Excerpt from The Twentieth Century Reform Bill Since the time of the Chartist agitation, no attempt has been made to formulate a thorough scheme for the reform of the laws regulating our electoral system, if the confused, inconsistent, and Often unintelligible mass of Acts Of Parliament on the statute book can be dignified by such a name. From the Statute of Edward I., establishing freedom of election, down to the Registration Act, 1908, there have been over one hundred and sixty Acts to regulate the franchise, registration of electors, . And procedure at elections, etc.; of which more than one hundred and twenty have been enacted since the passing of the Reform Act of I832 - a measure intended by Lord John Russell to settle finally the question of reform. With the single exception Of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Act no attempt has been made to codify any section of electoral law. One Act of Parlia ment contradicts another, and a reverence for antiquated modes of draughtsmanship has only made confusion worse confounded. A vote is given to every male householder, only to be taken away from him by a cumbrous and iniquitous system Of registration, with a long term Of qualification, and an intentionally complex arrangement of claim. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.