1818 April 24

Parl. Reform Bill

Text

VIII Penal Securities

1. Falshood

1. II Vote-conferring Certificate, by Certificate

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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