[197:2] For England, 2 Will. IV., c. 45. For Scotland, 2-3 Will. IV., c. 65. For Ireland 2-3 Will. IV., c. 88. [198:1] Scotland obtained eight additional members, and Ireland five. [199:1] In several cases small Scotch counties are combined in pairs for the election of a single member, but this antedated the Act of 1885. [199:2] Whereof twenty are in England, and one each in Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. [200:1] This is not because the county constituencies are essentially larger or smaller than those of the boroughs. The Borough of Wandsworth, for example, had, in 1901, a population of 179,877. These figures are taken from single-member constituencies; for it so happens that the two-member boroughs, when their population is divided by two, are neither among the largest or the smallest. Com. Papers, 1905, LXII., 333 _et seq._ [201:1] 39-40 Geo. III., c. 67, Art. 4. [201:2] _Ibid._, Art. 5. [202:1] 8 Hen. VI., c. 7. [203:1] In Scotland the value of the land, if not of "old extent," had to be £400 a year. In Ireland an Act of 1829 had raised the limit of annual value to £10, to restrain the practice of manufacturing fagot voters on the eve of an election. [203:2] In Ireland the borough franchise was multifarious as in England. In Scotland it was wholly in the hands of the councils of the royal burghs. [203:3] 2-3 Will. IV., c. 45, § 26. [203:4] _Ibid._, § 18. [204:1] 2-3 Will. IV., c. 45, §§ 19, 20. The last provision was added during the passage of the bill, and is known from its proposer as the Chandos Clause. [204:2] _Ibid._, § 33. [204:3] _Ibid._, § 32; but freemen thereafter admitted could vote only if made such by birth or servitude. [204:4] _Ibid._, § 33. By § 31, 40_s._ freeholders retained the franchise in boroughs that are counties by themselves. [204:5] 2-3 Will. IV., c. 65. [204:6] _Ibid._, c. 88. [205:1] Com. Papers, 1831-1832, XXXVI., 489. [205:2] It is interesting to observe that of these, 108,219, or nearly two fifths were freemen, scot and lot voters, potwallopers and other persons whose ancient rights had been preserved. They belonged, of course, only to the old boroughs. Election Returns (Boroughs and Counties), Com. Papers, 1866, LVII., 215, p. 8. [206:1] These figures, about the proportion of electors and members to population, are taken from a Report on Electoral Expenses, Com. Papers, 1834, IX., 263, App. A. [206:2] Pp. 47 _et seq._ [206:3] 13-14 Vic., c. 69. [206:4] In reading the debates on these bills a foreigner is often puzzled by the distinction between ratable value and clear yearly value. The latter is what is called gross estimated rental in the Rate Book, while the ratable value is supposed to be the net yearly value, and it is obtained by making a reduction from the gross, which varies from place to place, but is on the average about ten per cent.