- land to regument, shall be considered as forming part of the treaty of Union, and shall late the mode of summoning be incorporated in the Act of the respective Parliaments by which the said and returning Union shall be ratified and established: the lords and commoners

to serve in the parliament of the united kingdom, shall be considered as part of the treaty of Union.

That all questions touching the rotation or election of Lords Spiritual That all quesor Temporal of Ireland to sit in the Parliament of the united kingdom, tions touching shall be decided by the house of lords thereof; and whenever, by reason the rotation or of an equality of votes in the election of any such Lords Temporal, a com- election of lords plete election shall not be made according to the true intent of this article, sit in the unitof Ireland to the names of those peers for whom such equality of votes shall be so given, ed parliament shall be written on pieces of paper of a similar form, and shall be put into shall be dea glass, by the clerk of the Parliaments at the table of the house of lords cided by the whilst the house is sitting; and the peer or peer whose name or names house of lords shall be first drawn out by the clerk of the Parliaments, shall be deemed thereof. the peer or peers elected, as the case may be :

mons of the

That any person holding any peerage of Ireland now subsisting, or here- That any peer after to be created, shall not thereby be disqualified from being elected to of Ireland may serve, if he shall so think fit, or from serving or continuing to serve, if he be elected to shall so think fit, for any county, city, or borough of Great Britain, in the serve in the house of commons of the united kingdom, unless he shall have been privi- house of comously elected as above, to sit in the house of lords of the united kingdom; but that so long as such peer of Ireland shall so continue to be a member of the house of commons, he shall not be entitled to the privilege of peerage, nor be capable of being elected to serve as a peer on the part of Ireland, or of voting at any such election; and that he shall be liable to be sued, indicted, proceeded against, and tried as a commoner, for any offence with which he may be charged:

united kingpreviously dom, unless elected to sit in the house of lords, but shall

not be entitled to the privilege of peerage, &c.

That it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to His Majesty create peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, and to make may create promotions in the peerage thereof, after the Union; provided that no new peers, and creation of any such peers shall take place after the Union until three of make promothe peerages of Ireland, which shall have been existing at the time of the tions in the Union, shall have become extinct; and upon such extinction of three peer- land after the peerage of Ireages, that it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create Union, under one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland; and in like manner certain regulaso often as three peerages of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland tions. shall become extinct, it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one other peer of the said part of the united kingdom; and if it shall happen that the peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, shall, by extinction of peerages or otherwise, be reduced to the number of one hundred, exclusive of all such peers of that part of the

40 Geo. III. united kingdom called Ireland, as shall hold any peerage of Great Britain c. 67. subsisting at the time of the Union, or of the united kingdom, created since the Union, by which such peers shall be entitled to an hereditary seat in the house of lords of the united kingdom, then and in that case it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, as often as any one of such one hundred peerages shall fail by extinction, or as often as any one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland shall become entitled, by descent or creation, to an hereditary seat in the house of lords of the united kingdom; it being the true intent and meaning of this article, that at all times after the Union, it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to keep up the peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland to the number of one hundred, over and above the number of such of the said peers as shall be entitled, by descent or creation, to an hereditary seat in the house of lords of the united kingdom:

Peerages in abeyance to be deemed existing peerages, and no peerage to be deemed extinct but on default of claim

for a year after the death of the late possessor.

That if any peerage shall at any time be in abeyance, such pecrage shall be deemed and taken as an existing peerage; and no peerage shall be deemed extinct, unless on default of claimants to the inheritance of such peerage for the space of one year from the death of the person who shall have been last possessed thereof; and if no claim shall be made to the inheritance of such peerage, in such form and manner as may from time to time be prescribed by the house of lords of the united kingdom, before the expiration of the said period of a year, then and in that case such peerage shall be deemed extinct; provided that nothing herein shall exclude any person from afterwards putting in a claim to the peerage so decmed extinct; and if such claim shall be allowed as valid, by judgement of the house of lords of the united kingdom, reported to his Majesty, such riod made and peerage shall be considered as revived; and in case any new creation of a peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, shall have taken place in the interval, in consequence of the supposed extinction of such peerage, then no new right of creation shall accrue to his Majesty, his heirs or successors, in consequence of the next extinction which shall take place of any peerage of that part of the united kingdom called

If a claim be after that pe

allowed, and a new creation shall have taken place in the interval, no new right of creation shall

Ireland:

accrue to his Majesty on the next extinction of a peerage.

Questions touching the election of

members to sit

in the house of

commons of the unitedkingdom

on the part of

Ireland shall

That all questions touching the election of members to sit on the part of Ireland in the house of commons of the united kingdom shall be heard and decided in the same manner as questions touching such elections in Great Britain now are, or at any time hereafter shall by law be heard and decided; subject nevertheless to such particular regulations in respect of Ireland as, from local circumstances, the Parliament of the united kingdom may from time to time deem expedient:

be decided as questions touching such elections in Great Britain;

and their qualifications in

respect of property shall be the same as in England.

When his Majesty shall declare his plea sure for holding a parliament of the united kingdom, a procla

mation shall

That the qualifications in respect of property of the members elected on the part of Ireland to sit in the house of commons of the united kingdom, shall be respectively the same as are now provided by law in the cases of elections for counties and cities and boroughs respectively in that part of Great Britain called England, unless any other provision shall hereafter be made in that respect by Act of Parliament of the united kingdom:

That when his Majesty, his heirs or successors, shall declare his, her, or their pleasure for holding the first or any subsequent Parliament of the united kingdom, a proclamation shall issue, under the great seal of the united kingdom, to cause the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, who are to serve in the Parliament thereof on the part of Ireland, to be returned in such manner as by any Act of this present Session of the Parliament of Ireland shall be provided; and that the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons of Great Britain shall, together with the Lords Spiri