Abstracts of Recent Statutes. constable or constables is or are invested with, or shall or may have and enjoy, or is or are or shall be subject or liable to by law: Provided nevertheless, that no person by being sworn in and acting as or executing the office of a constable shall thereby gain a settlement in such parish. 43. That in all such cases in which any of the duties usually performed by constables shall have been executed by any of the officers appointed by the inspectors as hereinbefore enacted, all fees and allowances for the performance of such duties shall be paid over to the said inspectors, to be by them applied in aid of the rate levied under the provisions of this act. Fire Engines. 225 out the consent in writing of the owner or occupier. 47. In case the soil, pitching, or pavement of any road or way, for the purpose of laying any gas main or gas pipe along, under, or across the same, be broken up with the consent of the owner of the soil, and after the same shall have been so laid and placed such owner shall be desirous of having the same removed, it shall be lawful for such owner, at his own costs and charges, to alter and vary the position of such pipe or pipes, main or mains, and to relay the same, so that no damage be done to the person contracting with the inspectors, and so that such person contracting with the inspectors be not thereby prevented from lighting any public or private lamp, unless such damage or obstruction be unavoid 44. That it shall be lawful for the said inspec-able. tors from time to time to provide and keep up fire engines, with pipes and other utensils proper for the same, for the use of the parish adopting the provisions of this act, and to provide a proper place or places for the keeping of the same, and to place such engines under the care of some proper person or persons, and to make him or them such allowance for his or their trouble as may be thought reasonable, and the expenses attending the providing and keeping of such engines shall be paid out of the money authorized to be received by the inspectors under the provisions of this act. Lamp Irons. 45. That it shall be lawful for the said in 48. Whenever any gas shall be found to escape from any of the pipes laid down in pursuance of this act, the person supplying any gas for any highway, street, or place, or any houses, manufactory, building, or other premises, shall at their own expense, immediately after receiving notice by parol or in writing from any person, to be given or left at their office or usual place of transacting their business, of any such escape of gas, cause the most speedy and effectual measures to be taken to stop or prevent such gas from escaping; and in case of neglect for twenty-four hours, such person shall for every such offence forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding five pounds for each and every day. Washings of Gas Works. spectors, and they are hereby empowered, from time to time to cause such lainp irons or lamp posts or other posts to be put or fixed upon or against the walls or palisadoes for lighting any highway, street, or place, or any 49. Persons supplying any gas used or burnt of any houses, tenements, buildings, or inclo-house, manufactory, building, or other premisures, (doing as little damage as may be prac-ses, to lay iron pipes, of such breadth, depth, ticable thereto,) or to be put up and erected in such other manner, within all or any of the said roads, streets, and places within the limits of this act, as they shall think proper; and also to cause such number of lamps, of such sizes and sorts, to be provided and affixed and put upon such lamp irons and lamp posts, as they shall think necessary for lighting all or any of such roads, streets, and places, and cause the same to be lighted with gas, oil, or otherwise, for such number of hours in every twenty-four hours as they shall think necessary; and also to cause such a number of watch-houses or watch-boxes to be provided, erected, or affixed as they shall think necessary for watching all or any of the streets, roads, and places within the limits of this act. and dimensions, and in such manner as they shall think expedient, under the roads, streets, and other public places within the limits of this act, for the purpose of carrying off the arise in the prosecution of the works aforesaid, washings or other waste liquids which may doing as little damage as may be in laying the said pipes, and immediately repairing, at their own expense, all such damage; provided that no such washings or other waste liquids, or any other matter or thing made or arising in the manufacture of such gas, shall be conducted or conveyed into any river, brook, canal, or running stream; and that no such same can, shall, or may in any manner interpipe shall be laid in any situation where the fere with, prejudice, or affect any of the present or future public or private wells, sewers, or drains. 50. If any person making, furnishing, or supplying any gas used or burnt for lighting any highway, street, &c. shall at any time empty, drain, or convey, or cause or suffer to be emptied, drained, or conveyed, or to run or flow, any washings or other waste liquids, substances, or things whatsoever which shall arise or be made in the prosecution of the said gas works, or in the manufacture or process of P the greatest practical distance therefrom, and shall form therewith a right angle, and in such cases the said gas pipes so crossing the said water pipes shall be at least nine feet in length, so that no joint of any of the said gas pipes shall be nearer to any part of the said water pipes than four feet at least; and in laying down the said gas pipes the said contractors or other persons supplying gas shall in no case join two or more gas pipes together previous to their being laid in the trench, but shall lay each pipe as near as may be in its place in the trench, and shall in such trench properly form the jointing with the other pipes to be added thereto with proper and sufficient materials, and shall also make and keep all and every such pipes, and all pipes connected and 'communieating therewith, and all the screws, joints, inlets, apertures, or openings therein respectively, air-tight, and in all and every respect prevent the said gas from escaping therefrom, upon pain of forfeiting for every offence the sum of five pounds. making or procuring such gas, into any river, brook, or running stream, reservoir, canal, aqueduct, waterway, feeder, pond or springhead, or well, or into any drain, sewer, or ditch communicating with any of them, or do or cause to be done any annoyance, act, or thing to the water contained in any of them, whereby the water contained therein, or any part thereof, shall or may be spoiled, fouled, or corrupted, such person shall forfeit for every such offence the sun of two hundred pounds: Provided that no such penalty or forfeiture shall be recoverable unless the same be sued for within six calendar months from after the time when such annoyance,&c. shall have ceased: Provided that over and above and in addition to the said penalty of two hundred pounds, and whether such penalty shall or shall not have been sued for or recovered, in case of any of the said washings or other waste liquid, or noisome or ofensive liquid, substances, or things, shall be emptied, drained, conducted, or conveyed, or caused or suffered to run or flow, into any river, &c. or any such annoy52. That whenever the water of any comance, nuisance, injury, damage, act, or thing pany of proprietors for supplying the inhabitshall be done or caused to be done as aforesaid, ants of any houses within the limits of any and notice thereof in writing shall have been parish, part of a parish, or place adopting the given by any person to whom the same shall provisions of this act, with water, shall be conbelong, and the gas proprietors, or other per- taminated by any of the gas used or burnt for sons, shall not, within twenty-four hours after lighting any highway, street, or place, or any such notice shall have been given, stop and house, manufactory, building, or other prehinder or prevent all and every such wash-mises, within the limits of any parish, part of a ings, waste liquids, or noisome or offensive parish, or place adopting the provisions of this liquids, substances, or things, from being emp-act, the body or bodies politie or corporate, or tied, &c. and every such other annoyance, qui-person or persons making, furnishing, or supsance, injury, damage, act, or thing from being done, then and in every such case the said proprietors, or persons so offending, shall forfeit twenty pounds for every day such washings, waste liquids, &c. shall be so emptied, drained, &c. or such other annoyance, &c. caused to be done; and such last-mentioned penalty may be recovered in like manner as any other penalty or forfeiture is in and by this act directed to be recovered and levied, and shall be paid to the informer, or to the person or persons who, in the judgment of the justice before whom the conviction shall take place, shall have sustained any annoyance, injury, or damage by any such act so done or committed. plying such gas, shall forfeit and pay the sum of twenty pounds, to be recovered and shall be applied for the use of the said company supplying water; and in case any such water shall be contaminated or affected by gas in any way whatsoever, then the said company or other persons making, furnishing, or supplying such gas shall, within twenty-four hours next after the notice thereof in writing, signed by the treasurer or other officer of and for such water company, or by any person making use of such water, to be left at the usual place or office of transacting business of the said body or bodies politic or corporate, or other person or persons, cause the most proper and effectual mea51. That all and every the pipes or other sures to be taken to stop and prevent gas from conduits to be used or laid for the conveyance escaping from their mains, works, or pipes, or of gas, in, under, through, along, across, or contaminating or affecting the water of such round any road, street, or other place within company as aforesaid; and in case the said the limits of any parish adopting the provisions body or bodies politic or corporate, or other of this act, shall be so laid at the greatest prac-person or persons, making, furnishing, or suptical distance, and whenever the width of the carriage way in such street or place will allow thereof, at the distance of four feet at least from the nearest part of any water pipe already laid down or hereafter to be laid down for the conveyance of water in, under, through, along, across, or round any of the said roads, streets, or other places within the limits of any parish adopting the provisions of this act, excepting in cases where it shall be unavoidably necessary to lay the gas pipes across any of the said water pipes, in which cases the said gas pipes shall be laid over and above the said water pipes at plying gas, shall not, within twenty-four hours next after such notice so left as aforesaid, effectually stop and prevent the gas from so escaping, and wholly and satisfactorily remove the cause of every such complaint, and prevent all and every such contamination whereof. notice shall be given as aforesaid, that then the said body or bodies politic or corporate, or other person or persons as aforesaid, shall on each and every complaint forfeit and pay to the treasurer or other officer for the time being of such water company as aforesaid, for the use and benefit of the same company, over and above the before-mentioned penalty of twenty then and in such case the said company of pounds, the sum often pounds for each and every proprietors, or other the owners or proprieday during which the water of the said last-men-tors of such waterworks, shall bear and pay tioned company shall be and remain contami- all the costs and expenses of such search, exanated or affected by such gas; and in default of mination, and repair as aforesaid, and shall payment thereof as aforesaid, such penalty or pe- also make good to the said body or bodies ponalties shall and may be recovered by informa-litic or corporate, or other person or persons tion, to be exhibited on the oath of one cre- as aforesaid, any loss, injury, or damage which dible witness, by and in the name of the trea- may be occasioned to the said mains, pipes, surer or other officer for the time being of the conduits, or apparatus of the said body or bosaid water company as aforesaid, or by and in dies politic or corporate, or other person or the name of any one or more of the directors persons as aforesaid, in and by such search of the said company, at the option of the par- and examination, the amount of such injury, ties prosecuting such information against the loss, or damage to be ascertained and detersaid body or bodies politic or corporate, or mined by such justices of the peace as aforeother person or persons making, furnishing, said. or supplying gas, before any two justices of the peace, with costs, to be assessed by such justices, and to be levied by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of the said body or bodies politic or corporate, or other person or persons making, furnishing, or supplying such gas, together with the charges of such distress and sale, by warrant under the hand and seal of such justices, which warrant such justices are hereby empowered to grant; and such penalty or penalties, when so levied, shall be paid to the treasurer or other officer for the time being of such water company, for the use of such water company. thod of lighting therewith, whether such injury shall proceed from the preparation or the use of the same gas, or method of lighting, or the carelessness or want of skill of any of the persons employed therein, or from any other cause whatsoever. 54. That nothing in this act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to prevent any person from proceeding, by indictinent or otherwise, against any of the officers, servants, or workmen of the body or bodies politic or corporate, or other person or persons whomsoever, making, furnishing, or supplying any gas used or burnt for lighting any highway, street, or place, or any house, manufactory, building, or other premises, within the limits of any parish adopting the provisions of this act, in respect of any works or other means which shall be employed by them or any of them in making the said gas, and using 53. That in any case in which it shall be or the same in furnishing with lights as aforesaid, become a question upon such complaint as as a public or private nuisance, or from aforesaid, whether the said water be contami- bringing any action against the said body nated or affected by the gas of the said body or bodies politic or corporate, company of or bodies politic or corporate, or other person proprietors, or person or persons as aforesaid, or persons making, furnishing, or supplying or any of their officers, servants, or workmen, any gas used or burnt for lighting any high- for any injury sustained by reason of any such way, street, or place, or any house, manufac-works, or the use of the said gas, or the metory, building, or other premises, within the limits of this act, it shall be lawful for the company of proprietors, or other the owners or proprietors of any waterworks, to dig to and about and search and examine the mains, pipes, conduits, and apparatus of the said body or bodies politic or corporate, or other person or persons as aforesaid, for the purpose of ascertaining whether such contamination pro55. That if any person shall wilfully break, ceed or be occasioned by the gas of the said throw down, spoil, or damage any watch-house, body or bodies politic or corporate, or other watch-box, or lamp, lamp iron, lamp post, person or persons as aforesaid; and if it shall pale, rail, chain, or other furniture thereof, or appear that the said water has been contami-wilfully extinguish the light of any such lamp, nated by any escape of gas as aforesaid, the costs and expenses of the said digging, search, and examination, and of the repair of the pavement of the roads, street or streets which shall be taken up or disturbed, shall be borne and paid by the said body or bodies politic or corporate, or person or persons as aforesaid; which costs and expenses of digging, search, and examination shall be ascertained and determined, if necessary, by such justices as aforesaid, and be recovered in like manner as any penalty may be recovered by virtue of this act: Provided always, that if upon such examination it shall appear that such contamination has not arisen from any such escape of gas from any of the mains, pipes, or conduits of the said body or bodies politic or corpo- 57. That it shall and may be lawful to and rate, or other person or persons as aforesaid, for the said inspectors, from time to time, to Injury of Works. he shall forfeit a sum not exceeding forty shillings for every lamp, lamp iron, or lamp post broken, thrown down, or damaged, and make full satisfaction for the damage which shall have been done thereby, and not exceeding five pounds for any other such offence as aforesaid, and shall also make full satisfaction for the damage; and one moiety of such forfeiture shall be paid to the person or persons apprehending such offender, and the other moiety shall be applied for the purposes of this act. 56. Persons accidentally breaking lamps, &c. shall pay such sum as the justice may think reasonable. Contracts for Works. enter into any contract or contracts with any person, company or companies whatsoever, for lighting the same streets, roads, and other places, or any of them, or any part thereof, either with oil or with gas, or with any other material or in any other manner whatsoever, or for furnishing lamps, lamp irons, lamp posts, watch-boxes, posts, chains, pales, rails, and other things necessary for the purposes aforesaid, or any materials for the same, which contract or contracts shall specify the several works to be done and the prices to be paid for the same, and the time or times when the works shall be completed, and the penalties to be suffered in cases of non-performance thereof, and shall be signed by two or more of the said inspectors, and also by the person or persons contracting to perform such works respectively, which contract or contracts, or a copy or copies thereof, shall be entered in a book to be kept for that purpose; but no contract above the value or sum of twenty pounds shall be entered into, unless previous to the making of any such contract fourteen days' notice shall be given in one or more of the public newspapers published in the county in which the said parish shall be situate, expressing the intention of entering into such contract, in order that any person or persons willing to undertake the same may make proposals for that purpose, to be offered and presented to the said inspectors at a certain time and place in such notice to be mentioned: Provided always, that if the said inspectors shall be of opinion that it will not be advantageous to contract with the person or persons offering the lowest price, it shall be lawful for the said inspectors to contract with such other person or persons as they shall think proper. 59. That the said inspectors may and they are hereby authorized and empowered to treat with the owner or owners, and occupier or occupiers, of any houses, buildings, lands, and grounds, for the purposes of this act, for such sum or sums of money, or yearly rent, or for such time as to them shall appear reasonable, (which sum or sums of money and yearly rent shall be respectively paid out of the monies to arise by virtue of this act,) in such place or places as they may think proper. 60. The property in all lamps, lamp irons, lamp posts, watch-houses, watch boxes, posts, chains, pales, &c., and all the materials and furniture and things belonging thereto, (except when the same shall be otherwise regulated by contract with the said inspectors) shall be vested in the inspectors, and may be sold as they shall think proper; and the money arising from such sale shall be applied towards the purposes of this act. 61. The inspectors may unite with the inspectors of any adjoining parish or parishes, for the better carrying into effect the purposes of this act. Prosecutions. 62. That all and every justices and justice of the peace before whom any person or persons shall be convicted or prosecuted for any offence against this act, shall and may cause the information and conviction respectively to be drawn in the form set out in the act, or in other words to the same effect. Penalties and Legal Proceedings. 63. Penalties to be recovered in a summary way by the order of two justices, and levied, with costs, by distress; and if not directed to be otherwise applied by the act, to be paid to the inspectors for the purposes of the act; and in default of payment, the offender to be committed for a, period not exceeding six months. 64. The inspectors exempted from personal liability. 65. The inhabitants may be witnesses. 66. Power of appeal to the quarter sessions against order of inspectors, &c. 67. Appeals against rate to be subject to same rules as appeals against poor rates. 68. Plaintiff not to recover in any action after tender of sufficient amends. 69. No action to be brought till after twentyone days' notice, nor after six months from the cause of action. 58. That in case the same shall not be well and sufficiently performed, according to the terms, intent, and meaning of such contract or contracts, or shall not be finished or completed at or within the time or times specified in such contract or contracts, then the said inspectors may cause an action to be brought in any of his Majesty's Courts of Law at Westminster, against any such contractor, for any penalty contained in his contract; and on proof of his signing the said contract or contracts, or non-performance thereof at the time or times for that purpose to be therein mentioned, the said inspectors shall be entitled to and recover the full penalty contained in any such contract, which, when recovered, shall be applied for the purposes of this act: Provided always, that it shall be lawful for the said inspectors (if they think fit) to compound and agree with any contractor for any penalty incurred by him for the breach or non-performance of any such contract, for such sum of money as the said inspectors shall think proPart of the Act may be adopted. per, not being less than the injury or damage sustained by the breach or non-performance of 71. The provisions of the act may be adoptsuch contract, and all costs, charges, and ex-ed in any parish either as to lighting or as to penses which shall be occasioned thereby; and it shall be lawful for the said inspectors to cancel or make void any contract with any person or persons whomsoever, by mutual consent, if they shall think proper. 70. No proceedings to be taken in pursuance of this act shall be quashed or vacated for want of form, or be removed by certiorari, or any other writ or process whatsoever, into any of his Majesty's Courts of Record at Westminster or elsewhere. watching, or as to lighting and watching, as may be deemed expedient; and the provisions of the act may be adopted in any parish so far as the same relate to lighting, although such Commentaries on the New Chancery Orders. parish shall be watched under or by virtue of any act of parliament passed for that purpose, and may be adopted in any parish so far as the same relate to watching, although such parish shall be lighted under or by virtue of any act of parliament passed for that purpose. 72. The act not to extend to interfere with the powers and provisions contained in 10 G. 4. c. 44, intituled," An Act for improving the Police in and near the Metropolis." or to extend to any parish or place already regulated under the provisions of any act of parliament, for all the purposes hereinbefore provided for, or to interfere with the powers which any corporate body may have with respect to watching and lighting. 73. The inhabitants of part of any parish may hold a meeting of the inhabitants of such part, to be convened and to be composed of such inhabitants only, for the purpose of determining whether the provisions in this act contained, or any of them, shall be adopted in such part of the said parish; and all such meetings shall be subject to all the clauses, regulations, and restrictions in this act contained in respect of meetings to be convened for the purposes thereof; and the churchwardens of the said parish shall act in the same manner for such part of the parish the inhabitants of which may be desirous of adopting the provisions of this act, for carrying the provisions of the same into effect, as they could by virtue hereof act for the parish at large: Provided that no proceedings of the said inhabitants, nor any rate to be raised or levied in pursuance of such proceedings, shall extend to any part of the said parish which may already be regulated by or under the provisions of any act for the purposes in this act mentioned, nor interfere with the powers and provisions of such act, or the execution thereof, in any respect whatsoever. Powers of Commissioners of Sewers. 74. The surveyor of the Commissioners of Sewers may enter into gas works, to see if there be any escape of gas, &c.; penalty of twenty pounds for refusing such inspection. 75. The act not to prejudice the rights of the Commissioners of Sewers. Saving Rights of the Universities. 76. The act not to affect the rights or privileges of the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge. Construction of the Act. 229 of the peace for the county, city, borough, town, division, riding, shire, liberty, or place in which the parish which may adopt the provisions of this act shall be situate; and the word" rate-payer" to include all persons assessed to and paying rates for the relief of the poor. 78. The act to be deemed a public act. A PRACTITIONER'S NEW CHANCERY ORDERS, for scandal, &c.; and it would seem to be a 22,-Gives a new practice as to references useful change. 23, 24, 25,-Are details to give effect to the act as regards the judicial functions of their Honors the Masters. One of It is but the other day that there was a plan all documents. By the effect of the Orders proposed for having one common record of before us there will be now twelve places where orders will be to be found entered. the advantages of having all judicial matters sent to one Master would have been, that he would have been attended by one Registrar's clerk, who would have given out the orders and thus kept them all together. 26,-Is new, as supplying a defect in one of the old batches of Orders. 27,-Repeals that repeal of the act, which was contained in the November series, as to the recitals in decrees. It sounds to the reader rather odd, that when an act of parliament has declared that there shall be no recitals, and the Court has for a time said there shall, the same Court should put forward a pompous avowal of motives, actuating it, as of its own mercy for the suitor, to order what, but for its interposition, the suitor had of right by statute, I imagine that, looking at the way most General Reports are drawn, (and necessarily so as to a great many subjects) the direction to insert the Master's finding or opinion, will be no small trouble. It will either necessarily bring in nearly the whole, and thus defeat the act, or so little of it and so crippled and garbled as that the insertion can answer no object. The 77. The powers given to any parish shall be direction as to inserting all recitals as usual in understood to be given to any wapentake, di- all special injunction orders, may be right, but vision, city, borough, liberty, township, mar-it is in defiance of the plain words of the act. ket town, franchise, hamlet, tithing, precinct, and chapelry, or parts within the same; and that where the word " parish" is used, it shall be understood to extend to any parts within the same; and that the powers given to a churchwarden shall be understood to be given to any chapelwarden, overseer, or other person usually calling any meeting on parochial business; and that the words "justice of the peace" shall be understood to mean justices 28,-Is a new code, as to the form of orders relating to the Accountant-General. Some one of that department, it is clear, has had his chance for a turn at reforming, and has seized upon it to legislate on his matters. 29,-Is new and useful; but why is this twelfth entering place of orders set up? There seems no necessity for it. What upon earth should prevent the Registrar's giving out the orders when they are of course? The useless |