Dewsbury.
_Member of Parliament electing himself._--In the biographical notices of
the author of an _Inquiry into the Rise and Growth of the Royal Prerogative
in England_, 1849, I find the following curious circumstances:
"The writ for election (of a member for the county of Bute) was
transmitted to the sheriff, Mr. McLeod Bannatine, afterwards Lord
Bannatine. He named the day, and issued his precept for the election.
When the day of election arrived, Mr. Bannatine was the only freeholder
present. As freeholder he voted himself chairman of the meeting; as
sheriff he produced the writ and receipt for election, read the writ
and the oaths against bribery at elections; as sheriff he administered
the oaths of supremacy, &c., to himself as chairman; he signed the
oaths as chairman and as sheriff; as chairman he named the clerk to the
meeting, and called over the roll of freeholders; he proposed the
candidate and declared him elected; he dictated and signed the minutes
of election; as sheriff he made an indenture of election between
himself as sheriff and himself as chairman, and transmitted it to the
crown office."
Can any of your correspondents furnish me with a similar case?