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a cottage belonging to his employer, and the real point at issue was
whether (the so-called "service franchise" not having then become
law) he had an independent occupation and rating apart from his master.
The scope of the section in question was however enlarged by section
14 of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878, which also
by section 5, altered the interpretation of the word "dwelling-house," by
enacting that "in and for the purposes of the Representation of the
People Act. 1867, the term 'dwelling-house' shall include any part
of a house where that part is separately occupied as a dwelling,"'
omitting the words of the Act of 1867, which required separate rating.
Section 14 of this Act provided as follows:—"Whereas, by section 19
of the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, the Overseers in
making out the Poor Rate are required in every case, whether the rate
is collected from the owner or occupier, or the owner is liable to the
payment of the rate instead of the occupier, to enter into the occupiers'
column of the rate book the name of the occupier of every rateable
hereditament, and it is thereby declared that every such occupier shall
be deemed to be duly rated for any qualification or franchise as
therein mentioned; and whereas doubts have been entertained as to the
application of this enactment, and it is expedient to remove them, be it
therefore enacted, that the recited enactment shall not be deemed to
apply exclusively to cases where an agreement has been made under
section 3 of the same Act, or ivhere an order has been made under
section 4 of the same Act, but shall be of general application."
In the group of cases known as "Bradley v. Baylis," "Morfee v.
Novis" and "Kirby v. Biffin," L.R. 8 Q.BD. 195, argued before a
very strong Court of Appeal in December, 1881, it was undoubtedly
decided that the occupiers of rooms in "Let Out" houses are entitled
to be placed upon the Parliamentary and Municipal Register as
occupiers of dwelling-houses, but in so deciding, some of the Judges
(notably the late Master of the Rolls) laid stress upon the point, that
section 5 of the Parliamentary and Municipal Registration Act, 1878,
omitted in its definition of "dwelling-house" the necessity for its
being separately rated which formed so important a part of its
interpretation in the Representation of the People Act, 1867.
In 1884, a further Representation of the People Act was passed,
which by section 9 (2.) enacted as follows:—"In every part of the