date

1818 April 24 Parl. Reform Bill
1818 April 24

Parl. Reform Bill

Text

VIII Penal Securities

1. Falshood

1. II Vote-conferring Certificate, by Certificate

1

1

IV. Turning on an enraged Bull setting up a way[?] of mad dog &c. This is the

Explanations.

See the list of Costs: Offences correspond with them.

§.V. Penal Securities against Election Offences.

V. Offences producing a tendency to produce injury to the person, property, or

reputation of individuals on the occasion of the Election process.

Art. 1. Election Offences are as follows viz.

I. Election falshood.  include under this head 1. lies for or against Candidates. 2.

lies tending to prevent men entitled from giving their votes: i.e. to produce undue

exclusion.

II. Election forgery

III. Offences tending to produce wrong Election: i e the election of a wrong person:

of a person in whose favour the number of legitimate Votes greater /more in number/

than any that have been given in favour of any other proposed Member have all been

given.

IV. Practices having for their object or their effect, the preventing the completion

of the Election process – tending to produce void Election or Non-Election

Art. 2. Election falshood is commissible in any of the manners following viz.

1. On the occasion of a Vote-conferring Certificate, it is committed by a person

signing the same, it is committed in so far as any one or more of the distinguishable

assertions therein contained, and made in and by such signature fails of being

conformable to truth.

In any such case the falshood /utterance of evil/ may be either be accompanied

either with criminal consciousness, or chargeable only with rashness /temerity/ or

negligence.

It is accompanied with criminal consciousness, in so far as the falsity of the

assertion at the time of utterance is known by him by whom it is made /thus expressed

/asserted//

It is chargeable only with rashness or negligence in so far as though the individual

by whom the false assertion is uttered was not at the time of his uttering it

conscious of its being false, he is in this respect culpable to evil in respect of

his not having made that inquiry which he ought to have made, and after which, had he

made {it}, he could not without criminal consciousness have uttered the false

assertion so uttered as above
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  • Title: [1818 May 9 + Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 May 9 +

    Parl. Reform Bill

    {Text} 3 o Exposition

    VIII. Penal Securities

    3

    1

    Causes /Offences/ by which Miselection may be produced are – 1. Forgery. 2.

    Fraudulent personation. 3. False assertion in writing or by word of mouth. 4.

    Deceptive deportment 5. Delivery or purveyance[?] of unfree suffrage. 6. Undue

    exclusion of Votes. 7 Undue introduction of Votes.

    I Offences tending by means of simple falshood to produce Miselection are as follows,

    viz.

    1. Where, by means of his signature an assertion, made by a proposed Voter is in

    respect of any of the matters so asserted by him in the tenor of his Vote-conferring

    Certificate, {not conformable to the truth} /{untrue}/ in any material particular,

    untrue

    2. Where, by means of his signature, an assertion made by a Certifier, in the tenor

    of a Vote-conferring Certificate is in relation to /respect of/ any of the matters so

    asserted by him, in any material particular, untrue

    3. Where, by means of his signature an assertion made by a Recommending Nominator in

    the tenor of a Recommendatory Certificate, framed for the purpose of nominating a

    proposed Member, is in relation to any of the matters so asserted by him, in any

    material particular untrue.

    Any such false assertion {i.e. made /conveyed/ as above,} is /was/, if made for the

    purpose of deception and thereby of producing the mischief /evil/ in question,

    accompanied with criminal consciousness and intention.

    Any such false assertion so made is, if not made for the purpose of deception,

    liable to have been produced by culpable heedlessness or rashness.
  • Title: [1818 May 9 Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 May 9

    Parl. Reform Bill

    {Text} 3 o Exposition

    VIII. Penal Securities

    4

    2

    II Offences tending by means of forgery to produce Miselection by means of forgery

    are as follows, viz.

    4. Where, for the purposes of producing deception {in respect of the name of the

    proposed Voter or the name of any Certifier, or any other word contained in it,} a

    paper /document falsely/ purporting to be a Vote-conferring Certificate, is, {with

    the view of producing deception} fabricated, or a paper /document/ truly purporting

    to be a Vote-conferring Certificate, altered.

    5. Where {for the purpose of producing deception}, a document falsely purporting to

    be a Recommendatory Certificate delivered in favour of a proposed Member is

    fabricated, or any document purporting to be a Recommendatory Certificate in favour

    of a proposed Member, altered.

    6. Where, {for the purpose of producing deception}, a document falsely purporting to

    be a Voting-Card, duly signed by an Election Clerk, or by the Substitute of an

    Election Clerk, or by an Assistant of such Clerk or such Substitute has been /is/

    fabricated, or any document truly purporting to be a /such/ Voting Card, altered.

    { This apply to all

    7. Guilty moreover of Election falshood is every person by whom for the purpose of

    deception any such false assertion has been procured, or been endeavoured to be

    procured. {Such false assertion is accompanied with criminal consciousness.}}

    [marginal note:] { Postpone and render all comprehensive.}

    { 8. Guilty moreover of Election falshood is every person, by whom for the purpose

    of deception, any untrue conception has been conveyed or endeavoured to be conveyed,

    in and by any /his/ signature of his which has been attached the signature of his

    name applied by him to the text of a Recommendatory Certificate.}

    [marginal note:] { Superseded by p.1. note 5.}
  • Title: [1818 June 18 Parl. Reform Bill]
    Description: 1818 June 18

    Parl. Reform Bill

    Abregé

    VII Penal Securities

    3

    In the case of criminal consciousness, and correspondent intention the two ideal

    instruments figuratively speaking most apt to be employed are force and falshood

    /fraud/ or as it is on occasion of this sort most common to say – fraud.

    Of falshood, there would be found applicable to the case the six following

    modifications: viz. 1 Forgery. 2. deceptive personation 3. fabrication of deceptious

    real or other circumstantial evidence: 4. perjury. 5. simple false assertion whether

    in the shape of speech /spoken/ or writing /written discourse/ 6. false assertion by

    deportment designed to produce the effect of discourse.

    In the text of the proposed law would be shewn /exemplified/ /particularized/

    various modes in /occasions on/ which in the production of the three characteristic

    Election torts as above, falshood in those its several shapes would be /is/ liable to

    be employed as an instrument. Examples of forgery will be seen at once by

    conniving[?] falshood in that shape applied to the several documents above proposed

    to be employed in the character of so many evidences or efficient instruments of

    title viz liable to be elected, or to vote: viz. the recommendatory certificate the

    Vote conferring Certificate, and the Voting Card. &c

    [marginal insertion:] An example of deceptious personation in the case of its

    application to the person of a voter.]

    One such in which false assertion, accompanied on the part of some with criminal

    consciousness on the part of others with rashness is in a preeminent degree apt to be

    employed and applied to the purpose of producing Miselection, viz. by giving birth to

    an ill-grounded choice, viz to the choice of a proposed Member not indeed

    disqualified by law, but in respect of appropriate aptitude less qualified than this

    or that view[?] to /over/ whom by the means he obtains the preference, is defamation.