the party will discharge the duty of the office on pain of forfeiture (d).

Offices may also be granted at will (e). If the king grants an office to hold at will, and grants a rent to the officer for life for the exercise of the office, an estate for life in the rent is not conferred, because it is granted in respect of discharging the duties of the office, and the rent ceases whenever the grantee's interest in the office determines (ƒ).

Offices, in respect of which the holder is possessed of a freehold interest in lands or profits issuing out of or charged upon lands of the annual value of 40s., confer a right of voting for county members. It is a general rule that a person not having a freehold interest in house or land, in right of his office, has not a right to vote in respect of it (g).

Schoolmasters,

1. Of schoolmasters' right of voting.] who by virtue of their office enjoy any freehold lands, or rentcharges issuing out of such lands, either for life as sole corporations, or quamdiu se bene gesserint, have a right to vote at elections. This right depends upon the interest which they have in their office, and the nature of their interest must be the subject of inquiry in each particular case (h). The terms of the foundation and the nature of the appointment must be the subject of consideration (i).

By a deed, dated in 1740, an estate was settled on the rector of the parish of Ampthill for the time being, on condition that he should "apply out of the rents 51. a-year to one or more schoolmasters or schoolmistresses," for educating sixteen children. A vote in respect of such rentcharge, by the schoolmaster appointed by the rector, was held good. The rector, who was called as a witness as to

(d) Litt. s. 378; Co. Litt. 233 b; 4 Inst. 117; Bartlett v. Downes, 5 Dowl. & R. 526; S. C. 3 B. & Cres. 619; 1 Carr. & P. 522.

(e) Reynel's case, 9 Rep. 97 a. (f) Co. Litt. 42 a. (g) 2 Peck. 93. By stat. 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 45, ss. 19, 20, the right of voting in counties is now extended

to copyholders of the clear annual value of 10l., and to leaseholders and occupiers of premises of certain value above charges.

(h) Heywood on County Elections, 126, 2d ed.; Male, 273; Orme, 149, 150.

(i) See ante, pp. 365, 366, 383, 725-735.

the nature of the appointment, stated, that he did not know that he was empowered to turn out a schoolmaster who had been once appointed to the place, and knew no instance in which any one had been displaced (j).

The votes of two schoolmasters in respect of land and tithes in their occupation, were held good; one of them was master of the free school of Biggleswade, and the other of Holme, instituted by the will of Sir John Cotton in 1726, under appointments by which they received annual salaries out of an estate settled by the will for those uses. The estate was assessed under the name of charity land. The appointment was in the lord of the manor, who thought that he had not power by the institution to remove the masters whom he had appointed (k).

The actual receipt of a rent-charge given for the benefit of a school, has been held sufficient to give a vote. The vicar of a parish had the appointment of a schoolmaster and of six boys, and the schoolmaster under the appointment received 40s. per annum, issuing out of lands charged with it, "for the benefit of the school of Thurleigh." The 40s. was paid annually to the schoolmaster, by the occupier of the lands charged with it. The vote was objected to, because the assessed to the land tax nor registered according to the stat. 3 Geo. III. c. 24 (1).

annuity was not

But a master who is removable at pleasure is not qualified to vote (m). Therefore a vote by a schoolmaster of a parish, in respect of a rent-charge given by will for "the schoolmaster and children from time to time to be put in and placed there by the approbation and good liking of J. P. and his heirs," was held bad (n).

The temporary appointment of a person incapable, according to the institution of the school, to hold the situation of a schoolmaster, will not confer a right of voting in respect of a rent-charge. The appointment recited that no person

(j) 2 Lud. 431.

(k) 2 Lud. 430-501.

(7) 2 Lud. 497, 501. See Rex v.

Inhabitants of Owersby, 15 East, 356.
(m) See ante, pp. 730, 731.
(n) 2 Lud. 428.

qualified, according to the will of the founder, had offered himself for the place, and that therefore the master and fellows of Sidney College, Cambridge, who had the right of nomination, at the request of the parish, had agreed to appoint the individual (who had voted) till a person properly qualified should offer (o).

2. Dissenting ministers generally disqualified to vote.] There can be no general rule applicable to all cases of dissenting ministers, each case must be decided according to its own circumstances, the terms of the appointment, or the customs of the particular body by whom the appointment was made. In some dissenting congregations the first call to a minister is for a limited and probationary term; when such term expires, if the minister be approved, he receives a second call or invitation, in general terms, to become the minister of the congregation: in such cases there can be little doubt but that, by analogy to other appointments in general terms, such an appointment is, in law, an appointment for life (p). Such ministers, when mere tenants at will to the trustees, can have no right to vote (q).

Three cases are reported, where dissenting ministers enjoying either lands or the profits of lands of the requisite value, in virtue of their respective appointments, which were general, were held not to be entitled to vote, although in one case there was express evidence that the congregation were understood to have no power of removal. In one case, a dissenting minister of a parish, who had been appointed under the trust providing an annuity of 15l. for an individual during his life, and after his death or ceasing to serve the cure, "then in trust to apply the said annuity towards finding and providing another good, learned, and pious divine of the Presbyterian persuasion, to preach and supply the cure of the said parish so long as the said chapel shall be

ed.

(0) 2 Lud. 429, 430.

(q) See Doe d. Jones v. Jones, 10 (p) Rogers on Elections, 117, 3d B. & Cress. 718; ante, pp. 763— 765, 766, n. (i).

tolerated." Under the latter trust the voter had been appointed. Nothing satisfactory could be proved with regard to the practice of dissenting congregations, whether, under a general appointment, a minister was considered as appointed for life, or during the pleasure of the congregation. The committee thought a general appointment insufficient, and disallowed the vote (q).

In another case the committee rejected the vote of a minister of the congregation of Tewkesbury, in possession of a house left by the will of Mary Workman to the minister for the time being of the congregation of dissenters in Tewkesbury, the rent thereof to be taken by them, from time to time (r).

So where it appeared that some land had been purchased by persons who acted as trustees of a dissenting congregation in 1741, to build a meeting-house for public worship, and a house for the minister. Since that time there had been a regular succession of ministers, appointed by such of the congregation as received the communion of their church. There was no instance of any one of the ministers having been removed after his appointment; but more than one had been rejected, after more than a year's service in the meeting, in a state of trial. Two members of the congregation who were examined, said, they did not understand that the congregation had a power to remove their minister. The vote of a minister who had held the place upwards of twenty years, in right of which, besides voluntary contributions, he enjoyed two houses and an orchard, one of which houses was let for 21. 14s. a-year, was held to be bad (s).

(q) Gloucestershire case, 2 Lud. 436; Heywood's County Elections, 130; Wordsworth's Elec. Law, 47. (r) Heywood's County Elections, 131, 132.

which an appointment for a limited term could be collected. A power to remove for misconduct is necessarily incident to all offices, even the greatest, and therefore the voter's being liable to that sort of removal, did not at all diminish his right, being subject to that in common with every other man. If, therefore, he held his place and house during

(s) Bedfordshire case, 2 Lud. 432 -440. In favour of the vote it was argued that the place in question was held for life, or during pleasure; for there was no circumstance from

At the Yorkshire election (t), the votes of Protestant dissenting ministers, who stated that they believed themselves to be elected by their congregations for life (u), and could not be removed from the chapels or houses which they held virtute officii, were admitted to vote, whilst the votes of others who declared that they understood that they were removable at pleasure, were rejected (w).

3. When the receipt of alms is, or is not, a disqualification.] By stat. 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 45, s. 36, it is enacted, that no person shall be entitled to be registered in any year as a voter in the election of a member or members of parliament for any city or borough, who shall within twelve calendar months next previous to the last day of July in such year have received parochial relief or other alms (x), which by the law of

good behaviour, his interest in them val might be inferred. 2 Lud.436--439. was that of a freehold.