Page:Thomas Hare - The Election of Representatives, parliamentary and municipal.djvu/227

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

175

CHAPTER IX.

THE DUTIES OF THE REGISTRARS.

The establishment of registrars of electors in London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, who may promote uniformity of action by the officers appointed to frame the local registers, and attend to their constant correction, forming a constant medium of communication in this important matter, would be of vast advantage, even if their duties ended there.^[1] They

↑ The Select Committee of the House of Lords thus reported (26th June 1860), "The present system of registration is very imperfect, and fails to make effectual provision either for placing on the register all who are entitled to vote, or for removing from it names improperly placed there. Whatever approach to accuracy there is in the existing register seems to be mainly due to the voluntary agency of political associations." In a pamphlet on registration, by Mr. W. A. James, the author says:—"A thorough improvement of the system generally, and a new arrangement of the registers, may be made conducive to many reforms in the present mode of completing parliamentary elections. There is no reason why the provisions for registration should not afford every protection to the rights of individual electors, and entail no trouble or annoyance, or why the register should not be accurate and perfect. It is simply a matter of business detail, in which few difficulties are presented, and these such as may be overcome. Much practical experience has been gained, which was wanting at the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832, and may be brought to bear in constructing and perfecting machinery which shall effect all the results desired. Any reform to be satisfactory must not be a mere patching up of the present system by amending it in isolated defective parts, but deal comprehensively with the whole, and in a manner in keeping with the change of circumstances time has introduced." "The facilities derived from a vast network of railways and steam-navigation, the rapid nterchange of intelligence by the electric telegraph, numerous post-office

[p175-1] The Select Committee of the House of Lords thus reported (26th June 1860), "The present system of registration is very imperfect, and fails to make effectual provision either for placing on the register all who are entitled to vote, or for removing from it names improperly placed there. Whatever approach to accuracy there is in the existing register seems to be mainly due to the voluntary agency of political associations." In a pamphlet on registration, by Mr. W. A. James, the author says:—"A thorough improvement of the system generally, and a new arrangement of the registers, may be made conducive to many reforms in the present mode of completing parliamentary elections. There is no reason why the provisions for registration should not afford every protection to the rights of individual electors, and entail no trouble or annoyance, or why the register should not be accurate and perfect. It is simply a matter of business detail, in which few difficulties are presented, and these such as may be overcome. Much practical experience has been gained, which was wanting at the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832, and may be brought to bear in constructing and perfecting machinery which shall effect all the results desired. Any reform to be satisfactory must not be a mere patching up of the present system by amending it in isolated defective parts, but deal comprehensively with the whole, and in a manner in keeping with the change of circumstances time has introduced." "The facilities derived from a vast network of railways and steam-navigation, the rapid nterchange of intelligence by the electric telegraph, numerous post-office

[1]