- S E L E C T C O M M I T T E E ON F I C T I T I O U S V O T E S , I R E L A N D . 367 u / ing thereon, or by tilling, or by grazing, or by both tilling and grazing, as the case may be ; so that it would be impossible for a person to register in virtue of a 10/. freehold, under this Act, unless he were in the actual occupation Cer- tainly ; but I think there is also in the schedule to the Reform Act the oath given lor a 10 /. freeholder. 14542. Chairman.] In one of the schedules of the Irish Reform Act, namely Schedule C, No. 6, being the oath for registering a freeholder of the annual value of 10/. in any county, city, or town; after stating other things, is he not called upon to swear, " And I am m the actual occupation thereof by residing; thereon" ? — He is. M543 • Construing, therefore, the former parts of this Reform Act, and also referring to the oath in the 1 o Geo. 4, and this schedule, your conclusion is, that he must be in the occupation of the whole, as well as that it should be of the value of 10 l ?— I apprehend that a 10 l. freeholder must, under the existing election law, be in the occupation of that out of which he seeks to register. 14544. Have any decisions been given to that effect by the superior authori- ties ?— I am not aware of any decision to that effect ; but I think the law is taken to be settled upon that; but there are three different opinions entertained with regard to the mode of occupation : one opinion is, that the party must be in possession of so much land or houses as will be of the value of 10 I. a year above the entire rent affecting the premises out of which he seeks to register. As for example, if a man seeking to register under a lease which demises 20 acres, declares that he occupies only 1 o acres, and that he pays 1 I. an acre rent; the opinion which I have just now stated goes this length, that the 10 acres which he occupies should be of the value of 10 I. above the rent affecting the entire 20. The second opinion entertained is this, that if a party occupies pre- mises of the value of 10 and he has let certain other premises at a profit or advanced rent, that he may then register if the entire combined together gives a value of 1 o /. a year above the rent. 14545. Is that the doctrine of Mr. Gibson?— No ; he goes further still, for he says that the applicant need not occupy premises of the value of 10 I. a year at all, as in the case of Denis Summers, when he occupied premises of only 7 I.; hut that having let one portion of his premises at a considerably advanced rent, although he did not occupy premises of the value of 10/. a year, that taking the advanced rent and combining it with the value of the premises lie did occupy, and upon the whole finding that he had 10/. a year benefit, he con- sidered him entitled. 14546. Did he consider that occupation had anything to do with the franchise ?— That the applicant should be in the occupation of some part of his land, but his principle went the length of deciding that it was no matter what part it was. 14547. Did you understand him to go as far as this, that supposing a party had possession of certain lands, 1 I. worth of which lie occupied by tillage, and the remainder of which he let, and the entire to amount to a sufficient sum, he considered that that was sufficient ?— I think the cases he decided went that length. 14548. So that if you carry the principle to its full extent it would go thus far, that if he occupied only 5 5. a year that would be sufficient, so far as occu- pation was concerned?— A single rood of ground. 14549. lie liad anything which could be by any means designated occupa- tion, although he let off all the rest to sub- tenants, he would still have been registered by Mr. Gibson ?— I think the case of Denis Summers fully establishes the principle. . 14550. Mr. Serjeant Jackson.] The Act of 10 Geo. 4, s. 2, provides, " I hat from and after the commencement of this Act 110 person shall be admitted to vote at any election of any knight of the shire to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom for any county in Ireland ( save as hereinafter is provided), unless such person shall have an estate of freehold in lands, tenements, or hereditaments m such county of the clear yearly value of 10 I, at the least, over and above all charges, except only public or Parliamentary taxes, county, church, or parish cesses, or rates and cesses on any townland, or division of any parish or barony — That is so. . . ,, 14551 • Then the 8th section of the same Act provides, " That if it shall appear to such assistant barrister that the person so claiming is entitled to register such . 643. 3 A 4 freeh0ld E. M. Kelly, Esq. 29 June 1838.