SUPPLEMENT.

Damages committed by Riotous and Tumultuous Assemblies.

By the 3 Geo. IV. c. 33. for the more speedy recovery of small damages committed by riotous assemblies, &c. it is enacted, that it shall not be lawful for any person or persons whomsoever in England, where the loss, injury, or damage claimed and alleged to have been sustained shall not exceed the sum of 30l. to commence, bring, or prosecute any action or actions at law for or on account of the loss, injury, or damage sustained by the demolishing, pulling down, destroying, or damaging, wholly or in part, of any church, chapel, or any building for religious worship duly certified and registered, or any dwelling-house, barn, stable, or out-house, by any persons unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled; or for or on account of any loss, injury, or damage sustained by the demolishing or pulling down, wholly or in part, of any wind saw-mill, or other wind-mill, or any water-mill or other mill, or any of the works thereunto belonging, by any persons unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled; or for or on account of the loss, injury, or damage sustained by the unlawfully and with force demolishing or pulling down, or beginning to demolish or pull down any erection and building, or engine used or employed in carrying on or conducting of any trade or manufactory, or any branch or department of any trade or manufactory of goods, wares, or merchandizes of any kind or description whatsoever, in which any wares, goods, or merchandize shall be warehoused or deposited, by any person or persons unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together, to the disturbance of the public peace; or for or on account of the loss, injury, or damage sustained by the unlawfully and with force demolishing, pulling down, destroying, or damaging any fire-engine or other engine erected or to be erected for the making, sinking, or working collieries, coal-mines, or other mines, or any bridge, waggon-way, or trunk erected or made, or to be erected or made, for conveying coals or other minerals from any colliery, coal-mine, or other mine, to any place, or for shipping the same, or any staith or other erection or building for depositing coals or other minerals, or used in the management or conducting of the business of any such colliery, coal-mine, or other mine, by any person or persons unlawfully, riotously, and tumultuously assembled together, in disturbance of the public peace; or for or on account of any house, shop, or other building whatsoever, or any part thereof, being destroyed or in any manner damaged or injured, or any fixtures thereto attached, or any furniture, goods,

or commodities which shall be therein, being destroyed, taken away, or damaged, by the act or acts of any riotous or tumultuous assembly of persons, or by the act or acts of any person or persons engaged in or making part of such riotous or tumultuous assembly; or for or on account of the loss, injury, or damage sustained by the unlawfully or maliciously killing or maiming of any cattle, cutting down or destroying any trees, setting fire to any house, barn, or out-house, hovel, cock, mow, or stack of corn, straw, hay, or wood; or for or on account of the loss, injury, or damage sustained by the setting fire to or destroying any ricks or threshing machines, by the act or acts of any riotous or tumultuous assembly of persons. § 1.

And in every case aforesaid, where the loss, injury, or damage claimed or alleged to have been sustained, shall not exceed in amount the sum of 301. the party or parties damnified or injured shall within one calendar month give notice in writing to the high constable of the hundred, rape, wapentake, lathe, riding, division, or liberty, or to the mayor or other chief magistrate of the city, town, or place in which such loss, injury, or damage shall have been suffered or sustained, and where there is no high constable, to the churchwardens or overseers, or to any two substantial householders not being interested, or left at their respective last or usual places of abode, of such riotous or tumultuous assembly having taken place, and the nature and amount of the loss, injury, or damage sustained, and of his, her, and their intention of calling upon the inhabitants of such city, &c. to make good such loss, injury, or damage; and the said high constable, &c. is forthwith to give notice in writing thereof to the magistrates residing in or acting for such city, &c. who shall thereupon appoint a special petty session to be holden within thirty days next after the receipt of such notice, of all the magistrates residing in or acting for such city, &c. to hear and determine of any complaint which may be then and there brought before them, for or on account of any such damage or injury; and the party or parties so damniñed and injured are directed to give notice, or cause a notice in writing, in the form of a schedule annexed, to be placed on a church or chapel door or most conspicuous place of the parish in which such loss, injury, or damage shall have been sustained, on two successive Sundays next preceding the day of holding of such petty session, of the intent and purpose for which such special petty session is to be held. § 2.

In case the high constable, mayor, &c. shall neglect or refuse to give notice as directed and required, the party or parties may sue them for the amount of damages, by action of debt or on the case, in any of his majesty's courts of record at Westminster. § 3.

By section 4, the magistrates, &c. at such petty sessions are authorized to adjudicate the sum or sums of money to be paid to parties aggrieved, together with all reasonable costs and charges, and likewise to order such costs, &c. to be paid by the treasurer of the county, city, &c. (as the case may be); and such treasurer is to be allowed the same in passing his accounts.

Magistrates may issue their summons for the attendance of witnesses; who, upon being tendered their reasonable expences, must appear, under the penalty of 107. or in default of payment to be imprisoned for three months in the common gaol or house of correction. §5.

And in any action or actions hereafter to be brought in England against the inhabitants of any city, &c. for damages occasioned by riotous and tumultuous assemblies, the defendant may, with the consent and approbation of the justices of the peace, suffer judgment to go by default; but the plaintiffs shall nevertheless be required to produce the same proof before the sheriff or other officer taking the inquisition, in establishing his claim, as would be required if such actions had been defended. § 6.

Persons aggrieved may appeal to the quarter-sessions, upon giving ten days' notice to the parties appealed against, and entering into a recognizance to try such appeal. § 7.

By section 8, parties are protected from any irregularities made in enforcing by distress the recovery of any damages or penalties awarded by this act.

Section 9, contains the form of conviction.

The remaining sections relate to the recovery of damages in Scotland, having the same tendency, and granting the same facilities as the enactments we have here noticed.

Amendment of the Insolvent Debtors' Act.

By the 3 Geo. IV. c. 123. it is enacted, that it shall be lawful for the Provisional Assignee of the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors, to take possession of all the real and personal estate and effects of every prisoner, who shall subscribe the petition, and execute the conveyance and assignment mentioned in the 1 Geo. IV. c. 119. and, if the court shall so order, to sell or otherwise dispose of such goods, chattels, and personal estate, or any part thereof, and, if the court shall so order, of the real estate of such prisoner, according to the provisions and for the purposes of the said act, and out of the proceeds to defray, in the first place, all such expences of taking possession of and selling the same as shall be allowed by the court. § 1.

The provisional assignee may sue in his own name for the recovery of any estate, debts, effects, or rights of any such prisoner; and in case of the dismissal of the petition of such prisoner, all acts done before such dismissal shall be valid. § 2.

It shall be lawful for the court to appoint, at any time after the filing of a prisoner's petition, and before it shall adjudge him entitled to his discharge as well as after such adjudication, one or more assignee or assignees, for the purposes of the said act; which assignees shall have the same powers, authorities, rights, and duties, and shall be subject to all the duties, liabilities, and punishments. given by this or the said act with respect to the provisional or other assignee or assignees; and in all cases after assignment by the pro

visional assignee, all the estate and effects of such prisoner shall be as effectually and legally vested by relation in such assignee or assignees, as if the first assignment had been made to him or them, But no act done by virtue of such first assignment shall be thereby rendered void or defeated. § 3.

If any assignee shall wilfully retain, or employ for their own benefit, any sums of money part of the estates of such insolvent, the court shall have full power to order such assignees to be charged in their accounts with interest at a rate not exceeding 20l. per centum per annum on all sums of money so retained or employed by them for the time during which they shall have so retained or employed the same. § 4.

The court, or the justices acting under the authority of the said act, shall have the same power to examine into all debts in the prisoner's schedule, whether the same shall be therein stated to be admitted or disputed, or admitted in part and disputed in part, as is enacted by the said act as to the debts stated to be admitted therein; and shall also have power to inquire whether any of such debts have been improperly admitted or improperly disputed by the prisoner with a fraudulent intent. §5.

In the adjudication of the court that any prisoner is entitled to the benefit of the act, and the order thereon, it shall not be necessary to specify the several creditors, as required by the said act; but it shall be sufficient, if the court shall think fit, to refer to the schedule of such prisoner as specifying such creditors as to whom the court shall adjudge the prisoner entitled to the benefit of the act, and to be discharged forthwith. And in all cases where it shall appear that any prisoner shall have done any act for which the court is authorized to order that such prisoner shall not be discharged by virtue of the said act, until he shall have been in custody at the suit of some one or more of the persons who were creditors at the time of petitioning the said court, or had since become creditors in respect of debts then growing due, and from whose claims he or she shall be discharged by the judgment of the said court, for a period or periods not exceeding three years in the whole, the court may adjudicate thereon in the words of the said act, without naming any such creditor or creditors in such adjudication; and thereupon the said insolvent shall be subject to be detained in prison by his then detaining creditor or creditors, and to be arrested or charged in custody by any of the other creditors in his schedule, until he shall have been in custody for such period or periods in the whole as shall be specified in such adjudication. § 6.

The court may order expences of reference to be paid out of the first proceeds, and the prisoner to attend, if required, in matters of reference: the fee to the keeper of the prison, or his deputy, to be ten shillings, to be paid by the parties requiring the reference false swearing under the reference to be punished as wilful and corrupt perjury. No keeper of any prison shall be required to carry any prisoner a greater distance than two miles from his pri

son, to or before any officer or examiner; except that the keepers of prisons in Middlesex or London, and of the prisons of the King's Bench and Marshalsea, and in Horsemonger-Lane, and of the borough of Southwark, shall carry their prisoners before such officer at the office of the said court, or at such other place within the bills of mortality as the said court shall direct. §7.

The court may order prisoners to be confined within the walls, if it see proper. § 8.

The justices at the quarter-sessions are empowered to remand a prisoner who refuses to be sworn, or to answer proper questions; and the justices shall have the same powers to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers, as now are possessed by the superior courts at Westminster; and the clerk of the peace, who is hereby authorized to issue such subpoenas as may be requisite, in each of which the names of not more than four persons shall be inserted, for each subpœna shall receive from the person requiring the same the sum of 2s. 6d. and no more. But no witness shall be obliged to attend, unless the party on whose behalf he shall be required, shall have previously tendered an allowance for his expences. § 9.

Where any prisoner in actual custody or arrested within the counties of Middlesex or Surrey, or the city of London, had, at or immediately before such arrest, his usual place of abode in some other county or place, it shall be lawful for the court to receive affidavits of any creditors or other persons not resident within the said counties or city, in opposition to the discharge of such prisoner, and to permit interrogatories to be filed for the examination of any person making or joining in such affidavit, and also to stay the discharge of such prisoner, until such interrogatories shall be fully answered, or until the expiration of six weeks from the filing of such interrogatories. § 10.

No prisoner who shall have petitioned the court for relief under the said act shall be discharged out of custody as to any action, suit, or process, in or by which he shall be charged or detained in eustody for any debt or damages, which shall be admitted by such prisoner in his schedule, or which shall be disputed therein only as to the amount, by virtue of any supersedeas, judgment of non-pros, or judgment as in the case of a nonsuit for want of the plaintiff in such action, &c. proceeding therein. § 11.

If any married woman, being a prisoner, shall petition to be discharged, the court may receive such petition without requiring such married woman to execute a conveyance or assignment, or warrant, according to the provisions of the said act; but, instead thereof, the court shall require such married woman to execute a conveyance and assignment for vesting in such provisional assignee as aforesaid all property, real and personal, to which she inay entitled for her separate use, or over which she shall have any power of disposition notwithstanding her coverture, or which shall, be vested in any trustee or other person for her benefit, and to deliver up all personal estate and effects of which she shall have the actual

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