Note 204 — Chapter XXVIII · THE NEW DEPARTURE.

The borough franchises of England and Wales were the old £20 clear annual value qualification of 1832, and the householder and lodger franchises established in 1867. To these the new Reform Act of 1885 added the “service franchise,” giving a vote to any man who inhabits any dwelling-house by virtue of any office, service, or employment. Caretakers, bailiffs, gamekeepers, officers of public establishments, shepherds, &c., were admitted under this qualification. It was further provided that every citizen of full age, and not subject to legal incapacity, who has occupied a house for a year and paid his rates, can have his name registered as a voter for the district, whether it be called county or borough, in which he resides. The property franchises in the counties were in the main left untouched, but provision was made to check multiplication of faggot votes—i.e., votes of non-resident occupiers on sham qualifications. But four-fifths of the 5,000,000 electors enfranchised by the Bill were really qualified as simple householders in town and county.