ILLEGAL Section 10 enacts that a person shall not let, lend, or employ, for the purpose of the conveyance of electors to Carriages, or from the poll, any public stage, or hackney carriage, horses, &c. or any horse or other animal kept or used for drawing the same, or any carriage, horse, or other animal which he keeps or uses for the purpose of letting out for hire, and if he does so, knowing it is to be used for the conveyance of electors, he shall be guilty of an illegal hiring. And the section further enacts that a person shall not hire, borrow, or use, for the purpose of the conveyance of electors to or from the poll, any carriage, horse, or other animal which he knows the owner is prohibited by this section to let, lend, or employ, for that purpose, and if he does so he shall be guilty of an illegal hiring. In the Buckrose case, 4 O'M. & H. 117, the use of a cab by a voter for the purpose of being conveyed to the poll was held not to be a breach of this section on the ground that there was no proof that the voter knew that the use of the cab was prohibited by law. But sub-section (3) of the same section provides that nothing in the Act shall prevent a carriage, horse, or other animal being let to or hired, employed or used by an elector, or several electors at their joint cost, for the purpose of being conveyed to or from the poll. And sub-section (4) further provides that no person need pay any duty or take out a licence for any carriage by reason only of its being used without payment or promise of payment for the conveyance of electors to or from the poll. Payment on account of the conveyance of electors to or from the poll is made an illegal practice by section 4 in both parties to the transaction: see Manchester, 4 O'M. & H. 120. The result of the above-mentioned enactments, therefore, is absolutely to prohibit the providing of hired vehicles for the conveyance of voters to or from the poll, but they do not affect the right of persons to lend their private carriages, &c., for the conveyance of electors, HIRING. provided there is no payment or contract of payment ILLEGAL for their use, nor the right of electors to hire cabs at their own or joint cost. licensed If any person hires or uses any premises or any part Use of thereof in contravention of section 16, he is guilty of premises, illegal hiring, and the person letting or permitting the &c. use of such premises or part thereof, if he knew it was intended to use the same in contravention of this section, is also guilty of illegal hiring: sect. 16. This section prohibits the user for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election of a candidate either as a committee room or for holding a meeting (1) of any premises, which are licensed for the sale of any intoxicating liquor for consumption on or off the premises, or on which refreshment of any kind (whether food or drink) is ordinarily sold for consumption on the premises, or where any intoxicating liquor is supplied to members of a club, society, or association, or any part of any such premises. But a proviso is added that nothing in this section shall apply to any part of such premises which is ordinarily let for the purpose of chambers or offices, or the holding of public meetings or of arbitrations, if such part has a separate entrance and no direct communication with any part of the premises on which any intoxicating liquor or refreshment is sold or supplied as aforesaid. As to what are premises, see, by way of analogy, the parliamentary case of Buckrose, 4 O'M. & H. 113, where it was held, under 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, that "the premises of any public elementary school" include the (1) The prohibition, so far as it relates to holding a meeting, does not apply to premises at a school board election outside an urban sanitary district or the metropolis: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 36 (1) (f); nor to premises at a parish or rural district council election outside an urban sanitary district or the County of London. See Orders made under 56 & 57 Vict. c. 73, s. 48, post, pp. 567, 607. HIRING. ILLEGAL dwelling-house of the schoolmaster, if within the curtilage. In the same case it was unsuccessfully contended that the penalty under this section was only incurred by the persons letting and hiring a prohibited room, and not by the members of the committee using it: Ibid. What is committee room. PROSECU The expression "committee-room" has the same meaning (see section 34 of 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70) as in 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51. By section 64 of the latter Act it is not to include any house or room occupied by a candidate as a dwelling, by reason only of the candidate there transacting business with his agents in relation to the election; nor is any room or building to be deemed a committee-room by reason only of the candidate or any agent of his addressing therein electors, committeemen, or others. The hiring or using of the same committee-room by two or more candidates (except it be accidental, or casual, or of a trivial and unimportant character), constitutes them joint candidates: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 5 (4). It is the duty of the Public Prosecutor, if he is informed that any illegal practices have prevailed at any election, to make such inquiries and institute such prosecutions as the circumstances of the case appear to him to require: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 45, applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. The Public Prosecutor is to attend the trial of every election petition, and is to obey the directions of the Election Court as to the prosecution of offenders. It is also his duty without any direction from the Election Court, if it appears to him that any person who has not received a certificate of indemnity has been guilty of an illegal practice, to prosecute such person for the offence before the said Court, or if he thinks it expedient in the interests of justice before any other competent Court: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 28 (3). See further as to the prosecution before the Election Court of persons guilty of illegal practices, ante, p. 244. TION. Where the director of public prosecutions considers that PROSECUthe circumstances of any case require him to institute a prosecution before any Court other than an Election Court for any offence other than a corrupt practice he may, by himself or his assistant, institute such prosecution before any court of summary jurisdiction in the county in which the borough is situate or to which it adjoins, and the offence is to be deemed for all purposes to have been committed within the jurisdiction of such Court: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30 (a). Where persons are reported by an Election Court as having been guilty of an illegal practice and have not received a certificate of indemnity, the Attorney-General is to decide whether such persons are to be prosecuted: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 60, applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. As to the procedure in connection with this report, see ante, p.. 257. A person who has received a certificate of indemnity cannot be prosecuted for any offence under the Act committed by him previous to the date of the certificate: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 59 (2), applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. See as to certificates of indemnity, ante, p. 246. A proceeding against a person for an illegal practice, Within or any other offence under the Act, must be commenced what time. within one year after the offence was committed: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 51, applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. It is to be noticed that this limitation applies to illegal payment, employment, and hiring, as well as to illegal practices. and On any prosecution under the Act the defendant, and Evidence the defendant's husband or wife, may, if he or she think charges. fit, be examined as a witness: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 53 (2), applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. On any such prosecution it is sufficient to allege that the person charged was guilty of an illegal practice, payment, employment, or hiring within the meaning of the Act, as the case may be; and the certificate of the PROSECU TION. Not by indictment. PENALTIES. payment, employment and hiring. returning officer that the election was duly held, and that the person named in the certificate was a candidate at such election, is sufficient evidence of the facts therein stated: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 53 (3), applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. Any person charged with a corrupt practice may be found guilty of an illegal practice (which offence is for that purpose to be an indictable offence), and any person charged with an illegal practice may be found guilty of that offence, notwithstanding that the act amounted to a corrupt practice, and a person charged with illegal payment, employment, or hiring, may be found guilty of that offence, notwithstanding that the act amounted to a corrupt or illegal practice: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 52, applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. The offences of illegal practices and of illegal payment, employment and hiring, are not indictable offences; they are punishable upon summary conviction, and may be prosecuted in manner provided by the Summary Jurisdiction Acts, 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, ss. 7, 17; 46 & 47 Vict. c. 51, s. 54, applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. An appeal lies from a conviction by a Court of Summary Jurisdiction to Quarter Sessions: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 70, s. 54 (2), applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. There is no appeal against a summary conviction by an Election Court: 46 & 47 Vict. c. 70, s. 55, applied by 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 30. A person guilty of an offence of illegal payment, emFor illegal ployment or hiring, is on summary conviction liable to a fine not exceeding 1007.: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 17. Where such an offence is committed by a candidate, or with his knowledge and consent, he is guilty of an illegal practice, and punishable accordingly: 47 & 48 Vict. c. 70, s. 17 (2). For illegal A person guilty of an illegal practice is, on summary practices. conviction, liable to a fine not exceeding 1007., and is incapable during 5 years from the date of his conviction |