shall have judgment for such costs, and they shall be recovered in like manner.

XXXII. And be it further enacted, That, where several persons shall be made defendants in any personal action, and any one or more of them shall have a nolle prosequi entered as to him or them, or upon the trial of such action shall have a verdict pass for him or them, every such person shall have judgment for and recover his reasonable costs, unless, in the case of a trial, the judge before whom such cause shall be tried shall certify upon the record, under his hand, that there was a reasonable cause for making such person a defendant in such action.

XXXIII. And be it further enacted, That, where any nolle prosequi shall have been entered upon any count, or as to part of any declaration, the defendant shall be entitled to, and have judgment for, and recover his reasonable costs in that behalf.

XXXIV. And be it further enacted, That, in all writs of scire facias the plaintiff obtaining judgment on an award of execution, shall recover his costs of suit upon a judgment by default, as well as upon a judgment after plea pleaded or demurrer joined; and that, where judgment shall be given either for or against a plaintiff or demandant, or for or against a defendant or tenant, upon any demurrer joined in any action whatever, the party in whose favour such judgment shall be given shall also have judgment to recover his costs in that behalf.

XXXV. And whereas, it is provided in and by a statute passed in the sixth year of the reign of his late Majesty, intituled "An Act for consolidating and amending the law relative to jurors and juries," that the person or party who shall apply for a special jury shall pay the fees for striking such jury, and all the expenses occasioned by the trial of the cause by the same, and shall not have any further or other allowance for the same, upon taxation of costs, than such person or party would be entitled unto in case the cause had been tried by a common jury, unless the judge before whom the cause is tried shall, immediately after the verdict, certify under his hand, upon the back of the record, that the same was a cause proper to be tried by a special jury: And whereas the said provision does not apply to cases in which the plaintiff has been nonsuited, and it is expedient that the judge should have such power of certifying, as well when a plaintiff is nonsuited, as when he has a verdict against him; be it therefore enacted, That the said provision of the said last-mentioned act of parliament, and every thing therein contained, shall apply to cases in which the plaintiff shall be nonsuited, as well as to cases in which a verdict shall pass against him.

XXXVI. And whereas it would tend to the better despatch of business, and would be more convenient, and better assimilate the practice, and promote uniformity in the allowance of costs, if the officers on the plea side of the courts of King's Bench and Exchequer, and the officers of the court of Common Pleas at Westminster, who now perform the duties of taxing costs, were to be empowered to tax costs which have arisen, or may arise, in each of the said courts indiscriminately; be it therefore enacted, That it shall be lawful for the judges of the said courts, or such eight or more of them as aforesaid, by any rule or order to be from time to time made, in term or vacation, to make such regulations for the taxation of costs by any of the said officers of the said courts indiscriminately as to them may seem expedient, although such costs may not have arisen in respect of business done in the court to which such officer belongs, and to appoint some convenient place in which the business of taxation shall be

transacted for all the said courts, and to alter the same when and as it may seem to them expedient.

XXXVII. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the executors or administrators of any lessor or landlord to distrain upon the lands demised for any term, or at will, for the arrearages of rent due to such lessor or landlord in his lifetime, in like manner as such lessor or landlord might have done in his lifetime.

XXXVIII. And be it further enacted, That such arrearages may be distrained for after the end or determination of such term or lease at will, in the same manner as if such term or lease had not been ended or determined: Provided that such distress be made within the space of six calendar months after the determination of such term or lease, and during the continuance of the possession of the tenant from whom such arrears became due: Provided also, that all and every the powers and provisions in the several statutes made relating to distresses for rent, shall be applicable to the distresses so made as aforesaid.

XXXIX. And whereas it is expedient to render references to arbitration more effectual; be it further enacted, That the power and authority of any arbitrator or umpire appointed by or in pursuance of any rule of court, or judge's order, or order of Nisi Prius, in any action now brought, or which shall be hereafter brought, or by or in pursuance of any submission to reference containing an agreement that such submission shall be made a rule of any of his Majesty's courts of record, shall not be revocable by any party to such reference, without the leave of the court by which such rule or order shall be made or which shall be mentioned in such submission, or by leave of a judge; and the arbitrator or umpire shall and may and is hereby required to proceed with the reference notwitstanding any such revocation, and to make such award, although the person making such revocation shall not afterwards attend the reference; and that the court, or any judge thereof, may from time to time enlarge the term for any such arbitrator making his award.

XL. And be it further enacted, That, when any reference shall have been made by any such rule or order as aforesaid, or by any submission containing such agreement as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for the court by which such rule or order shall be made, or which shall be mentioned in such agreement, or for any judge, by rule or order to be made for that purpose, to command the attendance and examination of any person to be named, or the production of any documents to be mentioned in such rule or order; and the disobedience to any such rule or order shall be deemed a contempt of court, if, in addition to the service of such rule or order, an appointment of the time and place of attendance in obedience thereto, signed by one at least of the arbitrators, or by the umpire, before whom the attendance is required, shall also be served either together with or after the service of such rule or order: Provided always, that every person whose attendance shall be so required shall be entitled to the like conduct money and payment of expenses and for loss of time as for and upon attendance at any trial: Provided also, that the application made to such court or judge for such rule or order shall set forth the county where such witness is residing at the time, or satisfy such court or judge that such person cannot be found: Provided also, that no person shall be compelled to produce, under any such rule or order, any writing or other document that he would not be compelled to produce at a trial, or to attend at more than two consecutive days, to be named in such order.

XLI. And be it further enacted, That, when in any rule or order of reference, or in any submission to arbitration containing an agreement that the submission shall be made a rule of court, it shall be ordered or agreed

that the witnesses upon such reference shall be examined upon oath, it shall be lawful for the arbitrator or umpire, or any one arbitrator, and he or they are hereby authorized and required to administer an oath to such witnesses, or to take their affirmation in cases where affirmation is allowed by law instead of oath; and if upon such oath or affirmation any person making the same shall wilfully and corruptly give any false evidence, every person so offending shall be deemed and taken to be guilty of perjury, and shall be prosecuted and punished accordingly.

XLII. And whereas it would be convenient if the power of the superior courts of common law and equity at Westminster to grant commissions for taking affidavits to be used in the said courts respectively should be extended; be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the Lord High Chancellor, Lord Keeper, or Lords Commissioners of the great seal, the said courts of law, and the several judges of the same, shall have such and the same powers for granting commissions for taking and receiving affidavits in Scotland and Ireland, to be used and read in the said courts respectively, as they now have in all and every the shires and counties within the kingdom of England, and dominion of Wales, and town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and the Isle of Man, by virtue of the statutes now in force; and that all and every person and persons wilfully swearing or affirming falsely in any affidavit to be made before any person or persons who shall be so empowered to take affidavits under the authority aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty of perjury, and shall incur and be liable to the same pains and penalties as if such person had wilfully sworn or affirmed falsely in the open court in which such affidavit shall be intitled, and be liable to be prosecuted for such perjury in any court of competent jurisdiction in that part of the United Kingdom in which such offence shall have been committed, or in that part of the United Kingdom in which such person shall be apprehended on such a charge.

XLIII. And whereas the observance of holidays in the said courts of common law during term time, and in the offices belonging to the same, on the several days on which holidays are now kept, is very inconvenient, and tends to delay in the administration of justice; be it therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That none of the several days mentioned in the statute passed in the sessions of parliament holden in the fifth and sixth years of the reign of King Edward the Sixth, intituled "An Act for keeping holidays and fasting days," shall be observed or kept in the said courts, or in the several offices belonging thereto, except Sundays, the day of the nativity of our Lord, and the three following days, and Monday and Tuesday in Easter week.

XLIV. And be it further enacted, That this statute shall commence and take effect on the first day of June, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.

XLV. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act shall extend to that part of the United Kingdom called Ireland, or that part of the United Kingdom called Scotland, except in the cases herein-before specially mentioned.

No. IX.

1 VICT. CAP. XXVI.

An Act for the Amendment of the Laws with respect to Wills.

[3rd July, 1837.]

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 the words and expressions hereinafter mentioned, which in their ordinary signification have a more confined or a different meaning, shall in this act, except where the nature of the provision or the context of the act shall exclude such construction, be interpreted as follows; (that is to say), the word "will" shall extend to a testament, and to a codicil, and to an appointment by will or by writing in the nature of a will in exercise of a power, and also to a disposition by will and testament or devise of the custody and tuition of any child, by virtue of an act passed in the twelfth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled "An Act for taking away the court of wards and liveries, and tenures in capite and by knights service, and purveyance, and for settling a revenue upon his Majesty in lieu thereof," or by virtue of an act passed in the parliament of Ireland in the fourteenth and fifteenth years of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled "An Act for taking away the court of wards and liveries, and tenures in capite and by knights service," and to any other testamentary disposition; and the words "real estate" shall extend to manors, advowsons, messuages, lands, tithes, rents, and hereditaments, whether freehold, customary freehold, tenant right, customary or copyhold, or of any other tenure, and whether corporeal, incorporeal, or personal, and to any undivided share thereof, and to any estate, right, or interest (other than a chattel interest) therein; and the words "personal estate" shall extend to leasehold estates and other chattels real, and also to monies, shares of government and other funds, securities for money (not being real estates), debts, choses in action, rights, credits, goods, and all other property whatsoever which by law devolves upon the executor or administrator, and to any share or interest therein; and every word importing the singular number only shall extend and be applied to several persons or things as well as one person or thing; and every word importing the masculine gender only shall extend and be applied to a female as well as a male.

II. And be it further enacted, That an act passed in the thirty-second year of the reign of King Henry the Eighth, intituled "The Act of wills, wards, and primer seisins, whereby a man may devise two parts of his land;" and also an act passed in the thirty-fourth and thirty-fifth years of the reign of the said King Henry the Eighth, intituled "The Bill concerning the explanation of wills;" and also an act passed in the parliament of Ireland, in the tenth year of the reign of King Charles the First, intituled "An act how lands, tenements, etc. may be disposed by will or otherwise, and concerning wards and primer seisins;" and also so much of an act passed in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled" An Act for prevention of frauds and perjuries," and of an act passed in the parliament of Ireland in the seventh year of the reign of King William the Third, intituled "An Act for prevention of frauds and perjuries," as relates to devises or bequests of lands or tenements, or to the revocation or alteration of any devise in writing of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any clause thereof, or to the devise of any estate pur autre vie, or to any such estate being assets, or to nuncupative wills, or to the repeal, altering, or changing of any will in writing concerning any goods or chattels or personal estate, or any clause, devise, or bequest therein; and also so much of an act passed in the fourth and fifth years of the reign of Queen Anne, intituled" An Act for the amendment of the law and the better advancement of justice," and of an act passed in the parliament of Ireland in the sixth year of the reign of Queen Anne, intituled "An Act for the amendment of the law and the better advancement

of justice,” as relates to witnesses to nuncupative wills; and also so much of an act passed in the fourteenth year of the reign of King George the Second, intituled "An Act to amend the law concerning common recoveries, and to explain and amend an act made in the twenty-ninth year of the reign of King Charles the Second, intituled 'An Act for prevention of frauds and perjuries'" as relates to estates pur autre vie; and also an act passed in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King George the Second, intituled "An Act for avoiding and putting an end to certain doubts and questions relating to the attestation of wills and codicils concerning real estates in that part of Great Britain called England, and in his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America," except so far as relates to his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America; and also an act passed in the parliament of Ireland in the same twenty-fifth year of the reign of King George the Second, intituled " An Act for the avoiding and putting an end to certain doubts and questions relating to the attestations of wills and codicils concerning real estates;" and also an act passed in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of King George the Third, intituled "An Act to remove certain difficulties in the disposition of copyhold estates by will," shall be, and the same are hereby repealed, except so far as the same acts or any of them respectively relate to any wills or estates pur autre vie to which this act does not extend.

III. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for every person to devise, bequeath, or dispose of, by his will executed in manner hereinafter required, all real estate and all personal estate which he shall be entitled to, either at law or in equity, at the time of his death, and which if not so devised, bequeathed, or disposed of, would devolve upon the heir at law, or customary heir of him, or, if he became entitled by descent, of his ancestor, or upon his executor or administrator; and that the power hereby given shall extend to all real estate of the nature of customary freehold or tenant right, or customary or copyhold, notwithstanding that the testator may not have surrendered the same to the use of his will, or notwithstanding that, being entitled as heir, devisee, or otherwise, to be admitted thereto, he shall not have been admitted thereto, or notwithstanding that the same, in consequence of the want of a custom to devise or surrender to the use of a will or otherwise, could not at law have been disposed of by will if this act had not been made, or notwithstanding that the same, in consequence of there being a custom that a will or a surrender to the use of a will should continue in force for a limited time only, or any other special custom, could not have been disposed of by will according to the power contained in this act, if this act had not been made; and also to estates pur autre vie, whether there shall or shall not be any special occupant thereof, and whether the same shall be freehold, customary freehold, tenant right, customary or copyhold, or of any other tenure, and whether the same shall be a corporeal or an incorporeal hereditament; and also to all contingent, executory, or other future interests in any real or personal estate, whether the testator may or may not be ascertained as the person or one of the persons in whom the same respectively may become vested, and whether he may be entitled thereto under the instrument by which the same respectively were created, or under any disposition thereof by deed or will; and also to all rights of entry for conditions broken, and other rights of entry; and also to such of the same estates, interests, and rights respectively, and other real and personal estate, as the testator may be entitled to at the time of his death, notwithstanding that he may become entitled to the same subsequently to the execution of his will.

IV. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That where any real