The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-28 00:00:00

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THE REGISTRATIONS.
CITY OF LONDON.
The revision of the City lists was proceeded with
yeserday.
In the list of the Spectacle Makers' Company, the
aame of Mr. James Haanier (late Alderman Harmer)
was objected to by Mr. Marr, on the ground of non-
residence within the prescribed distance. The notice
of objection having been proved to have been served
at Ingress hall, Mr. Harmer's seat in Kent,
Mr. Harmer came forward in person to support his
%rate. He stated that he was owner of the house,
No. 139, Fleet-street, and resided there by his ser-
vants. There was a bed-room in the house, which
ie might at any time occupy, but he had not done so.
He had entire command over the door, and if
burglary were committed on the premises the hour
would be described as his dwelling-house in an in-
dictment against the offenders.
Mr. Wansay, the Reform agent, submitted that
Mr. Harmer had proved sufficient occupation to giv
him a vote.
Mr. Mari- for the Conservatives, asked Mr. Harmer
whether, when he said he resided in the house by his
servants, he meant domestic servants, or the persons
employed by him on the establishment of the Dispatch
newspaper ? Mr. Harmer replied that he did net
mean domestic servants. The house was occupied by
aop:iro
g; t
hb
em
rot et, h
eaisr
opercoopprai ectooor,
the'sub-editor and publisher of the Dispatch news-
aadsmthereel py ow' e f r e
permissive.
Mr. Marr argued that the occupation was not suf-
ficient. The Reform Act required, according to
Judge Bailey's decision, an occupation either by the
party himselt, by his family, or by his domestic servants.
Mr. APCIIRISTIE being of a slim • 'lar opini • on, ex-
punged the name:
Mr. M`CnatsTie then gave judgment in a case
which had stood over for the purpose. He said that
to the name of Francis Collisson, described in the
list as of Size-lane, a freeman and liveryman of th
Grocers' Company, an objection was taken by Mr.
I‘larr to his name being retained on the list.
Mr. Marr stated that his name had been exuunged
from the list last year in consequence of his
absence from this country. Nevertheless, his
name had' been again inserted in the Company's
list made by them this year, and dejivered
ac-
cording to the Act to the returning-officer, which
is now before me. Mr. Marr proved that he had
served notice of objection on .the 18th of August last,
at No. 6, Skinner's-place, Size-lane. The witness
who served the notice stated that he there saw a
gentleman who called himself Francis Collisson, the
freeman and liveryman of this Company, and that he
informed him that his brother, after whom the witness
inquired, had been abroad for exactly two years on
that very day, that his return was uncertain, but that
his family still lived there.. The clerk of the Grocers'
Company swore that he believed him to have been
abroad for upwards of a year, and that he had not
attended the hall for some time. By the 32d section
of the Reform Act it is provided that no freeman and
liveryman of any borough shall be registered unless
" he shall have resided six calendar months next pre-
vious to the last day of July in such year' in
which he shall be registered within the city or the
borough, or seven statute miles from the place where
the poll shall have been taken ; and by the 48th
section it is enacted that any person objecting to
another shall " give to such other person, or leav
at his usual place of abode, a notice in writing" of
his objection, according to the form there pre-
scribed. Mr. Wansey's first objection was, that here the
notice of objection had not been duly served, and he
considered that objection to cut both ways. First, if
Size-lane was not Mr. Collisson's usual place of abode,
then, within the meaning of the Act, there had been
ito service at all ; and next, if this were to be taken
as a service at his usual plaCe Of abode, then that it
could not be said tie had not abided there during the
six months previous to July. Further, Mr 'Wansey
contended, that upon all the decisions come to, and in
all the dicta laid down upon this question by the su-
per;or tribunals, and admitting that this gentleman
had been personally abroad for two years, his family
having continued to reside here, he could not'be dis-
franchised on the ground of absence. Nothing was
offered whatever, showing the ground or reason why
his name was struck off the list last year. Since I
was here on Saturday I have looked into some of the
au:lorities' and in all I have had time to consult, I
have found the Learned Judges striving against dis-
franchisement. In Rex v. Mitchell, 10 East 50, the
return of a common councilthan depended upon the
validity of the votes of four rreemen of the city of
Norwich. They were substitutes in the militia,
and their regiment was quartered at Colchester,
but they all had dwelling-houses at Norwich,
in which their families resided, and to which,
at times, they themselves resorted on furlough,
within the six months preceding the elections.
Now, I think there can be no doubt whatever, upon
reading the details of this case, that these men neither
did enter nor ever would have entered the city of
Norwich within the prescribed time for the purpose
of voting, but they had houses there, and. their fami-
lies resided there, though they themselves personally
resided elsewhere. And though their case may ap-
pear to be a little different to the one we are now
dealing with, from the circumstance of their having
been in the militia, yet the opinions expressed by the
Learned Judges for holding them to be inhabitants of
Norwich do not seem to me to have proceeded so far
(if at all) upon their personal appearance once or
twice in the town, as upon the facts of their having
houses there, and their families residing there. Lord
Ellenborougla Chief Justice, said, in giving judg-
ment, "The Act required, and ought to receive a
reasonable construction. The Act meant to secure
the right of voting fOr corporate offices to the free-
men, bona fide inhabitants of the city for a cer-
tain period before the election, and is therefore sa-
tisfied by a bona fide inhabitancy. The Norwich men
were bona fide inhabitants of the city." Mr. Justice
Grose, Mr. Justice Le Blanc, and Mr. Justice Bay-
ley concurred with this view. In the case of Rex v.
John Sargent, 5 T.R., 466, the defendant having
prior connexions with a borough town previous to his
election to the office of bailiff, for which "residence"
was a necessary qualification, took a house for one
year, and slept there one night before the election, and
did not return again for nearly a month afterwards,
when he stayed two days, but retained possession of
the house under his lease the whole time. The taking
of the house appearing to the Court to be bona fide,
that was held to be a sufficient " legal residence" to
satisfy the qualification required, " residence" having
been that required qualification. On the one hand,
it was contended that it was a bona fide " resi-
dence ;" on the other, that it was merely colourable.
Lord Chief Justice Kenyon, Mr. Juatice Ashurst,
Mr. Justice Buller and Mr. Justice Grove concurred,
considering him to have been at the time of the
election a bona fide inhabitant. Lord Coke says,
" If a man dwelleth in a foreign shire, riding,
city, or town corporate, or keepeth a house and
servants in another shire, riding, city, or town
corporate, he is an inhabitant in such shire, riding,
city, 'or town corporate."' By a decision of a Commit-
tee of the House of Commons it was agreed that
two persons of the name of Tilden by the common
law of England are such inhabitants of Winchilsea
as ought to have voices at the election, their said
non-residence notwithstanding, because it appeareth
not that they removed to dwell elsewhere with
purpose there to settle, and never to return t(
Winchilsea again, and that they kept no servantsho
or family at Winchelsea, yet they kept their houses
in their own hands, and might return at.
_pleaauaei.
In another case, upon the question of
.res:Nd,heantce.,
Justice Bayley says, " Tbe,qulestkionitjtshat that s the
meaning of the word resides . ta -eword,
where there is nothing to show that it is used in a
more extensive sense, denotes the place where an in-
dividual eats, drinks, or sleeps, or where his family or
his servants eat, drink, and sleep." And in 1832,
upon a discussio • n in the House of Commons
upon the
meaning of the word ' residence, the present Lord
Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench considered that a
resident was one who, if he were to sail to the East
Indies, yet leave his family in the occupation of a
house in Westminster, he would not by such
absence
be deprived of his vote." Now, in these cases the
law upon residence, through the
medium, as Mr.
Justice Bayley says, of a man's family
himself personally may be absent, althouh he
the East Indies, is laid down d. and have gone' to
so istinctly and. so ex-
tensively, that in the absence
that in any one instance that law
all authority showing
altered, I am bound to follow at law has been repealed or
evi-
dence here that Mr. _
lr it. I have had no Co issen is under any legal in-
capacity to return, or that he will not, or that he in-
tends slot, to return to his
his family—all b • house, to his home, and to
being now, as they have been, here ;.
and, theref • though a•
fate, the service of the notice was
good, yet the 1). •
o jection being invalid, his name must
.be retained on the Est.—Name inserted.

EXTRAORDINARY SUPPLY OF POULTRY. The
poultry markets of Saturday presented the unusual but
very gratifying appearance of enormous quantities of
every description of poultry being offered fr:r sale, all
the produce of the Engl:sh feeder, who is enabled, from
the great difference of the price ofcorn between the pre-
sent and last Michaelmas, to send his stock to market
at a cost of 15 per cent. less to himse:f. The supply of
geese was particularly large, the demand was also great,
at prices varying from 4s. to ss. 6d. ; Lit the former quo-
tation many were purchased by those classes who had
long learned to look upon such food as luxuries far be-
yond their reach. The accounts from Norfolk and other
eastern counties are most favourable, and a continuance
of
a
supplyour may be readily looked to through-
out Own countrymen, without having
to call in foreign aid. Ducks are fetching from Is. Ed.
seasonrtiful
from
to 2s. 3d., and fowls 2s. to 2s. 6d. Since attention has
been called to the condition in which grouse in cases
came into the market, a great improvement has taken
thPele
r
place in its appearance, and also in the price, which way
be now given at 2s. to ss. the brace.
TILE IRON TRADE.—We are happy to hear that th
price of iron has advanced 1/. per ton.—Carinarthe
Journal.