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A

TREATISE

ON THE

ELECTION LAWS IN SCOTLAND:

TO WHICH IS ADDED

AN HISTORICAL INQUIRY CONCERNING THE

MUNICIPAL CONSTITUTION OF TOWNS

AND BOROUGHS.

WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE ELECTION

STATUTES, AND VARIOUS ILLUSTRATIVE DOCUMENTS.

BY ARTHUR CONNELL, Esq.

ADVOCATE.

WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH: AND

T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON.

MDCCCXXVII.

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CHARLES HOPE,

- LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COLLEGE OF JUSTICE.

MY LORD,

WHATEVER fears I may entertain, that the style and conduct of this work may not be worthy of your Lordship's name, which I have been so kindly permitted to use, I can have no anxiety that the lustre of that name will be impaired by an association with the subject itself. The importance of our Election Law, as being connected with the preservation of our civil rights, and its difficulty, as involving many of the most intricate principles of our feudal polity, are sufficient to secure for it no ordinary degree of attention; and when we remember the remote periods to which many of its doctrines may be traced, and its connection with the history of the Scottish Parliament, it becomes associated in our minds with the high antiquity of this nation as an independent kingdom.

I have the honour to be, with much respect,

MY LORD,

Your LORDSHIP'S

Most obedient and faithful servant,

ARTHUR CONNELL

EDINBURGH,
Sept. 20. 1827.

PREFACE.

THE progressive nature which the science of Law possesses in common with the other branches of liberal knowledge, might perhaps alone constitute a sufficient apology for another attempt to illustrate a branch of our jurisprudence, which has been treated of by preceding writers. But it is upon the difference of the Author's plan from that of the works which have been already published on the Election Law of Scotland, that he wishes to rest his defence in his present undertaking. His general object has been to give a more condensed view of the Election Law than is to be found in the treatises already before the public. He has usually avoided entering into any lengthened detail of the circumstances of cases, which are to be found reported at length in the original repositories of the collected decisions, or in the works of those authors who first made them public; and he has, in general, confined himself to such a concise statement of the different cases as has appeared to be sufficient to communicate the legal points which were decided. The facilities for immediate reference which such a plan must possess, need not be pointed out.

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