Elector or Electors in fuch Election, every fuch Officer, knowing the fame to be iffued for fuch corrupt Purposes, being thereof lawfully convicted, fhall forfeit the Sum of 1000 /. of lawful Money of Great Britain, to be recovered and applied as herein after is directed, and shall be, ever after fuch Conviction, incapable of having, holding, enjoying, or executing any Office, Employment, or Place of Truft or Profit under the Crown, or of having or receiving any Benefit or Profit arifing by, or from any fuch Office, Place, or Employment, or of having any Allowance or Penfion from the Crown whatfoever; and fhall be alfo difabled to fit or vote as a Meinber of the House of Commons.

And be it further enacted, by the Authority aforefaid, That from and after the 25th of March 1722, every Perfon who fhall be elected a Member of the Houfe of Commons, for that Part of Great Britain called England, the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick upon Tweed, or returned as fuch (except the eldeft Sons of Peers, or of Perfons qualified to ferve as Knights of Shires, and the Members to ferve for the two Universities in that Part of Great Britain called England) fhall be incapable to vote or fit in the faid Houfe during any Debate there, after their Speaker is chofen, until fuch Member shall have given into the Clerk of the Houfe of Commons, a Paper figned by himself, containing a Recital or Particular of the Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments, whereby he makes out his Qualification required by an A&t paffed in the 9th Year of the Reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, (intitled, An Act for fecuring the Freedom of Parliaments, by the further qualifying the Members to fit in the House of Commons) and of such Lands, Tenements, and Hereditaments, whereof the Party hath not been in Poffeffion, and in actual Perception of the Profits for one Year, to his own Ufe, before the Election: He shall also insert in the fame Paper from what Perfon, and by what Conveyance or Act in Law, he claims and derives the fame; and also the Confideration, if any paid, and the Names and Places of Abode of the Witneffes to fuch Conveyances and Payment, and until he shall have also taken the following Oath, viz. I A. B. do fwear, that I truly and bona fide, have an Estate in Law

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Law or Equity, to or for my own Ufe or Benefit, of, or in Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments (over and above what will fatisfy and clear all Incumbrances that may affect the fame) of the annual Value of 600 1. above Reprizes, which do qualify me to be elected and returned to ferve as a Member for the County of according to the Tenor and true Meaning of an Act passed in the 9th Year of her late Majesty Queen Anne, (intitled, An Act for fecuring the Freedom of Parliaments, by the further qualifying the Members to fit in the House of Commons) and that my faid Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments are lying, and being within the Parishes, Townships, and Places mentioned in the Particular by me given in to the Clerk of the Houfe of Commons: And in cafe fuch Perfon is returned to ferve for any City, Borough, or Cinque-Port, then the faid Oath fhall relate duly to the Value of 300 l. per annum, and be taken to the fame Effect (mutatis mutandis) as is hereby prefcribed for the Oath of a Person to serve as a Member of fuch County as aforefaid: Which Oath fhall be folemnly and publickly made between the Hours of nine in the Morning, and four in the Afternoon, by every fuch Member of the Houfe of Commons, at the Table, in the Middle of the faid Houfe, and while a full House of Commons is there duly fitting, with their Speaker in his Chair.

And whereas, contrary to the true Meaning of the Laws now in being, for regulating the Electors of Parliament, to ferve in Parliament for the Shires and Stewartries of that Part of Great Britain called Scotland, fome of the Freeholders and Electors have fometimes prefumed to feparate themselves from the general Meeting of the Freeholders and Electors, and have, to make difputed Elections, elected separately a Member to serve in Parliament, and certified such Election to the Sheriff, or other Returning Officer; which Practices are of dangerous Confequence: For the preventing the like for the future, Be it declared and enacted by the Authority aforefaid, That all fuch Separations and Certifications are, and fhall be taken and deemed to be illegal, and utterly null and void, and that no Prefes or Clerk, or other Perfon whatsoever, fhall presume to return any Perfon to the Sheriff or Returning Officer (other than, and ex

cept

cept the Prefes and Clerks chofen in the Place where the Sheriffs Court, or Steward's Court, is ufually held, by the Majority of the Freeholders and Electors, inrolled, and upon Pain to forfeit as in the Cafe of a false Return).

And be it further enacted, by the Authority aforefaid, That any Sheriff, or other Returning Officer, who fhall take upon him to make a Return of any other Perfon but who is certified to him by the Clerk and Prefes of the, faid Meeting, to have been elected by the Majority of the Freeholders inrolled, shall be liable to forfeit and pay 10001. Sterling, over and above the Penalties by Law, intitled upon Returning Officers making falfe Returns. And be it further enacted, by the Authority aforefaid, That all pecuniary Penalties inflicted by this Act, fhall be to the Informer or Profecutor, who fhall profccute the Offender or Offenders, to Conviction, with full Cofts, where fuch Penalties fhall not exceed the Sum of 100 l. And of all other Penalties hereby inflicted, two Thirds fhall be to fuch Informer or Profecutor, with full Cofts, and the other Third to the Poor of the Parish, or Place where the Offence shall be committed; and the faid Penalties fhall be recovered by Action of Debt, Bill, Plaint, or Information, in any of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster, or before the Lords of the Seffion in Scotland refpectively. And in none of the Cafes aforefaid, shall any Effoign, Privilege of Parliament, or other Privilege, Protection, or Wager of Law, be granted or allowed, nor any more than one Imparlance. Provided always, that every Information, Action, or Prosecution, grounded upon this Act, fhall be commenced within the Space of one Year, next after the Caufe of Action shall arife, or the Offence be committed, and not afterwards.

The first Part of this Bill was drawn up upon occafion of a pretended Election for the Borough of Minehead (on: a Vacancy there) in favour of Mr. Richard Lane, who took the Writ from the Perfon ordered to convey it to the Returning Officer, and kept it in his Pocket till the very Day of Election, and yet he escaped unpunished, though the Meffenger directed to carry the Writ was taken into Cuftody of the Serjeant at Arms: The other

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Parts

P.

arts of this Bill are home against Bribery, falfe Returns, and the Influence of the Exchequer, and to the utmost ftrict as to the Eftates and Qualifications of Members of Parliament. Upon the whole, this Bill was gloriously defigned; and I hope to fee the Time (though it may not be very foon) when it will be enacted into a Law.

Thus I have gone through my Narrative, or History of the Séptennial Parliament, the first of its Kind in Great Britain; whereby I have demonftrated how truly they have distinguished themselves in the making many excellent Laws, and rejecting of others; in their ftrict Attachment to our ancient Constitution, and not altering the fame above once in a Seffion; in guarding the Rights, Liberties, and Properties of the Subject, like true Watchmen, upon all Emergencies; in relieving thofe Perfons for whom the public Faith was engaged, and the punishing of Cheats and National Robbers; in eafing our Pockets of the Burden of our Coin, and defigning us Barracks for our future Refidence; and lastly, in all thefe their Wisdom and Penetration, as well as Juftice and Equity; on all which Accounts, I think, I may fay, they have vaftly exceeded all that ever went before them.

[83]

An Essay on the Practice of Stock-jobbing, and fome Remarks on the right Use, and regular Improvement of Money. In a Letter to a Gentleman, and a Proprietor of South-Sea Stock.

By THOMAS GORDON, Esq;
Anno 1724.

SIR,

S

INCE you was pleafed to communicate your Defire to know my Sentiments and Opinion concerning the modern Practice of Stock-jobbing; in Compliance with your Requeft, I fend you my impartial Thoughts in this Letter; which comes to acquaint you, that the irregular Method of acquiring Riches by Stock-jobbing, was always inconfiftent with my deliberate Judgment, as being contrary to the natural and clear Dictates of Reafon, as well as the plain Admonition of Confcience, directing and inftructing us to govern our Words and Actions, according to the ftrict Laws, and facred Rules of Truth, Juftice, and Equity.

By the Practice of Stock-jobbing, I think it necessary to inform you, that I apprehend and mean thofe guileful Arts, and unjust Attempts, which are used to raise and fink the public Stocks of this Nation with no other View, or better Design, than to gratify the immoderate and infatiable Defires of fome covetous and ambitious Persons, at the Expence of leffening the Subftance, and procuring the irreparable Lofs and Calamity of others.

Thefe irregular and deceitful Methods of growing rich, and obtaining a plentiful Eftate with great Difpatch and Speed, have been (fometimes) maintained and carried on, partly by fpreading falfe Reports concerning the public Affairs, cither Foreign or Domeftic, in such a manner, as may influence the Buyers and Sellers D 6

of