The Privy Council, upon being satisfied by any applicants after inquiry that it is expedient for the public so to do, may, by order, provide for retaining any court leet or other court or any officer, whether as returning officer for the return of members to serve in Parliament, or as town clerk for the purpose of the registration of parliamentary voters, or otherwise, and for the appointment of any officer so retained, subject in every case to such exceptions, restrictions, and modifications as seem expedient.
(2)Subject to the provisions of any Order of the Privy Council, any person who at the passing of this Act holds an office by virtue of which he is such returning officer or town clerk as aforesaid may during the time limited for the tenure of his office continue to perform the duties of such returning officer or town clerk as aforesaid, and on the expiration of such time, or his otherwise ceasing to perform the duties, the said duties shall, so far as regards the returning officer, be performed in manner provided by the Act of the session of the seventeenth and eighteenth years of the reign of Her present Majesty, chapter fifty-seven, intituled " An Act to " amend the law relating to the appointment of returning officers " in certain cases," and so far as regards the town clerk shall be performed by the person in the parliamentary borough who is town clerk within the meaning of section one hundred and one of the Parliamentary Registration Act, 1843.