ts, at length presented to the house a bill, importing
that every person who shall be elected a member of the house of commons,
should, before he presumed to take his seat, deliver to the clerk of the
house, at the table, while the commons were sitting, and the speaker in
the chair, a paper, or schedule, signed by himself, containing a rental
or particular of the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, whereby he
makes out his qualification, specifying the nature of his estate,
whether messuage, land, rent, tithe, or what else; and if such estate
consists of messuages, lands, or tithes, then specifying in whose
occupation they are; and if in rent, then specifying the names of the
owners or possessors of the lands and tenements out of which such rent
is issuing, and also specifying the parish, township, or precinct and
county, in which the said estate lies, and the value thereof; and
every such person shall, at the same time, also take and subscribe
the following oath, to be fairly written at the bottom of the paper or
schedule: "I, A. B. do swear that the above is a true rental; and that I
truly, and _bona fide_, have such an estate in law or equity, to and
for my own use and benefit, of and in the lands, tenements, or
hereditaments, above described, over and above what will satisfy and
clear all incumbrances that may affect the same; and that such estate
hath not been granted or made over to me fraudulently, on purpose
to qualify me to be a member of this house. So help me God!" It was
provided that the said paper or schedule, with the oath aforesaid,
should be carefully kept by the clerk, to be inspected by the members of
the house of commons, without fee or reward: that if any person elected
to serve in any future parliament, should presume to sit or vote as a
member of the house of commons before he had delivered in such a paper
or schedule, and taken the oath aforesaid, or should not be qualified
according to the true intent or meaning of this act, his election should
be void; and every person so sitting and voting should forfeit a certain
sum to be recovered, by such persons as should sue for the same by
action of debt, bill, plaint, or information, whereon no essoign,
privilege, protection, or wager of law should be allowed, and only one
imparlance: that if any person should have delivered in, and sworn
to his qualification as aforesaid, and taken his seat in the house of
commons, yet at any time after should, during t