assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

1. The salaries and emoluments of the petty sessions clerks in Ireland shall not after the passing of this Act be raised or lowered on account of the amount of fines levied in the court of which they are clerks, or on account of the amount of petty sessions stamps used therein, but may be raised on account of the length of service, or for merit, or for new duties attached to the office, and shall not be liable to be reduced below the amount of the salary and emoluments at which the same were fixed at the time of his appointment, or any time during his tenure of office: Provided always, that it shall be lawful to reduce the salary for the office of clerk of any petty

sessions court when the office is vacant.

2. To secure the Petty Sessions Clerks Fund on which the salaries and retiring allowances are charged from variation, it shall be lawful for the registrar of petty sessions clerks to deduct from any sum or sums payable by him to local authorities in Ireland such sum or sums as the Lord Lieutenant or Lords Justices or other Chief Governor or Chief Governors of Ireland shall for any calendar year by any order or orders determine, and to add the amount of such deduction to the Petty Sessions Clerks Fund.

3. It shall not be necessary for a petty sessions clerk to enter into a new bond with sureties on each occasion of increase in his salary, nor, except when by reason of the death or insolvency of his sureties or for other sufficient reason the Lord Lieutenant may consider such to be necessary, shall a new bond be required, but the original bond as against the original sureties shall remain of full force and effect notwithstanding such increase of salary.

4. "Local authorities" shall mean the treasurers of counties and treasurers of boroughs to whom the surplus moneys arising from the sale of licences are payable under the Dogs Regulation (Ireland) Act, 1865, and any Act amending the same.

"Petty sessions clerks " shall include the registrar of petty sessions clerks and his clerks.

5. The superannuation or retiring allowance of petty sessions clerks retiring from office through age or infirmity shall be estimated upon the salary of the office at the time of retiring, and shall be chargeable on the petty sessions clerks fund.

6. This Act may be cited as the Petty Sessions Clerks (Ireland) Act, 1881.

An Act for further regulating the Transmission of Newspapers.

(18th July 1881.)

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, as follows:

1. For the purposes of this Act the Channel

Islands and the Isle of Man shall be deemed parts of the United Kingdom.

2. From and after the thirtieth day of September one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one, so much of section six of the Post Office Act, 1870, as requires that a publication, in order to be a newspaper for the purposes of that Act, shall be printed on a sheet or sheets unstitched, shall be repealed, but such repeal shall not extend to a supplement to a newspaper.

An Act to amend the Law with respect to the Acquisition of Land and the Execution of Instruments for the purposes of the Post Office.

(18th July 1881.)

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, as follows:

Preliminary.

1. This Act may be cited as the Post Office (Land) Act, 1881.

The Acts set forth in the Schedule to this Act are in this Act referred to and may be cited by the short title in the third column of that schedule mentioned, and the said Acts, together with this Act, may be cited together as the Post Office (Management) Acts, 1837 to 1881.

This Act shall be deemed to be a Post Office Act within the meaning of the Post Office (Offences) Act, 1837.

2. This Act shall come into operation on the first day of September one thousand eight hundred and eighty-one (which day is in this Act referred to as the commencement of this Act).

Acquisition of Land.

3. Whereas by the Post Office Duties Act, 1840, the Postmaster-General is constituted a body corporate for the purpose of holding and taking conveyances and leases of lands for the service of the Post Office, and it is expedient to give further powers for the acquisition of such lands: Be it therefore enacted as follows:

(1.) The Postmaster-General, with the consent of the Treasury, may purchase land for the purpose of the Post Office, and shall take and hold such land on behalf of Her Majesty for the service of the Post Office; and for the purposes of this Act the expression "land" shall include any right or easement in, over, or in respect of land.

(2.) With respect to any such purchase of land the following provisions shall have effect; (that is to say,)

(a.) The Lands Clauses Consolidation Act,

1845, and the Acts amending the same shall be incorporated with this Act, except the provisions relating to access to the special Act, and in construing those Acts for the purposes of this section" the special Act" shall be construed to mean this Act, and "the promoters of the undertaking" shall be construed to mean the Postmaster-General, and "land" shall be construed to have the same meaning as is given to it by this Act.

(b.) The bond required by section eightyfive of the Land Clauses Consolidation Act, 1845, shall be under the seal of the Postmaster-General, and shall be sufficient without sureties. (c.) The provisions of the said incorporated Acts with respect to the purchase of land compulsorily shall not be put in force until the sanction of Parliament has been obtained in manner in this Act mentioned.

(d.) Three months at the least before an application is made to Parliament for sanction to the compulsory purchase of land under this Act, the Postmaster-General with the consent of the Treasury shall serve, in manner provided by the said incorporated Acts, a notice on every owner or reputed owner, lessee or reputed lessee, and occupier of any land intended to be so purchased, describing the land intended to be taken, and in general terms the purposes to which it is to be applied, and stating the intention of the Treasury to obtain the sanction of Parliament to the purchase thereof, and inquiring whether the person so served assents or dissents to the taking of his land, and requesting him to forward to the Treasury any objections he may have to his land being taken.

(e.) The Treasury shall, at some time after the service of such notice, make a local inquiry by a competent officer into the objections made by any persons whose land is required to be taken, and by other persons, if any, interested in the subject matter of such inquiry. (f.) The Treasury, if satisfied after such inquiry has been made that the land ought to be taken, may submit a Bill to Parliament containing provisions authorising the Postmaster-General to take such land, and such Bill shall in all respects be deemed to be a Public Bill, and, if passed into an Act, to have conveyed the sanction of Parliament to the purchase compulsorily of the land therein mentioned or referred to, and the period for such compulsory purchase shall be three years after the passing of such Act: Provided that if while such Bill is pending in either House of Parlia ment a petition is presented against anything comprised therein, the Bill may be referred to a Select Committee, and the petitioner shall be

allowed to appear and oppose as in the

case of Private Bills.

(3.) The Chancellor and Council for the time being of the Duchy of Lancaster may, if they think fit, from time to time contract and agree with the Postmaster-General for the sale of, and may absolutely make sale and dispose of, for such sum or sums of money as to the said Chancellor and Council appear sufficient consideration for the same, any land belonging to Her Majesty, her heirs or successors, in right of the said Duchy, which, for the purpose of the Post Office, the Postmaster-General may from time to time deem it expedient to purchase with the consent of the Treasury, and such land may be granted and assured to the Postmaster-General, and the said moneys shall be paid and dealt with as if the said land had been sold under the authority of the Duchy of Lancaster Lands Act, 1855.

4. All the provisions of the Post Office Lands Act, 1863, with respect to the sale, exchange, leasing, or surrender of any lands vested in the Postmaster-General shall apply to any land purchased by the PostmasterGeneral under the powers of this Act.

Execution of Instruments.

5. Every deed, instrument, receipt, or document made or executed for the purpose of the Post Office by, to, or with Her Majesty or any officer of the Post Office, shall be exempt from any stamp duty imposed by any Act, past or future, except where such duty is declared by the deed, instrument, receipt, or document, or by some memorandum endorsed thereon, to be payable by some person other than the Postmaster-General, and except so far as future Act specifically charges the same.

any

Section twenty-two of the Telegraph Act, 1869, except so far as it amends section five of the Telegraph Act, 1868, is hereby repealed, without prejudice nevertheless to anything already done in pursuance of the said section.

6. Any person having authority in that behalf, either general or special, under the seal of the Postmaster-General, may, on behalf of the Postmaster-General, give any notice and make any claim, demand, entry, or distress which the Postmaster-General in his corporate capacity or otherwise might give or make, and every such notice, claim, demand, entry, and distress shall be deemed to have been given and made by the Postmaster-General on behalf of Her Majesty.

7. An instrument under the seal of the Postmaster-General may be signed by any of the secretaries to the Post Office, and shall be

9. Short title. SCHEDULE.

An Act for the Amendment of the Law regarding Property of Married Women in Scotland. (18th July 1881.)

WHEREAS an Act was passed in the fortieth year of the reign of Her present Majesty, entitled the Married Women's Property (Scotland) Act, and it is just and expedient to protect, to the further extent herein-after provided for, the property of married women in Scotland:

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, as follows:

1. (1.) Where a marriage is contracted after the passing of this Act, and the husband shall, at the time of the marriage, have his domicile in Scotland, the whole moveable or personal estate of the wife, whether acquired before or during the marriage, shall, by operation of law, be vested in the wife as her separate estate, and shall not be subject to the jus

mariti.

(2.) Any income of such estate shall be payable to the wife on her individual receipt or to her order, and to this extent the husband's right of administration shall be excluded; but the wife shall not be entitled to assign the prospective income thereof, or, unless with the husband's consent, to dispose of such estate.

(3.) Except as herein-after provided, the wife's moveable estate shall not be subject to arrestment, or other diligence of the law, for the husband's debts, provided that the said estate (except such corporeal moveables as are usually possessed without a written or documentary title) is invested, placed, or secured in the name of the wife herself, or in such

terms as shall clearly distinguish the same from the estate of the husband.

(4.) Any money, or other estate of the wife, lent or entrusted to the husband, or immixed with his funds, shall be treated as assets of the husband's estate in bankruptcy, under reservation of the wife's claim to a dividend as a creditor for the value of such money or other estate after but not before the claims of the other creditors of the husband for valuable consideration in money or money's worth have been satisfied.

(5.) Nothing herein contained shall exclude or abridge the power of settlement by antenuptial contract of marriage.

2. Where a marriage is contracted after the passing of this Act the rents and produce of heritable property in Scotland belonging to the wife shall no longer be subject to the jus mariti and right of administration of the husband.

3. In the case of marriages which have taken place before the passing of this Act: (1.) The provisions of this Act shall not apply where the husband shall have, before the passing thereof, by irrevocable deed or deeds, made a reasonable provision for his wife in the event of her surviving him:

(2.) In other cases the provisions of this Act shall not apply except that the jus mariti and right of administration shall be excluded to the extent respectively prescribed by the preceding sections from all estate, moveable or heritable, and income thereof, to which the wife may acquire right after the passing of the Act.

4. It shall be competent to all persons married before the passing of this Act to