Post Office (Postmaster-General) Act 1866
(29 & 30 Vict c.55, 30th July 1866)

An Act to enable the Postmaster General to sit in the House of Commons.
[30th July 1866.]

'WHEREAS it has been considered that the Office of Postmaster General is a "new Office or Place of Profit under the Crown" according to the true Intent of the Act passed in the Sixth Year of the Reign of Queen Anne, Chapter Seven, and that the Person holding the same is thereby incapacitated from sitting or voting as a Member of the House of Commons, and it is expedient that Provision should be made for enabling the Holder of the said Office to sit in the House of Commons:'

Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, as follows:

1. The Office of Postmaster General shall not, after the passing of this Act, be deemed to be a new Office or Place of Profit within the Meaning of the said Act of the Sixth Year of the Reign of Queen Anne, or such an Office as disqualifies the Holder thereof from being elected or sitting or voting as a Member of the House of Commons; subject to the Proviso that if a Member of the House of Commons accept the said Office, he shall thereby, though eligible for Re-election, vacate his Seat, and a new Writ shall issue for an Election as if he were dead.