A

COMPENDIOUS ABSTRACT

OF THE

PUBLIC GENERAL ACTS

OF THE UNITED KINGDOM

OF

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND:

7 WILLIAM IV.-1837.

BEING THE THIRD SESSION OF THE TWELFTH PARLIAMENT

OF SUCH

UNITED KINGDOM.

FROM

THE LAW JOURNAL.

VOL. XV.

LONDON:

Printed by James Holmes, 4, Took's Court, Chancery Lane.

PUBLISHED BY E. B. INCE, No. 5, QUALITY COURT, CHANCERY LANE.

MDCCCXXXVII.

BEGUN

AT WESTMINSTER,

THE

19TH FEBRUARY, ANNO DOMINI 1835,

AND

FROM THENCE CONTINUed,

BY SEVERAL PROROGATIONS,

TO THE

31ST JANUARY, 1837.

AN ACT to suspend for a limited Time the Operation of Two Acts passed in the last Session of Parliament, for registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England, and for Marriages in England. (24th February 1837.)

By this ACT,

ABSTRACT OF THE ENACTMEnts.

1. How recited Acts shall be construed as to certain dates.-Proviso.

2. First quarterly deliveries of copies of registers, &c. to be in October.

3. Act may be amended or repealed this session.

After reciting the passing of 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 86, and 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 85, and that by reason of the provisions therein contained the said Acts would come into force on the 1st day of March now next ensuing; but it is expedient that the full operation of the same should be further delayed :

It is Enacted,

:

1. That, subject to the proviso hereinafter contained, the said two Acts respectively shall be construed as if the words "last Day of June" had been inserted in the said Acts instead of the words "First Day of March", in every place where the lastmentioned words are found in the said Acts respectively: Provided always, that the Registrar of every diocese shall, within fifteen days after the 1st day of March now next ensuing, make out and send, through the Post Office, directed to the Registrar General of Births, Deaths, and Marriages at his office, a list of all chapels belonging to the Church of England within that diocese wherein marriages may be solemnized according to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, as if this Act had not been passed.

II. That notwithstanding anything in the said Acts contained, or either of them, the first certified copies of all the entries of births and deaths, or first certificate that there has been no birth or death registered in the register book to be kept by any registrar of births and deaths, and the first certified copy of all the entries of marriages, or first certificate that there has been no marriage entered in the register book kept by any rector, vicar, curate, registrar of marriages, registering officer of the Society of Friends, or secretary of a synagogue, shall be made and given to the Superintendent Registrar in the month of October now next ensuing, and shall contain and certify all the entries made up to the time at which the same shall be so certified to be a true copy, or that there have been no entries up to that time, as the case may be.

III. That this Act may be altered, amended, or repealed by any Act passed in this session of Parliament.

CAP. II.-IRELAND.

AN ACT to amend an Act passed in the Seventh Year of His present Majesty, for consolidating and amending the Laws relating to the Presentment of Public Money by Grand Juries in Ireland. (24th February 1837.)

By this ACT,

After reciting that by 6 & 7 Will. 4. c. 116, it is, amongst other things, enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any grand jury of any county, county of a city, or county of a town (except the county and city of Dublin), at any assizes, to make any presentment (save and except in the cases in the said Act specially reserved and excepted) for the execution of any public work whatsoever, or for raising any money, unless under the authority and by virtue of the provisions of the said Act: And that since the passing of the said Act doubts have been entertained whether certain presentments can be legally made by the several grand juries in Ireland at the next spring assizes, the presentment sessions at which application should have been made for such presentments not having been appointed or held under the said recited Act; and that it is expedient that such doubts should be removed, and that the said Act should in other respects be amended :—

It is Enacted,

1. That it shall and may be lawful for the grand juries of each county, county of a city, and county of a town in Ireland, at the next spring assizes, to make presentments in the same manner as they would have been authorized to do in case the several previous presentment sessions for their respective counties, necessary in that behalf, had been appointed and held and the several applications thereat made under the provisions of the said recited Act; and all such applications, and all presentments of such grand juries, and the several proceedings of the previous presentment sessions and of preceding grand juries thereon, bona fide made and entered into, either according to the said Act or to any law in force immediately before the passing thereof, shall be good and valid to all intents and purposes whatsoever.

And after reciting that doubts have arisen how far the county of Dublin and the county of the city of Dublin are within the operation of the said Act, and that it is expedient to remove such doubts ;

It is Declared and Enacted,

II. That the said Act shall not be construed to affect or extend to the said counties or either of them, save and except only in so far as provision is by the said Act made requiring the grand juries of such counties to transact their fiscal business in open court, and for the more speedy and effectual repair by the Commissioners for the Extension and Promotion of Public Works in Ireland, upon the application of His Majesty's Postmaster General, of roads upon which His Majesty's mails are carried, which provisions shall remain in full force and effect.

III. That a notice in writing of every application for any work intended to be made at any presentment sessions holden under the provisions of the said recited Act shall be affixed, by or on behalf of the person or persons intending to make such application, on or immediately adjacent to the doors of every police station or barrack within such parish or parishes wherein the work to which such applications shall relate is proposed to be executed, and at the places (if any) appointed by the grand jury for posting notices therein; and such notices shall be so affixed at the time in the said Act directed and a copy of every such notice shall be delivered to the clerk of the petty sessions of the district where the work for which such application is intended to be made, or the greater portion thereof, is to be performed, instead of to the clerk of the petty sessions of the district off which it is proposed that the larger portion of the expense of such work is to be raised, as by the said Act is directed; and the notice of every such application shall be delivered to the county surveyor ten days before the day appointed for holding the first presentment sessions in each county after every assizes: Provided always, that the delivery of any such notice to the baronial constable fifteen days before the day appointed for holding such sessions shall be deemed to be due notice to the said county surveyor; and any baronial constable to whom any such notice may be delivered shall transmit the same to the said county surveyor within five days after he shall have received the same; and it shall not be necessary to deliver any such notice other than the application itself to the secretary of the grand jury.

IV. That all applications for works the expense whereof is by the said Act directed to be levied, one half off the county and the other half off any barony or baronies in which such works or any part thereof may be situate, shall be made at the presentment sessions to be holden for the barony in which such work or the greater portion thereof is locally situated.

And after reciting that by the said recited Act of the last session of Parliament it is amongst other things enacted, that no presentment for any fever hospital or dispensary established by private subscriptions or donations shall be made in case it shall appear that the salary of the medical attendant during the last year amounted to one-half of the sum to which the subscriptions, donations, and the sum presented would amount: And that the said enactment hath been found inconvenient ;—

It is Enacted,

v. That the said enactment shall be and the same is hereby repealed.

VI. That it shall and may be lawful for any two Magistrates, who, in the absence of the coroner of any county, may have held any inquest relative to the death of any person, and before whom any physician, surgeon, apothecary, chemist, or other person practising medicine or surgery shall, in obedience to a summons from such Magistrates, attend and be examined as a witness at such inquest, to grant such witness an order, signed by such Magistrates, upon the treasurer of the county wherein such inquest shall be held, for such sum, not exceeding 31., as to such Magistrates shall seem fit; and the amount of all such payments shall be presented in the same manner as any sums which coroners are by the said recited Act authorized to grant to medical witnesses; provided that such Magistrates shall certify, as the coroner is directed, the amount and particulars of all such sums to the presentment sessions, and that such payment shall have been approved thereat.

VII. That the power of any Judge of Assize to order and of grand juries to present, under the provisions of the said Act, any sum not exceeding 51. for the maintenance of deserted children, shall extend to cases where any child shall have been left exposed and deserted before the passing of the said Act: Provided always, that such presentment shall be applied for and levied and paid in the manner by the said Act particularly directed.

VIII. That the county treasurers of the cities and towns in the fifth and sixth classes of the Schedule marked (S.) to the said recited Act annexed shall (except in those cases where the grand juries of such cities and towns shall, with the consent of the Court, determine on paying such officers by a poundage on their receipts,) be paid and remunerated for their respective duties, services, and expenses by annual salaries only, payable half-yearly at each assizes by equal moieties, and not exceeding the amount respectively limited in the said Schedule as the salary of the clerks of the peace in the same cities and towns in each of the said classes; and the grand juries of such cities and towns at each assizes shall and may present (without previous application to presentment sessions) for each such treasurer, to be raised off the county at large, the moiety of such annual salary: Provided always, that in case of any negligent or insufficient discharge of duty by any such treasurer, it shall and may be lawful to and for the grand jury of any such city or town, with the express sanction of the Court, but not otherwise, to present any sum or sums less in the whole than the moiety of the annual salary hereby specified to be paid to such treasurer, or to withhold or refuse to make any presentment whatever for such treasurer.

IX. That the sheriff of each county in Ireland, in which there are not ten baronies or half baronies, shall, in framing the panel of persons summoned to serve on the grand jury of such county at each assizes, after the passing of this Act, observe the rule hereinafter following; (that is to say,) he shall place first on such panel for each barony or half barony in such county the name of some person having in such barony or half barony freehold lands of the yearly value of 50l. and upwards, or leasehold lands of the yearly value of 100l. over and above the amount of rent payable out of or for such leasehold lands, so that as far as can be one fit and competent person, having lands of the value aforesaid, and resident in each barony, if the same can be found therein respectively, shall be placed upon such panel; and having in such manner selected such one fit and proper person for each barony and half barony, the sheriff shall complete the said panel as now by law authorized and directed, and the persons taken from the panel so framed shall be and constitute the grand jury or inquest of such county; anything in any writ, precept, or venire facias expressed or directed, or any law, statute, usage, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding, and as if such grand jury were altogether composed of freeholders: Provided always, that no presentment or indictment made or found by any grand jury shall be liable to be traversed, quashed, or in any manner impeached by reason of the grand jury not being selected as aforesaid; but any sheriff of such county who shall wilfully omit or neglect to follow the rule hereby made for the selection of the grand jury shall be liable, on a complaint made to the Judge of Assize, to be fined such sum as to such Judge shall seem proper.

x. That in all cases in which, under the powers vested in them by law in that behalf, the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland shall agree with any grand jury to grant one moiety of the expense of any road or other public work, on such grand jury securing the payment of the other moiety thereof by presentment, it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Commissioners either to execute the said work by persons employed by them, or to permit such grand jury to execute the same in the manner required by the said recited Act for other public works of the like nature: Provided always, that it shall not be lawful for such grand jury in any case to make a presentment for payment of such moiety, except after and upon an application for such work duly made to and approved at a presentment sessions in the manner required by the said Act.

XI. That whenever the said Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland shall, under the provisions of the said Act, 6 & 7 Will. 4. or of the Act, 1 & 2 Will. 4, intituled, 'An act for the Extension and Promotion of Public Works in Ireland,' have undertaken the repair or maintenance of any public road, it shall and may be lawful for the said Commissioners at all times thereafter to exercise all and every the same powers and authorities which are now vested in the surveyor of any county, or the contractor for any road, under and by virtue of the said Act, 6 & 7 Will. 4, or otherwise howsoever, or as the said Commisisoners by the Act, 6 Geo. 4. c. 101, intituled, An Act to provide for the repairing, maintaining, and keeping in repair certain Roads and Bridges in Ireland,' as far as the said Commissioners may consider the same or any of them necessary for the preservation and good order of such roads, and the removal of all nuisances thereon, as also for the purpose of obtaining materials for such repairs or maintenance which they shall have so undertaken.

And after reciting that doubts have existed whether in counties where the grand jury cess is applotted upon both lands and bouses, the bigh constables or other collectors of grand jury cess in preparing certain returns to be by them made and delivered to the secretary of the grand jury, pursuant to the directions of the said recited Act, ought to include in such returns the names of persons occupying houses;

It is Enacted, for the Removal of such Doubts,

XII. That in such counties as aforesaid the high constables or other collectors of grand jury cess shall, in preparing said returns, include therein the names of persons in actual occupation of houses, in the same manner in all respects as by the said recited Act they are directed to proceed in framing such returns with respect to other persons chargeable with grand jury cess on account of other property.

And after reciting that by the said recited Act it is amongst other things enacted, that the grand jury of every county shall at each assizes appoint a proper person resident in the barony to be high constable or collector thereof: And that the said enactment has been found inconvenient, so far as it requires that the high constable or collector shall reside within the barony ;— It is Enacted,

XIII. That it shall not be necessary that the person so appointed to collect shall actually reside within the barony, provided it shall appear to the Magistrates and rate-payers assembled at the sessions of the barony, and to the grand jury, that his usual place of residence is sufficiently contiguous thereto; anything in the said recited Act to the contrary in anywise notwithstanding.