rates and duties *thereby granted and imposed should be better *290] regulated, and in some instances increased; and that doubts and disputes had arisen upon the intent and meaning of the said Act respecting the choice and appointment of persons in the room of the Commissioners specifically named therein, which required to be removed and explained; and that it had been found necessary that the powers of the said Act authorizing such choice and appointment should be altered and amended; but that, inasmuch as the said several objects could not be obtained or carried into effect without the aid and authority of Parliament,-it was enacted that the said recited Act and all and every the clauses, powers, penalties, forfeitures, rates, remedies, payments, provisions, articles, matters, and things whatso ever therein contained (save and except such parts as were thereby varied, altered, or repealed), should be as good, valid, and effectual for carrying that Act into execution, as if the same had been repeated in the body of this present Act.

By ss. 3 and 4, the former appointment of Commissioners was repealed, and new Commissioners appointed.

The 12th section enacted that it should and might be lawful to and for the said Commissioners, or any nine or more of them, at any of their meetings, to make such by-laws, orders, and regulations for the ordering, securing, and safely and conveniently stationing or placing of the ships, vessels, and small craft coming into and laying in the said harbour and port, dock or docks, basin or basins, or alongside or at any quay or quays, and for loading, unloading, mooring, or unmooring thereof, and for the safety and preservation of the goods and merchandise landing or shipping there, and of the works to be made or done in pursuance of or by virtue of that Act or of the recited Act, and for the appointment, regulation, direction, and *291] *good conducting of ships, vessels, and small craft into or out of, or whilst within, the said harbour or port, dock or docks, basin or basins, or at the quay or quays, and for regulating the placing or stowing of ballast on the said quay or quays, or in the said harbour or port, and the use of fires, and the meeting of combustible matters on board of any ship or vessel or craft, and for regulating, or licens ing, and registering all vessels, boats, wherries, lighters, and other small craft, wagons, carts, drays, and other carriages kept and used for hire at the said port of the town of Southampton, or on the said quays or wharves, or usually plying or coming thereto, and also all boatmen, wagoners, drivers, barrowmen, porters, and other persons employed thereon by or under the license or authority of the said Commissioners, and also to dismiss and discharge such boatmen, barrowmen, porters, or persons for misconduct or misbehaviour, and also to fix, regulate, and ascertain the rates and fares to be taken by such boatmen, barrowmen, porters, or other persons plying on or to or from the said piers, wharves, and quays, and also for removing ard preventing nuisances within the limits of the said harbour or port, as should from time to time appear necessary and proper, and to alter, vary, or repeal the same as occasion should require, so as such bylaws, rules, orders, and regulations be not repugnant to the laws of England or the provisions of the recited Act or that Act; and to impose reasonable fines and penalties for the breach and non-observ

ance of such by-laws, rules, orders, and regulations, and on any person or persons piying without license, so as no one penalty should exceed the sum of 107.; which fines and penalties should be recovered and levied as any fines, penalties, and forfeitures by the said Act inflicted or imposed were thereby directed to be recovered and *levied;

and that all such by-laws, rules, orders, and regulations, rates, [*292 and fares, and the fines and penalties for the breach and non-performance thereof, should from time to time, as often as they should be made, altered, or varied, be put up either in print or in writing in a clear legible hand in the custom-house of the said port, and in such other place and places as the said Commissioners might appoint, and at all times remain and be in the said places, and upon application, a copy thereof should be delivered to any person requiring the same, on payment to the harbour-master of 1s. for the same: Provided always that such by-laws, rules, orders, and regulations should be subject to appeal, in like manner as appeals were authorized and given in and by the recited Act.

By s. 13, the rates imposed by the recited Act were repealed; and by s. 14, it was enacted, that, from and after, &c., there should be paid unto the said Commissioners, as well by the persons being respectively of the said corporation of the town and county of Southampton, and the owners and masters having the command of ships, vessels, or small craft belonging to the said port of Southampton, as by all and every other persons or person whomsoever, for all goods, wares, merchandise, and commodities whatsoever exported from or imported into the said port of Southampton, and which should be landed in or shipped from the dock or docks, wharf or wharves, basin or basins, to be constructed under the recited Act or that Act, or at any other legal quays in the said town of Southampton, and for warehousing the same, and for all ships and vessels coming into the pier or piers, dock or docks, basin or basins, to be constructed as aforesaid, or the road for ships there, the several rates and duties mentioned, specified, enumerated, and imposed in and by the table thereunto annexed. *By s. 15, the Commissioners were to settle rates on commodities not enumerated in the table.

[*293

By s. 28, the quays were vested in the Commissioners. The 31st section enacted that so much of the recited Act as related to the empowering the Commissioners to compel the sale to them of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments which the Commissioners should think necessary to purchase for the purposes of that Act or the recited Act, and so much thereof as authorized the recompense and satisfaction to be made to the owners or proprietors, tenants or occupiers, or other person or persons interested in such lands, tenements, or hereditaments, for the taking the same, to be ascertained by a jury in cases of neglect or refusal to treat, or non agreement thereon, or absence from treating, should not extend or be construed to extend to any other lands, tenements, or hereditaments, than the lands, tenements, or hereditaments, situate and lying westward of the Watergate Quay, along the shore, unto the place where an ancient turret in the town-wall formerly stood, late belonging to James Parker, blacksmith, at the end of Bugle Street, parallel with the new Breakwater, and not further inwards from the same line of shore than fifty yards.

The 40th section enacted that nothing in that Act contained should extend or be construed to extend to affect, prejudice, alter, abridge, or take away any rights, estates, powers, immunities, and advantages or privileges whatsoever belonging or appertaining to the mayor and corporation of the said town and county, or to any other person or persons whomsoever (except such as were thereby expressly taken away or altered), but that all such rights, estates, powers, and privileges should continue in force and effect, and might be exercised and enjoyed in as full and ample a manner, to all intents and purposes, as if that Act had not been made, *anything therein contained to

*294] the contrary notwithstanding.

Extract from the table of the rates, dues, and duties referred to by the Act:

"A tonnage duty on all British ships loading or unloading at the quays or in the road, 2d. per ton each voyage: Foreign ships, double. "Colliers, coasters, and short traders allowed to compound at 1s. per ton per annum.

"Boomage duty, in lieu of harbour dues and of anchorage and groundage, to be paid by all ships coming within Calshot Castle, and not belonging to the port, videlicet:

66 'Under 50 tons

"Above 50, and under 100

"Above 100

'Foreign ships, double."

S. d.

£

By an Act of Parliament made and passed in the 2 W. 4 (sess. 1831), intituled "An Act for erecting and maintaining a pier and other works for the more conveniently landing and embarking passengers in the port of the town of Southampton,"-reciting the 43 G. 3, c. xxi., and 50 G. 3, c. clxviii.; and that the quay of the said port of Southampton had been much enlarged, and the avenues thereto much widened, and the port generally improved, but that, the said port of Southampton being a place of great public resort for persons passing and repassing to and from the Isle of Wight, the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, and to and from France, particularly by steamboats or vessels, it would tend much to the convenience and safety of passengers embarking and landing at the said port, and to the accommodation of trading vessels, if a separate and more convenient landingplace were made for passengers and their luggage, to prevent any necessity for passengers being conveyed by boats to and from *such steamboats or vessels from and to the shore, and being *295] detained on board the vessels as they then were by reason of the obstruction of the mud, and otherwise would be of great public utility, it was enacted that the persons who by virtue of the first recited Act, as amended by the secondly thereinbefore in part recited Act, should for the time being be Commissioners for putting the said two thereinbefore recited Acts into execution, and their successors, should be, and the same persons and their successors were thereby, appointed Commissioners for the purpose of putting that Act into

execution.

The 14th section enacted, that, as soon as conveniently might be after the passing of that Act, it should be lawful for the said Commissioners, and they were thereby authorized and required, to erect and

build, or cause to be erected and built, a new pier or landing-place at the present breakwater of the said town of Southampton, so that vessels might be able to float alongside such pier at low water, such pier to communicate with the west end of the then Watergate Quay at or near the bottom of Bugle Street, in the said town and county of Southampton, and to be built of stone, iron, wood, or such other materials as the Commissioners should think best, and to excavate the soil or mud at any parts near thereto, and to make proper approaches thereto, and also to erect thereon and put up cranes, crane-houses, steps, toll gates, toll-houses, railings, and such other erections and conveniences as the Commissioners should think proper, for the facili tating the landing or shipping of horses, carriages, luggage, and other goods, and for taking the tolls thereinafter allowed to be taken, and to remove and alter all such cranes, crane-houses, steps, railings, and other conveniences as to the Commissioners should seem most beneficial, and to alter the situation of the said *toll-gates and toll

houses as to the Commissioners should seem expedient, and to [*296 keep in repair, replace, or remove the said pier, cranes, crane-houses, steps, toll-gates, toll-houses, railings, and other erections and conveniences, as to the Commissioners should seem requisite, and to sell and dispose of any toll-house or toll-houses, gate or gates, cranes, cranehouses, railings, and conveniences to be erected by virtue of that Act, when they should be by the Commissioners considered unnecessary for the purposes of that Act, the moneys to be produced by any such sale to be applied as is therein directed respecting the moneys to be raised by virtue of that Act: Provided always, that no erection (excepting cranes and other engines, and a building for the shelter of passengers and their luggage), exceeding in height twelve feet from the level of high-water mark should be made, authorized, or permitted upon the said pier, or any part thereof, beyond the entrance-gate or gates from the street: Provided also, that the northern part or side of the said pier above or beyond twenty feet of the low-water mark should not at any time be made or become a common mooring-place or harbourage for vessels frequenting the said pier, nor for the deposit of soil or ballast.

The 24th section enacted that the several tolls or dues mentioned and enumerated in the schedule to that Act, or such tolls or dues not exceeding the said several tolls or dues as the Commissioners or any nine or more of them assembled at any meeting or meetings to be held in pursuance of that Act, should from time to time appoint, should be demanded and taken at the toll-gate or toll-gates of the said pier, by such person or persons as the Commissioners should from time to time appoint, before any person, beast, pig, sheep, calf, carriage, goods, wares, or other merchandise in the schedule mentioned or comprised, should be allowed to go or be landed on, or to go or be removed from, the said pier, as the case might require.

[*297

The 37th section empowered the Commissioners to raise money on mortgage of tolls, and gave a form of mortgage: and the 51st section provided that the Commissioners should not erect another pier until the debt was satisfied.

The 56th section enacted that all captains, masters, or persons in command of steamboats carrying passengers should immediately on

their arrival in the said port of Southampton, if required so to do by any five passengers, and provided there be sufficient accommodation for such steamboat or other vessel, and the wind and weather would permit, come alongside the said intended pier for a sufficient time to enable passengers and their luggage to land thereat; and also should (if carrying or being ready or willing to carry passengers), immediately before their departure from the said port of Southampton, provided there be sufficient accommodation for such steamboat or other vessel, and if wind and weather would permit, come alongside the said intended new pier, for the purpose of enabling passengers, together with their luggage, to embark from the said intended pier: and, in case of any captain, master, or person in command of any steamboat or other vessel carrying passengers, or being ready or willing to carry passengers, refusing or neglecting to obey and follow that enactment, he or they for every such refusal or neglect should forfeit and pay to the said Commissioners any sum not exceeding 51.

The 65th section enacted, that all penalties and forfeitures imposed by that Act, or by any rule, order, or by-law made in pursuance thereof (the manner of levying and recovering whereof was not therein otherwise particularly directed), might, in case of non-payment thereof, be recovered in a summary way, by the order and adjudica*298] tion of some one or more justice or justices of the peace for the town and county of Southampton, on complaint to him or them for that purpose made upon the oath or affirmation of any person or persons, or on the confession of the party offending (which oath or affirmation such justice or justices was or were thereby authorized to administer), to be paid within such time as the said justices should direct; and in default of payment of such penalties or forfeitures according to such order or judgment, and if the party or parties offending should not in the mean time have compounded with the said Commissioners (which composition the said Commissioners were thereby empowered to enter into, provided the penalties or any part thereof were payable to the said Commissioners), the same should be levied by distress and sale of the offender's goods and chattels, by warrant under the hand and seal or hands and seals of such justice or justices, rendering the overplus (if any), on demand, to the party or parties whose goods and chattels should be so distrained (the reasonable charge of such distress and sale being first deducted); and one moiety of the penalties and forfeitures when recovered should be paid to the informer, and the other moiety thereof should be paid to the treasurer of the said Commissioners, for the use and benefit of the Commissioners, unless such penaltics or forfeitures should be incurred by the said Commissioners, in which case the same should be paid one moiety to the informer, and the other moiety to be applied by such justice or justices as to him or them should seem fit; and, in case such penalties and forfeitures should not be paid as aforesaid, it should be lawful for such justice or justices, and he or they was or were thereby authorized and required, to order the offender or offenders so convicted to be *299] kept in safe custody until the return could conveniently *be made to such warrant of distress, unless the offender or offenders should give sufficient security, to the satisfaction of such justico. or justices, for his, her, or their appearance before him or them, or