11 GEORGE 2, 1737-8.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE CORN EXPORTATION ACT, 1737 (Short Titles Act, 1896).

AN ACT for punishing such Persons as shall do Injuries and Violences to the Persons or Properties of His Majesty's Subjects with Intent to hinder the Exportation of Corn.

[Preamble.]

1. PERSONS USING VIOLENCE TO HINDER THE PURCHASE OR CARRIAGE OF Corn, to be IMPRISONED, AND PUBLICKLY WHIPPED.-If any person or persons shall, from and after the four and twentieth day of June one thousand seven hundred and thirty eight, wilfully and maliciously beat, wound, or use any other violence to or upon any person or persons, with intent to deter or hinder him or them from buying of corn or grain in any market or other place within this kingdom; or shall unlawfully stop or seize upon any waggon, cart, or other carriage, or horse, loaded with wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain in or on the way to or for any city, market-town, or sea-port of this kingdom, and wilfully and maliciously break, cut, separate, or destroy the same, or any part thereof, or the harness of the horses drawing the same; or shall unlawfully take off, drive away, kill, or wound any of such horses, or unlawfully beat or wound the driver or drivers of such waggon, cart, or other carriage or horse so loaded, in order to stop the same; or shall by cutting of the sacks, or otherwise, scatter or throw abroad such wheat, flour, meal, malt, or other grain, or shall take and carry away, spoil, or damage the same, or any part thereof; every and all such person and persons being thereof lawfully convicted before any two or more justices of the peace of the county, shire, stewartry, riding, division, town, or place corporate, wherein such offence or offences shall be committed, or before the justices of the peace in open sessions (who are hereby authorized and impowered summarily and finally to hear and determine the same), shall be sent to the common gaol or to the house of correction, there to continue and be kept to hard labour for any time not exceeding the space of three months nor less than one month, and shall by the same justices be also ordered to be once publickly and openly whipped by the master or keeper of such gaol or house of correction, in such city, market-town, or sea-port in or near to which such offence shall be committed, on the first convenient market-day, at the market cross, or market place there, between the hours of eleven and two of the clock.

2. COMMITTING THE LIKE OFFENCES A SECOND TIME, DESTROYING GRANARIES OR THE CORN THEREIN, OR IN VESSELS, &C.-FELONY.-And if any such person or persons so convicted shall commit any of the offences aforesaid a second time; or if from and after the said four and twentieth day of June one thousand seven hundred and thirtyeight, any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously pull, throw down, or otherwise destroy any storehouse, or granary, or other place where corn shall be then kept in order to be exported; or shall unlawfully enter any such storehouse, granary, or other place, and take and carry away any corn, flour, meal, or grain therefrom, or shall throw abroad or spoil the same, or any part thereof; or shall unlawfully enter on board any ship, barge, boat, or vessel, and shall wilfully and maliciously take and carry away, cast, or throw out therefrom, or otherwise spoil or damage, any meal, flour, wheat, or other grain. therein intended for exportation; every person so offending, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be adjudged guilty of felony, and shall be transported for the space of seven years, in like manner as other felons are directed to be transported by the laws and statutes of this realm

S. 2 in part rep. 30 & 31 Vict. c. 59 (S. L.R.).

3. PROVISOES.-Provided always, that no attainder for any offence made felony by virtue of this Act shall make or work any corruption of blood, loss of dower, or disinheritance of heir or heirs.

4. Provided also, that no person who shall be punished for any offence by virtue of this Act shall be punished for the same offence by virtue of any other law or statute whatsoever.

[Residue rep. 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. 27, s. 1.]

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE ACT, 1737 (Short Titles Act, 1896).

AN ACT to amend an Act passed in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Year of the Reign of King William the Third, intituled “An Act for preventing any Inconveniences that may happen by Privilege of Parliament."

[Whole Act, except 8. 4, rep. 30 & 31 Vict. c. 59 (S.L.R.).]

4. NO PROCESS AGAINST THE KING'S DEBTOR TO BE STAYED BY PRIVILEGE OF PARLIAMENT; BUT THE PERSONS NOT TO BE ARRESTED.—And it is hereby enacted, that no action, suit, process, order, judgement, decree, or proceeding in law or equity against the King's original and immediate debtor, for the recovery or obtaining of any debt or duty originally and immediately due or payable unto his Majesty, his heirs or successors, or against any accountant or person answerable or liable to render any account unto his Majesty, his heirs or successors, for any part or branch of any of his or their revenues, or other original and immediate debt or duty, or the execution of any such process, order, judgement, decree, or proceedings, shall be impeached, stayed, or delayed in any court in Great Britain or Ireland, by or under the colour or pretence of any privilege of the Parliament of Great Britain; yet so nevertheless that the person of any such debtor or accountant or person answerable or liable to account, being a peer or lord of Parliament of Great Britain, shall not be liable to be arrested or imprisoned by or upon any such suit, order, judgement, decree, process, or proceedings, or being a member of the House of Commons of Great Britain, shall not, during the continuance of the privilege of Parliament, be arrested or imprisoned by or upon any such order, judgement, decree, process, or proceedings.

13 GEORGE 2, 1739-40.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE EXEMPTION FROM IMPRESSMENT ACT, 1739 (Short Titles Act, 1896).

AN ACT for the Increase of Mariners and Seamen to navigate Merchant Ships and other Trading Ships or Vessels. [Preamble.]

1. PERSONS EXEMPTED FROM BEING IMPRESSED.-Every person herein after mentioned shall be freed and exempted from being impressed into the service of his Majesty, his heirs or successors; (that is to say) every person being of the age of fifty five years or upwards, and every person not having attained the full age of eighteen years, and every foreigner, being a mariner, seaman, or landman, who shall serve in any merchant ship or other trading ship or vessel, or privateer, belonging to the subjects of the crown of Great Britain.

2. [Recital] Every person, of what age soever he be, who shall use the sea, shall be freed and exempted from being impressed for the full space of two years, to be computed from the time of his first going to sea; and that every person, who not having before used to the sea, shall bind himself apprentice to serve at sea, shall be freed and exempted from being impressed for the full space of three years, to be computed from the time of his binding himself apprentice as aforesaid.

3. LORD HIGH ADMIRAL, &C. TO GRANT PROTECTIONS FOR THAT PURPOSE, WITHOUT FEE OR REWARD.-[Recital] The lord high admiral of Great Britain, or commissioners for executing the office of lord high admiral for the time being, or any three or more of them, shall, upon due proof made before him or them of the respective ages and circumstances (as the case shall happen) of any of the persons before mentioned, grant a protection to every such person to secure him from being impressed, for such time as by the true intent and meaning of this Act such person is to be freed and exempted from being impressed; all which protections shall be granted without any fee or reward to be taken for the same.

15 GEORGE 2, 1741-2.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS DISQUALIFICATION ACT, 1741 (Short Titles Act, 1896). AN Act to exclude certain Officers from being Members of the House of Commons. [Preamble.]

1. DESCRIPTION OF OFFICERS NOT ADMITTED TO SIT IN PARLIAMENT.-From and after the dissolution or other determination of this present Parliament, no person who shall be commissioner of the revenue in Ireland, or commissioner of the navy or victualling offices, nor any deputies or clerks in any of the said offices, or in any of the several offices following, that is to say, the office of lord high treasurer, or the commissioners of the Treasury, or of the auditor of the receipt of his Majesty's Exchequer, or of the tellers of the Exchequer, or of the chancellor of the Exchequer, or of the lord high admiral, or the commissioners of the admiralty, or of the paymasters of the army, or of the navy, or of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, or of the commissioners of the salt, or of the commissioners of the stamps, or of the commissioners of appeals, or of the commissioners of wine licences, or of the commissioners of hackney coaches, or of the commissioners of hawkers and pedlars, nor any persons having any office, civil or military, within the island of Minorca, or in Gibraltar, other than officers having commissions in any regiment there only, shall be capable of being elected, or of sitting or voting as a member of the House of Commons, in any Parliament which shall be hereafter summoned and holden.

2. WHAT RETURNS OF MEMBERS ARE DECLARED VOID-PENALTY ON PERSONS SITTING OR VOTING, AFTER DISABLED BY THIS ACT.-And if any person hereby disabled or declared to be incapable to sit or vote in any Parliament hereafter to be holden, shall nevertheless be returned as a member to serve for any county, stewartry, city, borough, town, cinque port, or place in Parliament, such election and return are hereby enacted and declared to be void to all intents and purposes whatsoever; and if any person disabled and declared incapable by this Act to be elected shall, after the dissolution or other determination of this present Parliament, presume to sit or vote as a member of the House of Commons in any Parliament to be hereafter summoned, such person so sitting or voting shall forfeit the sum of twenty pounds for every day in which he shall sit or vote in the said House of Commons to such person or persons who shall sue for the same in any of his Majesty's courts at Westminster, and the money so forfeited shall be recovered by the persons so suing, with full costs of suit, in any of the said courts, by action of debt, bill, plaint, or information, in which no essoign, privilege, protection, or wager of law shall be allowed, and only one imparlance, and shall from thenceforth be incapable of taking, holding, or enjoying any office of honour or profit under his Majesty, his heirs or successors. 3. PROVISO.-Provided always, that nothing in this Act shall extend or be construed to extend or relate to, or exclude the treasurer or comptroller of the navy, the secretaries of the Treasury, the secretary to the chancellor of the Exchequer, or secretaries of the admiralty, the under secretary to any of his Majesty's principal secretaries of state, or the deputy paymaster of the army, or to exclude any person having or holding any office or employment for life, or for so long as he shall behave himself well in his office, anything herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

THE STARR AND BENT ACT, 1741 (Short Titles Act, 1896).

AN ACT. . for the more effectual preventing the cutting of Star or Bent. Title in part rep. 50 & 51 Vict. c. 59 (S. L.R.). [Ss. 1-5 rep. 30 & 31 Vict. c. 59 (S.L.R.).] [Ss. 6-8 apply to England exclusively.]

9. PENALTY FOR CUTTING STARR AND BENT IN SCOTLAND-PENALTY FOR FINDING STARR OR BENT IN ANY ONE'S CUSTODY IN SCOTLAND.-And whereas by an Act made in that part

S.S.R.

5

65

of Great Britain called Scotland in the year one thousand six hundred and ninety five, intituled "An Act for preservation of meadows, lands, and pasturages lying adjacent to sand-hills," the pulling of bent is prohibited and restrained under the penalties mentioned in the said Act: And whereas the said Act hath by experience been found ineffectual for answering the purposes thereby intended: Be it therefore declared and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said twenty ninth day of September one thousand seven hundred and forty two, if any bent shall be pulled or cut from any sand-hills in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, either by the lord or owner thereof, or by any other person or persons whatsoever, such person or persons being convicted thereof shall be subject and liable to the like penalties and forfeitures to be disposed of in such manner as in and by the said Act is particularly mentioned and expressed; and if any bent shall from and after the said twenty ninth day of September be found in the custody or possession of any person or persons within eight miles of any sand-hills, in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, such person or persons being convicted thereof shall be deemed, adjudged, and taken to be the puller or cutter of bent from such sand-hills, and shall be subject and liable as a puller of bent to the like penalties and forfeitures to be disposed of in such manner as in and by the said Act is particularly mentioned and expressed.

16 GEORGE 2, 1742-3.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SPIRITS ACT, 1742 (Short Titles Act, 1896).

AN ACT for repealing certain Duties on Spirituous Liquors, and on Licences for retailing the same, and for laying other Duties on Spirituous Liquors, and on Licences to retale the said Liquors.

[Whole Act, except part printed, rep. 30 & 31 Vict. e. 59 (S.L.R.).]

12. PROVISO IN FAVOUR OF PHYSICIANS, APOTHECARIES, SURGEONS, OR CHYMISTS.— Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that this Act, or anything therein contained, shall not extend to any physicians, apothecaries, surgeons, or chymists, as to any spirits or spirituous liquors which they may use in the preparation or making up of medicines for sick, lame, or distempered persons only

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE PRISON (ESCAPE) ACT, 1742 (Short Titles Act, 1896).

AN ACT for the further Punishment of Persons who shall aid or assist Prisoners to attempt to escape out of lawful Custody.

[Preamble.]

1. WHEREIN A PERSON ASSISTING A PRISONER TO ESCAPE, SHALL BE DEEMED GUILTY OF FELONY; AND WHEREIN DEEMED A MISDEMEANOR.-If any person shall, from and after the twenty fourth day of June one thousand seven hundred and forty three, by any means whatsoever by aiding or assisting to any prisoner to attempt to make his or her escape from any gaol, although no escape be actually made, in case such prisoner then was attainted or convicted of treason, or any felony, except petty larceny, or lawfully committed to or detained in any gaol for treason, or any felony, except petty larceny, expressed in the warrant of commitment or detainer, every person so offending, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be deemed and adjudged guilty of felony, and shall be transported to one of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America for the term of

seven years; and in case such prisoner then was convicted of, committed to, or detained in any gaol for petty larceny, or any other crime, not being treason or felony, expressed in the warrant of his or her commitment or detainer as aforesaid, or then was in gaol upon any process whatsoever for any debt, damages, costs, sum or sums of money, amounting in the whole to the sum of one hundred pounds, every person so offending as aforesaid, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be deemed and adjudged to be guilty of a misdemeanor for which he or she shall be liable to a fine and imprisonment.

2. AFTER 24 JUNE, 1743, ANY PERSON CONVEYING ANY DISGUISE, INSTRUMENT, OR ARMS, TO HELP AN ESCAPE, WITHOUT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE KEEPER, IF THE PRISONER BE ATTAINTED OF TREASON OR FELONY, OR COMMITTED FOR TREASON OR FELONY; THE OFFENDER SHALL BE DEEMED GUILTY OF FELONY, AND BE TRANSPORTED DISGUISE, INSTRUMENTS, OR ARMS, GIVEN TO ONE DETAINED FOR ANY LESS CRIME, OR FOR DEBT, DAMAGES, &C. AMOUNTING TO 100%. The Offender SHALL BE DEEMED GUILTY OF A MISDEMEANOR.—And if any person shall, from and after the said twenty fourth day of June one thousand seven hundred and forty three, convey or cause to be conveyed into any gaol or prison any vizor or other disguise, or any instrument or arms proper to facilitate the escape of prisoners, and the same shall deliver or cause to be delivered to any prisoner in any such gaol, or to any other person there for the use of any such prisoner, without the consent or privity of the keeper or under-keeper of any such gaol or prison, every such person, although no escape or attempt to escape be actually made, shall be deemed to have delivered such vizor or other disguise, instrument, or arms with an intent to aid and assist such prisoner to escape or attempt to escape; and in case such prisoner then was attainted or convicted of treason, or any felony, except petty larceny, or lawfully committed to or detained in any such gaol for treason or any felony, except petty larceny, expressed in the warrant of commitment or detainer, every person so offending, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall in like manner be deemed and adjudged guilty of felony, and shall be transported to one of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America for the term of seven years; but in case the prisoner to whom or for whose use such vizor or disguise, instrument or arms shall be so delivered then was convicted, committed, or detained for petty larceny, or any other crime not being treason or felony, expressed in the warrant of commitment or detainer, or upon any process whatsoever for any debt, damages, costs, sum or sums of money, amounting in the whole to the sum of one hundred pounds, every such person so offending, and being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be deemed and adjudged to be guilty of a misdemeanor, for which he or she shall be in like manner liable to a fine and imprisonment.

3. TO ASSIST ANY PERSON TO ESCAPE FROM A CONSTABLE, BEING CHARGED WITH TREASON OR FELONY; OR FROM ANY BOAT, &C. CARRYING FELONS FOR TRANSPORTATION ; THE OFFENDER SHALL BE DEEMED GUILTY OF FELONY, AND SHALL BE TRANSPORTED FOR SEVEN YEARS.—And if any person shall, from and after the twenty fourth day of June one thousand seven hundred and forty three, aid or assist any prisoner to attempt to make his or her escape from the custody of any constable, headborough, tythingman, or other officer or person who shall then have the lawful charge of such prisoner, in order to carry him or her to gaol, by virtue of a warrant of commitment for treason or any felony (except petty larceny) expressed in such warrant; or if any person shall be aiding or assisting to any felon to attempt to make his escape from on board any boat, ship, or vessel carrying felons for transportation, or from the contractor for the transportation of such felons, his assigns or agents, or any other person to whom such felon shall have been lawfully delivered in order for transportation, then every person so offending, and being lawfully convicted thereof, shall be deemed and adjudged to be guilty of felony, and shall be transported to one of his Majesty's colonies or plantations in America for the term of seven years.

4. THE PROSECUTION TO COMMENCE WITHIN A YEAR.-Provided always, that there shall be no prosecution for any of the said offences unless such prosecution be commenced within one year after such offence committed.

[S. 5 rep. 30 & 31 Vict. c. 59 (S.L.R.).]