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55 G. 3. c. 184. to be issued by them, or not; and in default thereof such licence shall be absolutely void; and every such licence which shall be granted between the 10th day of October and the 11th day of November in any year, shall be dated on the 11th day of October; and every such licence, which shall be granted at any other time, shall be dated on the day on which the same shall be granted; and every such licence respectively shall have effect and continue in force from the day of the date thereof until the 10th day of October following, both inclusive.

Several towns in England

may be included in one licence,

in certain cases.

Persons apply. ing for licences to deliver speciinens of their

notes.

suing notes without licence,

§ 26. Provides, that where any banker or person applying for a licence under this act, would, under the said act of the 48 Geo. 3., have been entitled to have two or more towns or places in England, included in one licence, if this act had not been made, such banker or person shall be entitled to the like privilege under this act.

§ 27. Enacts, that the banker or other person applying for any such licence as aforesaid, shall produce and leave with the proper officer, a specimen of the promissory notes proposed to be issued by him or them, to the intent that the licence may be Penalty for is framed accordingly; and if any banker or other person (except the said governor and company of the bank of England) shall issue or cause to be issued by any agent, any promissory note for money payable to the bearer on demand, hereby charged with a duty, and allowed to be re-issued as aforesaid, without being licensed so to do in the manner aforesaid, or at any other town or place, or under any other name, style, or firm, than shall be specified in his or their licence, the banker, or other person so offending, shall for every such offence forfeit 1007.

1001.

Licences to continue in force notwith

§ 28. Enacts, that where any such licence as aforesaid shall be granted to any persons in partnership, the same shall continue in force for the issuing of promissory notes duly stamped, under standing alter the name, style, or firm therein specified, until the 10th day of October inclusive following the date thereof, notwithstanding any alteration in the partnership.

ation in part

nerships.

Promissory notes made out

of Great Bri

tain, not to be negotiable unless stamped.

Penalty on cir culating such notes, &c. 201. for each.

§ 29. Enacts, that after the passing of this act, promissory notes for the payment of money to the bearer on demand, made out of Great Britain, or purporting to be made out of Great Britain, or purporting to be made by or on the behalf of any person or persons resident out of Great Britain, shall not be negotiable or be negotiated, or circulated or paid in Great Britain, whether the same shall be made payable in Great Britain, or not, unless the same shall have paid such duty, and be stamped in. such manner, as the law requires for promissory notes of the like tenor and value made in Great Britain; and if any person or persons shall circulate or negotiate, or offer in payment, or shall receive or take in payment any such promissory note, or shall demand or receive payment of the whole or any part of the money mentioned in such promissory note, from or on account of the drawer thereof, in Great Britain, the same not being duly stamped as aforesaid; or if any person or persons in Great Britain shall pay or cause to be paid the sum of money expressed in any such note, not being duly stamped as aforesaid, or any part thereof, either as drawer thereof, or in pursuance of any nomination or appointment for that purpose therein contained, the person or persons so offending shall for every such promissory note forfeit the sum

of 201.: Provided always, that this clause shall not extend to promissory notes made and payable only in Ireland.

By 31 Geo. 3. c. 25. § 10. If any person shall write or sign, or accept or pay or cause the same to be done, any such bill, note, draft, or order, liable to any of the duties aforesaid, without being first duly stamped as aforesaid, he shall forfeit 201. § 24. 25. All penalties by this act incurred may be sued for in in the courts at Westminster; or any neighbouring justice may hear and determine any offence which subjects the offender to any pecuniary penalty; who may on complaint made within three calendar months summon the party accused and the witnesses, and examine into the matter of fact; and on confession, or the oath of one witness, may give judgment therein, and levy such penalty by distress on the goods of the offender, which if not redeemed within six days may be sold; and such penalty shall be distributed half to the king and half to the informer; and for want of sufficient distress, the offender shall be committed to prison for three calendar months unless such penalty be sooner paid.

31 G. 5. c. 25. Penalty on writing, &c. unstamped bills, &c. Penalties how

to be recovered and applied.

§ 25. If any person shall find himself aggrieved by the judg- Appeal. ment of such justice, he may, upon giving security to the amount of such penalty and costs, appeal to the next sessions which shall happen after fourteen days next after such conviction, and shall give reasonable notice; and in case such judgment be affirmed, they may award the person appealing to pay such costs occasioned by such appeal as to them shall seem meet.

§ 26. Provided nevertheless, that such justice may, where he shall see cause, mitigate any such penalty, so as not to reduce the same to less than one moiety thereof, over and above the

costs.

Mitigation.

§ 27. Witnesses not appearing, having been duly summoned, Witnesses. without reasonable cause, to be allowed by such justice, or refusing to give evidence, shall forfeit 40s. to be recovered in like

manner.

§ 29. Persons counterfeiting or forging any stamp hereby di- Counterfeiting rected to be made use of, shall be guilty of felony without benefit stamps. of clergy.

By 43 Geo. 3. c. 139. § 1. If any person within any part of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, falsely make, forge, or counterfeit, or cause or procure to be falsely made, &c. or knowingly aid or assist in the false making, &c. any bill of exchange, or any promissory note, undertaking, or order for the payment of money, purporting to be the bill of exchange, &c. of any foreign prince, state, or country whatsoever, or of any minister or officer employed in the service of any foreign prince, &c., or of any person, or company of persons, resident in any foreign state or country, or of any body corporate and politic, or body in the nature of a body corporate and politic, constituted by any foreign prince or state, with intent to deceive or defraud his majesty, his heirs and successors, or any such foreign prince, state, or country, or any person or company of persons whomsoever, or any body corporate and politic, or body in the nature of a body corporate and politic whatsoever, whether the same be respectively resident, carrying on business, constituted or being in any part of the united kingdom, or in any foreign state or country; and whether such bill, note, or order be in English or

43 G. 3. c. 139. Persons forging, &c. foreign

bills of exchange, &c. or tendering the same in payment, guilty of felony, and

liable to be transported.

43 G. 3. c. 139. in any foreign language, or partly in one and partly in the other; or if any person shall, within any part of the said united kingdom, tender in payment or exchange, or otherwise utter or publish as true, any such false, forged, or counterfeited bill, &c. knowing the same to be false, forged, or counterfeited, with intent to deceive or defraud his majesty, &c. or any foreign prince, state, or country, or any person or company of persons, or any body corporate and politic, or body in the nature of a body politic and corporate as aforesaid, then every such offender shall be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction shall be transported not exceeding 14 years.

Persons engraving plates for foreign bills,

&c. or printing them, without

lawful authority, guilty

of a misdemeanor.

§ 2. No person shall, within the united kingdom, engrave, cut, etch, scrape, or by any other means make or knowingly aid in the engraving, &c. or by any other means making in or upon any plate, any bill of exchange, or any promissory note or undertaking, or order for the payment of money, purporting to be the bill, &c. of any foreign prince, state, or country, or of any minister or officer employed in the service of any such prince, &c. or of any person or company of persons resident in any foreign state or country, or of any body corporate and politic, or body in the nature of a body corporate and politic, or constituted by any foreign prince or state, or any part of any such bill, &c. without an authority in writing for that purpose from such foreign prince, &c. or from some person duly authorised to give such authority, or shall within any part of the said united kingdom without such authority as aforesaid, by means of any such plate, or by any other device or means, make or print any such foreign bill, &c., or any part thereof, or knowingly, wilfully, and without lawful excuse, (the proof thereof shall lie upon the party accused), have in their custody any such plate or device, or any impression taken from the same; and if any person shall offend in any of the cases aforesaid, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and breach of the peace, and being thereof convicted shall be liable for the first offence to be imprisoned for (not exceeding) six months, or to be fined or to be publicly or privately whipped, or to suffer one or more of the said punishments, and for the second offence to be transported to any of his majesty's Act not to alter colonies for the term of 14 years: Provided that nothing herein any law in force shall extend in any manner whatsoever to repeal or alter any law against forgery. now in force for the prevention or punishment of the crime of forgery in any respect whatsoever within any part of the said united kingdom. See title Forgery, Vol. II.

Persons against whom any bill of indictment is

§ 4. And no person against whom any bill of indictment shall be found at any assizes or sessions for any offence against this act shall be entitled to traverse the same to any subsequent assizes or sessions, but the court at which such bill of indictment shall be found shall forthwith proceed to try the party against whom the to a subsequent same shall be found, unless they shew good cause, to be allowed by the court, why their trial should be postponed.

found not allowed to tra

verse the same

assizes. Certificates of former convictions to be pro

duced in cases where persons

are tried for se

cond offences.

§ 5. And if any person shall be convicted of any offence against this act, and shall afterwards be guilty of the like offence in any other county or place, the clerk of the assize, clerk of the peace, or town clerk, for the county, &c. or place where such former conviction shall have been had, shall, at the request of the prosecutor, or any other on his majesty's behalf, certify the same by

a transcript in few words, containing the effect and tenor of such 43 G. 3. c. 139. conviction, for which certificate 2s. 6d. and no more shall be paid; and such certificate being produced in court, and the hand-writing of such clerk of assize, or of the peace, or town clerk thereto being proved, shall be evidence of such former conviction.

§ 9. Limits action or suit for any thing done in pursuance Limitation of hereof to be commenced within three calendar months; and if actions. upon the trial a verdict shall pass for the defendant, or the plaintiff become nonsuit, or discontinue, or upon demurrer judgment

be given against the plaintiff, the defendant shall recover treble Treble costs. costs, and have the like remedy for the same as any defendant hath for costs of suit in other cases by law.

The 50 Geo. 3. c. 35. § 13. relates to spoiled stamps; but as 50 G. 5. c. 35. justices of peace have no jurisdiction in such matters, the act is not here inserted.

By the 53 Geo. 3. c. 108. Certain provisions are further made 53 G. 3. c. 108. respecting the re-issuing of promissory notes for 1007. or less:And § 3. contains provisions to prevent the re-issuing of notes not exceeding 21. 2s. after three years from their date; and enacts that upon payment thereof at any time after such three years, they shall be no longer negotiable, but be cancelled by the person paying them; and for re-issuing at such period, or refusal or neglect so to cancel, the person so offending shall forfeit 50%. and receiving or taking any such note in payment of, or as a security for the sum therein expressed, incurs a penalty of 20l. to be recovered according to the stamp laws. Sections 4 to 10, contain regulations as to the amount of stamps in some particular cases not before provided for.

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BY Y stat. 5 Eliz. c. 15. If any person shall advisedly and directly 5 Eliz. c. 15. advance, publish, and set forth by writing, printing, signing, or any other open speech or deed, any fond, fantastical, or false prophecy, upon or by the occasion of any arms, fields, beasts, badges, or such other like things accustomed in arms, cognisances, or signets, or upon or by reason of any time, year, or day, name, bloodshed, or war, to the intent thereby to make any rebellion, insurrection, dissension, loss of life, or other disturbance in the realm; and shall be convicted thereof before a judge of assize, or justice of the peace, within six months after the offence committed, he shall for the first offence be imprisoned for a year, and forfeit 10.; and for the second offence shall be imprisoned for life, and forfeit his goods: half the forfeitures to the king, and half to him who shall sue for them in any court of record.

The intent of the act was, to abolish certain foolish and superstitious notions which prevailed in the times of ignorance, as were 33 H. 8. c. 14. set forth in a statute made in the 33 H. 8. c. 14. reciting-Where divers and sundry persons, making their foundation by prophecies, have taken upon them a knowledge (as it were) what shall become of them which bear in their arms, cognisance, or badge, — fields, beasts, fowls, or any other thing which hath been used or accustomed to be put in any of the same, or in and upon the letters of their names, have devised, descanted, and practised to make folk think, that by their untrue guesses, it might be known what good or evil things should come, happen, or be done, by or to such persons as bore or had such badges or cognisances, or had such letters in their names to the great terror and destruction of such noble personages, of whom such false prophecies have or should hereafter be set forth, whereby in times past many noblemen have suffered, and (if their prince would give any ear thereto) might hap to do hereafter; And therefore enacted that he who should do so, should be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy. This statute was repealed in the lump by the 1 Ed. 6. c. 12. which repealed all statutes making any offences felony from the first year of the reign of king Henry the eighth. And the substance thereof was re-enacted, with a mitigation of the penalty, by the 3 & 4 Ed. 6. c. 15. Which statute expiring, the 5 Él. c. 15. was enacted as above.

Protestant Dissenters. See Dissenters, Vol. I.

Impugners of the rites of the church.

1 Ed. 6. c. 1. Speaking irverently of the

sacrament.

Public worship in the navy.

Public Worship.

[50 Ed. 3. c. 5. — 1 R. 2. c. 15. - 1 Ed. 6. c. 1.-1 Mar. sess. 2. c. 3.1 J. 1. c. 4. 13 & 14 C. 2. c. 4. - 1 W. & M. sess. 1. c. 18. — 22 G. 2. c. 33. art. 1.]

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IMPUGNERS of the book of common prayer, of the 39 articles of the rites and ceremonies of the church of England, of the episcopal government of the church, or of the form of ordering and consecrating archbishops and bishops, shall be ipso facto excommunicated and not restored but upon repentance, and public recantation. Can. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

By 1 Ed. 6. c. 1. If any person shall speak irreverently of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, he shall suffer imprisonment, and make fine and ransom at the king's will. And three justices (1 Q.) may take information by the oaths of two witnesses; and afterwards, at the sessions, may enquire thereof by the oath of 12 men upon indictment. And they shall, at the sessions where the offender shall be indicted, direct a writ to the bishop to appear by himself or deputy at the trial. But no person shall be molested, but within three months after the offence committed.

All commanders, captains, and officers at sea, shall cause the public worship of Almighty God, according to the liturgy of the church of England, to be performed in their respective ships;

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