Imatges de pàgina
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drawing, accepting, endorsing or signing any such Bill or Note, or lending or advancing or forbearing any Money as aforesaid, or taking more than the present Rate of legal Interest, in Great Britain and Ireland respectively, for the Loan or Forbearance of Money as aforesaid, be subject to any Penalties under any Statute or Law relating to Usury, or any other Penalty or Forfeiture; any thing in any Law or Statute relating to Usury, or any other Law whatsoever in force in any Part of the United Kingdom, to the contrary notwithstanding: Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall extend to the Loan or Forbearacne of any Money upon Security of any Lands, Tenements, or Hereditaments, or any Estate or Interest therein.

the legal Rate

of Interest,

II. Provided always, and be it enacted, That nothing in this Act Five per Cent. contained shall be construed to enable any Person or Persons to to be considered claim, in any Court of Law or Equity, more than Five per Cent, Interest on any Account or on any Contract or Engagement, notwithstanding they may be relieved from the Penalties against Usury, unless it shall appear to the Court that any different Rate of Interest was agreed to between the Parties.

except, &c.

III. Provided always, and be it enacted, That nothing herein Not to affect contained shall extend or be construed to extend to repeal or the Law as to affect any Statute relating to Pawnbrokers, but that all Laws Pawnbrokers. touching and concerning Pawnbrokers shall remain in full Force and Effect, to all Intents and Purposes whatsoever, as if this Act had not been passed.

IV. And be it enacted, That this Act shall continue in force Continuance of until the First Day of January One thousand eight hundred and Act. forty-two. V. And be it enacted, That this Act may be amended or repealed by any Act to be passed in this Session of Parliament.

CA P. XXXVIII.

An Act to amend the Jurisdiction for the Trial of Election
Petitions.
[17th August 1839.]
WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the Laws relating to

Act may be amended, &c.

42 G. 3. c. 106.

the Trial of controverted Elections or Returns of Mem'bers to serve in Parliament;' be it 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, That an Suspension of Act passed in the Ninth Year of the Reign of King George the 9 G. 4. c. 22. Fourth, intituled An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating and Part of to the Trial of controverted Elections or Returns of Members to serve in Parliament, and also so much of an Act passed in the Forty-second Year of the Reign of King George the Third, intituled An Act for regulating the Trial of controverted Elections or Returns of Members to serve in the United Parliament for Ireland, as requires the Parties appearing before any Select Committee to interchange before the said Committee Lists of the Votes and Names of the Voters to which either of the Parties purposes and intends to object, or as provides that no Witness shall be called or examined to any thing not specified in such Lists, shall, as to any Election Petition presented after the End of this present Session Ꮇ Ꮞ

of

What shall be deemed Election Petitions.

Recognizances to be entered

into by Petitioners.

Sureties to make Affidavit of Sufficiency, and to be described.

of Parliament, be suspended, and be of no Force and Effect until the End of the Second Session of the First Parliament which may be called after the Dissolution of this present Parliament, except as to any thing done under either of the said Acts; but this Enactment shall not revive any Act or Part of any Act repealed by the first-recited Act.

II. And be it enacted, That every Petition which shall be presented to the House of Commons, within such Time as shall be from Time to Time limited by the House, complaining of an undue Election or Return of a Member or Members to serve in Parliament, or complaining that no Return has been made to any Writ issued for the Election of any Member or Members to serve in Parliament on or before the Day on which such Writ is made returnable, or, if such Writ be issued during any Session or Prorogation of Parliament, that no Return has been made to the same within Fifty-two Days after the Day on which such Writ bears Date, or that any Return is not according to the Requisition of the Writ, or complaining of the special Matters contained in any such Return, shall be deemed an Election Petition; but no Election Petition shall be received by the House unless at the Time it is presented it shall be subscribed by some Person claiming therein to have had a Right to vote at the Election to which the same shall relate, or to have had a Right to be returned or elected thereat, or alleging himself to have been a Candidate at the Election.

III. And be it enacted, That before any Election Petition shall be presented to the House the Person or Persons subscribing the same, or some One or more of them, shall personally enter into a Recognizance to our Sovereign Lady the Queen, according to the Form given in the Schedule (A.) to this Act annexed, for the Sum of One thousand Pounds, with One, Two, Three, or Four sufficient Sureties, either in the same Recognizance or in separate Recognizances, for the additional Sum of One thousand Pounds, in a Sum or Sums of not less than Two hundred and fifty Pounds each, for the Payment of all Costs and Expences which any Committee of the House selected to try such Petition in the Manner hereinafter provided shall adjudge to be payable by the Person or Persons subscribing the said Petition, and also for the Payment of all Costs and Expences which, in case such Person or Persons shall fail to appear before the General Committee at such Time or Times as shall be fixed for choosing a Committee to try such Petition, or in case such Petition shall be withdrawn, as herein-after allowed, shall become due from the Person or Persons subscribing such Petition to any Witness summoned in his or their Behalf, or to any Party who shall appear in opposition to such Petition.

IV. And be it enacted, That every Person who shall enter into any such Recognizance as Surety for any other Person shall testify upon Oath in Writing, to be sworn at the Time of entering into the said Recognizance, and before the same Person by whom his Recognizance shall be taken, that he is seised or possessed of Real or Personal Estate, or both, above what will satisfy his Debts, of the clear Value of the Sum for which he shall be bound by his said Recognizance, and every such Affidavit shall be annexed to the Recognizance; and that in every such Recognizance shall be men

tioned the Name and usual Place of Residence of the Persons proposed to become Sureties as aforesaid, with such other Description of the proposed Sureties as may be sufficient to identify them easily.

V. And be it enacted, That the Speaker of the House of Com- Examiner of mons shall appoint a fit Person to be Examiner of Recognizances, Recognizances and every Person so appointed shall hold his Office during the to be appointed. Pleasure of the Speaker, and shall execute the Duties of his Office

conformably to such Directions as he may from Time to Time receive from the Speaker.

Examiner.

VI. And be it enacted, That in case of the Illness, temporary Provision for Disability, or unavoidable Absence of the Examiner of Recogni- temporary zances, the Speaker may appoint a fit Person to perform the Duties Disability of of Examiner of Recognizances during such Illness, Disability, or Absence, and the Person so appointed shall, while performing such Duties, have all the Powers and be subject to all the Provisions herein contained concerning the Examiner of Recognizances.

be entered into.

VII. And be it enacted, That every Recognizance herein-before How Recogrequired shall be entered into, and every Affidavit herein-before nizances are to required shall be sworn, before the Examiner of Recognizances, or One of Her Majesty's Justices of the Peace, and the said Examiner and also every Justice of the Peace is hereby empowered to take the same; and every such Recognizance and Affidavit which shall be taken before a Justice, being duly certified under the Hand of the Justice before whom they shall have been taken, shall be delivered to the Examiner of Recognizances.

VIII. Provided always, and be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for any Person by whom the said Petition shall be signed, instead of entering into a Recognizance for the full Amount of the Sums herein-before required, to pay into the Bank of England, on the joint Account of himself and of the Examiner of Recognizances as Trustees for the like Purposes for which the Recognizance is hereinbefore required, any Amount of Money which he shall think fit, in a Sum or Sums not less than Two hundred and fifty Pounds each; and in such Case the Person by whom the Petition shall be signed shall still be required to enter into his personal Recognizance for the Sum of One thousand Pounds, but shall be required to find a Surety or Sureties as aforesaid for so much only of the additional Sum of One thousand Pounds as the Sum paid into the Bank shall fall short of the Sum of One thousand Pounds; and no Money shall be deemed for the Purposes of this Act to be paid into the Bank of England until a Bank Receipt for the same shall be procured and delivered to the Examiner of Recognizances.

Option of paying Money into the Bank instead of finding Security.

IX. And be it enacted, That in every Case in which Payment of Declaration of any Money as aforesaid shall have been made into the Bank of Trust. England the said Trustees shall be bound, in the first place, to satisfy out of the said Money all the Costs and Expences for securing Payment of which such Investment was made, or so much thereof as can be thereby satisfied, and thereafter to transfer the Residue (if any), wholly discharged of the said Trust, to the separate Account of the Trustee by whom the Petition was signed. X. And be it enacted, That in case of the Death, Resignation, Provision for Dismissal, or legal Disability of any Examiner of Recognizances the Change of while such Trustee, it shall be lawful for the Speaker to certify

the

Tr

No Petition to

be received unless endorsed by Recognizances.

Examiner of

Names of

Sureties to be
kept by the
Examiner of
Recognizances.

Sureties may be objected to.

Notice of Objections to be published in the Office, and Copies may be taken.

Examiner of
Recognizances
to decide on the
Objections.

the Fact under his Hand, and thereupon to nominate under his Hand another Person to be Trustee in his Room; and the Person so nominated shall, as to the said Trust Money, come in the Room of the Examiner, and shall be qualified to act and shall act in all respects touching the said Trust Money as if he had been one of the original Trustees.

XI. And be it enacted, That no Election Petition shall be received unless at the Time it is presented to the House it shall be endorsed by a Certificate under the Hand of the Examiner of Recognizances that the Recognizance herein-before required has been entered into and received by him with the Affidavits thereunto annexed, and if the Recognizance shall not have been taken for the whole Amount that the necessary Amount of Money has been paid into the Bank of England as herein-before required.

XII. And be it enacted, That on or before the Day when any such Petition shall be presented to the House the Names and usual Places of Residence of the Sureties, when there are Sureties, shall be entered in a Book to be kept by the Examiner of Recognizances in his Office; and the said Book, and also the Recognizance and Affidavits and Bank Receipt for any Money paid into the Bank of England, if any, shall be open to the Inspection of all Parties concerned.

XIII. And be it enacted, That it shall be lawful for any Sitting Member petitioned against, or for any Electors petitioning and admitted Parties to defend the Election or Return, to object to the Sureties or any of them who shall have entered into such Recognizance on the Ground of Insufficiency, or that a Surety is dead, or that he cannot be found or ascertained from the Want of a sufficient Description in the Recognizance, or that a Person named in the Recognizance has not acknowledged the same; provided that the Ground of Objection shall be stated in Writing, under the Hand of the objecting Party or his or their Agent, and shall be delivered to the Examiner of Recognizances within Ten Days after the Presentation of the Petition, if the Surety objected to reside in England, or within Fourteen Days after the Presentation of the Petition if the Surety objected to reside in Scotland or Ireland.

XIV. And be it enacted, That as soon as any such Statement of Objection shall be received by the Examiner of Recognizances he shall put up an Acknowledgment thereof in some conspicuous Part of his Office, and shall appoint a Day for hearing such Objections not less than Three and not more than Five Days from the Day on which he shall have received such Statement; and the Petitioner or Petitioners, and his or their Agents, shall be allowed to examine and take Copies of every such Objection.

XV. And be it enacted, That at the Time appointed the Examiner of Recognizances shall inquire into the alleged Insufficiency of the Surety or Sureties objected to, on the Grounds stated in the Notice of Objection, but not on any other Ground, and for the Purpose of such Inquiry the Examiner of Recognizances is hereby authorized to examine upon Oath any Persons who may be tendered by either Party for Examination by him, and also to receive in Evidence any Affidavit relating to the Matter in dispute before him which shall be sworn before any Master of the High Court of Chancery or Justice of the Peace, each of whom is hereby autho

rized to take and certify such Affidavit, and the Examiner of Recognizances shall have Power, if he shall think fit, to adjourn the said Inquiry from Day to Day, until he shall decide on the Validity of such Objection, and, if he shall think fit, to award Costs to be paid by either Party to the other, which Costs shall be taxed and recovered as herein-after provided for the Costs and Expences of prosecuting or opposing Election Petitions, and the Decision of the Examiner of Recognizances shall be final and conclusive against all Parties.

XVI. And be it enacted, That if any Surety shall die, and his Death shall be stated as a Ground of Objection, before the End of the Time allowed for objecting to the Sureties, it shall be lawful for the Petitioner to pay into the Bank of England, on the joint Account of himself and of the Examiner of Recognizances, the Sum for which the deceased Surety was bound, and upon the Delivery of a Bank Receipt for such Sum to the Examiner of Recognizances within Three Days after the Statement of such Objection the Sureties shall be deemed unobjectionable, if no Ground of Objection shall be stated to any other of the Sureties within the Time before mentioned for stating Objections to Sureties.

In case of Death
of a Surety,
the Money

into the Bank.

may be paid

ther or not

XVII. And be it enacted, That as soon as the Time for stating Examiner of any Objection to the Sureties shall have elapsed after the Presenta- Recognizances tion of any Petition, during which the Examiner of Recognizances to report wheshall have received no Statement of Objection to the Sureties or Sureties are any of them, and also whenever he shall have received and decided objectionable. upon a Statement of Objection, he shall report to the Speaker whether or not the Sureties to such Petition are objectionable, and shall make out a List of all Election Petitions on which he shall have reported to the Speaker that the Sureties are unobjectionable, in which List the Petitions shall be arranged in the Order in which they shall be so reported upon, and a Copy of such List shall be kept in the Office of the Examiner of Recognizances, and shall be open to the Inspection of all Parties concerned.

XVIII. And be it enacted, That it shall be competent to the Petitioner or Petitioners at any Time after the Presentation of the Petition to withdraw the same, upon giving Notice in Writing under his Hand or their Hands, or under the Hand of his or their Agent, to the Speaker, and also to the Sitting Member or his Agent, that it is not intended to proceed with the Petition; and in such Case the Petitioner or Petitioners shall be liable to the Payment of such Costs and Expences as may have been incurred by the Sitting Member, to be taxed as herein-after provided.

XIX. And be it enacted, That if at any Time before the Appointment of a Select Committee to try any such Petition as hereinafter provided the Speaker of the House of Commons shall be informed, by a Certificate in Writing subscribed by Two of the Members of the said House, of the Death of any Sitting Member whose Election or Return is complained of in such Petition, or of the Death of any Member returned upon a Double Return whose Election or Return is complained of in such Petition, or that a Writ of Summons has been issued under the Great Seal of Great Britain to summon any such Member to Parliament as a Peer of Great Britain; or if the House of Commons shall have resolved that the Seat of any such Member is by Law become

vacant;

How Petitions may be withdrawn.

Proceedings

when the Seat becomes vacant,

or the Sitting Member de

clines to defend his Return.

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