6 defendants, or the plaintiff or plaintiffs or prosecutor shall become nonsuit, [No. II.] 28 George III. c. 30.-An Act to enable Justices of the Peace to license Theatrical Representations occasionally, under the Restrictions therein contained. WHEREAS by an Act passed in the tenth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Second, certain penalties and punishments 'were inflicted on every person who should, for hire, gain, or reward, act, represent, or perform, or cause to be acted, represented, or performed, any interlude, tragedy, comedy, opera, play, farce, or other entertainment No. I. Geo. II. c. 28. Treble costs. No. II. 28 Geo. III. c. 30. of the stage, or any part or parts therein, except as in the said Act is ex- Preamble. cepted: And whereas divers Acts of Parliament have since been solicited 10 G. 2. c. 28. and obtained for divers cities, towns, and places, for exempting them reCspectively from the provisions of the said law: And whereas it may be expedient to permit and suffer, in towns of considerable resort, theatrical Justices of the e representations for a limited time, and under regulations; in which nevertheless, it would be highly impolitick, inexpedient, and unreasonable, to permit the establishment of a constant and regular theatre:' May it therefore please your Majesty that it may be enacted, and be it enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament asesembled, and by the authority of the same, That it shall and may be lawful to itsand for the justices of the peace of any county, riding, or liberty, in general peace may, at the general or jor quarter sessions assembled, at their discretion, to grant a licence to any quarter sesperson or persons, making application for the same by petition, for the per- sions, grant liformance of such tragedies, comedies, interludes, operas, plays, or farces, as cences for the o now are, or hereafter shall be acted, performed, or represented at either of performance the patent or licensed theatres in the city of Westminster, or as shall, in the of plays, &c. e manner prescribed by law, have been submitted to the inspection of the under the retlord chamberlain of the King's household for the time being, at any strictions hereplace within their jurisdictions, or within any city, town or place, situate in specified. within the limits of the same, for any number of days, not exceeding sixty days, to commence within the then next six months, and to be within the space of such four months as shall be specified in the said licence, so as there be only one licence in use at the same time within the jurisdiction so given, and so as such place be not within twenty miles of the cities of London, Westminster, or Edinburgh, or eight miles of any patent or licensed theatre, or ten miles of the residence of his Majesty, his heirs or successors, tor of any place within the same jurisdiction, at which, within six months preceding, a licence under this Act shall have been had and exercised, or within fourteen miles of either of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, or within two miles of the outward limits of any city, town, or place, having peculiar jurisdiction; and so also as no licence under this Act shall have been had and exercised at the same place, within eight months then next preceding; any law or statute for the punishment of persons employed in theatrical representations to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding. II. Provided always, That no such licence shall be granted by the justices Licences not as aforesaid, to be exercised within any city, town, or place, having peculiar to be granted jurisdiction, unless proof shall be made that the majority of the justices within any acting for such peculiar jurisdiction, have, at a publick meeting, signed their place having consent and approbation to the said application, or unless an express condition shall be therein inserted, that the same shall not be valid and effectual until it shall have been approved by the majority of the justices of such pe- of the majority culiar jurisdiction, at a meeting holden expressly for taking the same into of the justices consideration. peculiar jurisdiction, without the consent acting for such III. Provided also, That no such licence shall be granted by the justices jur.sdiction. aforesaid within any city, town, or place, unless notice shall have been No licence to given by the person or persons applying for such licence, at least three be granted un C 2 less three weeks' notice be given the mayor, &c. previous to application for a licence. weeks before such application, to the mayor, bailiff, or other chief civil officer or officers of such city, town, or place, of his or their intending to make such application. No. I. c. 2. Who shall be Overseers: POOR. [No. I.] 43 Elizabeth, c. 2.-An Act for the Relief of the Poor. 43 Elizabeth, BE it enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, that the churchwardens of every parish (1), and four, three or two (2) substantial householders (3) there, as shall be thought meet, having respect to the proportion and greatness of the same parish and parishes, to be nominated yearly in Easter week (4), or within one month after Easter (5), under the hand and seal of two or more justices (6) of the peace in the same county, whereof one to be of the quorum, dwelling in or near the same parish or di vision (7) where the same parish doth lie, shall be called overseers of the poor of the same parish: and they, or the greater part of them, shall takeorder from time to time, by and with the consent of two or more such taxed towards justices of peace(8) as is aforesaid, for setting to work the children of all relief of poor. their office, &c. Who shall be (1) As to townships and vills, see 13 and 14 Ch. II. c. 12, post, No. 2; Geo. II. c. 33, post. (2) An appointment cannot be of more than four; Loxdale, 1 Bur. 446:" nor of less than two; Morris, 4 T. R. 550. So of a township under 13 and 14 Ch. II.; and a certificate signed by a sole overseer is void; Clifton, 2 East, 168. Dissenting teachers exempted; 1 W. and M. c. 18. s. 11. Freemen of the Corporation of Surgeons of London; 18 Geo. II. c. 15. Attornies. and barristers; Pordage, 1 Bott. 16.; Pronse, ibid. Clergymen; Semble,, 6 Mod. 140. An officer of the customs, although he have not his writ of pri vilege at the time of the appointment; Warner, 8 T. R. 375. (3) They must be stated to be substantial householders in the appointment; Weobly, 2 Str. 1261. An appointment of A, a substantial householder of the parish of B, to be overseer of the hamlet of C, in the said parish, good; Morris, 4 T. R. 550. As to the quality of substantial householder, see R. v. Stubbs, 2 T. R. 395. A woman may be appointed overseer: S. C. A justice of peace ought not to be appointed, the offices being incompatible; Semble, 1 Bur. 245,{ 2 T. R. 779. (4) Q. If an appointment on a Sunday is good. Semble, not. Vi. Butler, 1 Bl. 649. Bridgewater, Cooper, 139. (5) An appointment after the end of the month is good, the statute being only directory; Sparrow, 2 Str. 1123. If two appointments, in other respects proper, are made the same day, the first is good, the second void; Searle, 1 Bott. 21, pl. 37; Menhurst and Allen, ibid 25, pl. 43. The magistrates having made their appointment, their jurisdiction in that respect is at an end; Great Marlow, 2 East, 244. (6) The justices must be together; Forrest, 3 T. R. 38; Great Marlow, 2 East,244. (7) An appointment not mentioning the justices to be of the division, good; Sparrow, 1 Bott. 25, pl. 44. POOR RATES. (8) The allowance by the justices is merely ministerial; Uttoxeter, 1 Bott. J whose parents shall not by the said churchwardens and overseers, or Kynaston, 1 East, 118. They are compellable by mandamus to allow; INHABITANCY. No. I. 43 Elizabeth, c. 2. It may now be considered as established, by the case of the inhabi- Personal resiof Liverpool, 8 East, 455, Note R. v. Collinson; ib. Rex v. Nicholson, dence necesst, 330; Williams v. Jones, ib. 346, the personal residence is necessary sary. astitute inhabitancy. chief questions with respect to the rateability on account of inhabihave arisen upon personal estate; as to which a great number of queswere decided, especially during the time of Lord Mansfield, upon the heal usage of the places where they originated; and the Court even reto admit the parties to wave the statement of such usage, in order to a decision of the general question. the impropriety of this principle is extremely man fest, and was always y felt by the profession. Lord Kenyon, in one of his earliest decisions, an incidental opportunity to express his protest against it. But the had previously advanced so far as to establish, that such property, if ale, must be local, visible property, within the parish; Andover Coo50: and shortly afterwards the question was brought very extensively the Court, by the case of the King v. White, 4 T. R. 771, in which the principles were established:-that ships were rateable in the paach was their home; (2) that stock in trade is so in the parish; (3) oney out at interest, money in specie, household furniture and salaries ot so. In p pursuance of the above principles it has been decided, in R. v. East, 451, that an inhabitant of Holyhead was rateable to the poor for a packet boat employed in carrying the mail to Ireland, provided at his own expense, and registered elsewhere. Local usage. What personal property rateable; what not. Packet boat. as been held that an attorney is not rateable for his fees and profits; Attorneys' artifant, M. 37 G. 3. profits. Stock in trade is only rateable if productive, and it is for the ses- Stock in trade. determine that fact, and also the amount of the rate; and, therefore, the sessions quash a rate for not including stock in trade, which they ught to be rated, without finding more; as, whether it produced prowas liable to incumbrances equal to the value: the order of sessions taside, as not sufficiently disclosing facts to enable the Court to draw clusion, that the persons omitted ought to have been rated, although held that the bare possession of personal property was evidence from the justices might have drawn the conclusion, that the possessor should ted; R. v. Duresly, 6 T. R. 53. In the case of Darlington, 6 T. R. 468, found, that certain persons (the not charging of whom in the rate for was the ground of appeal) kept shops, and possessed a visible trade, in trade, and appeared to carry on business to the same extent as in the eding year, when they paid the rate; but that their circumstances or ff their debts, or a clear residue after debts paid, did not appear; and aly, or that they made profit of their stock in trade, or that it was excluCourt of B. R. held, that they ought to have quashed the rate.-[This was ions to the statute 41 G. III. which authorises amending rates.]-Where as stated that several inhabitants were possessed of visible stocks in trade, ch were not rated, and that evidence was given of the amount of the surplus of such stock in the several instances, but that the justices were ik, &c. in the hands of silk twisters, to be spun, is not rateable as stock Trade; Rex v. Sherborne, 8 E.537. No. I. 43 Elizabeth, c. 2. of lands, houses, tithes impropriate, propriations of tithes, coal-mines, or saleable underwoods in the said parish, in such competent sum and sums not satisfied, from the evidence. that there was any sum or surplus by which they could amend the rate, which they therefore confirmed: the order was supported, and it was said by Lord Ellenborough, "stock in trade, merely as being visible, is not liable to be rated; but, to make it rateable, it must also be productive; but the justices have not found that it was productive, or, what is to the same effect, that it had not been proved to their satisfaction; " R. v. Sir A. Macdonald, 12 East, 324. [The real point upon which the sessions decided this case, in which the editor was counsel, was, not that the evidence was insufficient to shew that the property was productive generally, but that it did not go to prove the sums in particular for which the rate ought to have been made; and this, in fact, appears to be an insuperable difficulty attached to the subject, whenever the question is fairly contested. It may also be observed, that when a rate is objected to, as not including particular persons, liable in respect of personal estates, and due notice is given to those persons, and the case is sufficiently made out to affect them, they are reasonably entitled to object to the amendment of the rate, by including a charge against them, when there are others in the same situation to whom the notice has not been given, and who, therefore, cannot be included; whereby the amendment may have a partial and unequal operation, and would, therefore, be unjust. The consequences which may arise from this consideration, and the practical difficulties which necessarily attend the rating of per sonal property if contested, compared to the smallness of the ad vantage which can result from it, may possibly be a matter of suffcient consideration to the Legislature, as furnishing ground for removing the liability altogether.] In the case of Ambleside, 16 E. 380, the sessions quashed the rate for not including personal property; and the Court of King's Bench set aside the order of sessions, because they ought to have amended the rate, by virtue of the power in st. 41 Geo. III. c. 23, and not to have quashed it. But it is to be observed, that the statute expressly provides, that if the sessions shall be of opinion that it is necessary, for the purpose of giving relief to the person or persons appealing, that the rate should be wholly quashed, then the said court may quash the same. OCCUPATION. [5] The next head of this note, which relates chiefly to the liability to the poor rates by reason of occupation, as distinguished from inhabitancy, is pro fessedly abridged from the edition of Burn. The cases referred to relate either, 1st., to the mode of occupation by the person rated; or, 2d. to the subjec matter rated. I. WITH RESPECT TO THE MODE OF OCCUPATION. [6] Using one of the rooms of a house, by keeping a lathe for amusement; keeping corn in another part, occupying the garden, and allowing a poor per son to sleep in a part having no communication with the remainder, is an oc cupation of the whole; St. Mary the Less, Durham, 4 T. R. 477. So a surgeon of a militia regiment, leaving an assistant in possession of the shop, which had no communication with the house (the garden being taken care of), the person with whom the key was left allowing a friend of the mas ter to lodge there, the house being always ready for the master's return; Aberystwith, 10 E. 354. A person building a school for the education of poor children on his charity and the house being wholly appropriated for this purpose, is not an occupier Waldo Cald. 353. But persons in the beneficial occupation of lands upon a charitable institu tion are rateable; Munday, 1 East, 584. So the master of a free school, for a house, garden, and other property, without rent; Catt. 6 T. R. 352. So an officer of Chelsea Hospital, having apartments distinctly and sepa rately for his own use; Ayre v. Smallpeare, i Bott. 131. But not the matron of a charitable institution (the Philanthropic Society), having no distinct apartment for herself, but a bed-chamber, in the house; her family not being allowed to reside therein; Field, 5 T. R. 587. H money as they shall think fit)`a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, A servant residing in a light-house to take care of the lights, is not rateable cupier; Tynemouth, 12 E. 46. St. Luke's Hospital, held there was no beneficial occupation, either in minal trustees, the servants (it not being a rate in respect of their sepa. apartments), or the objects of the charity; 2 Burr. 1053. the corporation of London, who erected St. Bartholomew's Hospital on scite of several ancient houses, are not liable, not being de facto occuSt. Bartholomew's the Less, 4 Bur. 2435. corporation, e. g. a college in one of the universities may be rateable as piers; R. v. Gardner, Cooper 79. Admitted, Aberavon, 5 E. 453. e burgesses of a borough letting out the aftermath of a pasture, at a an sum per head of cattle, are rateable as occupiers; the agisters of the e not; Burgesses of Tewkesbury, 13 E. 155. yal palaces, in the occupation of the royal family, not rateable; secus as the houses occupied by servants; Old Windsor v. Mathews, Cald. 1. The ranger of a park rateable for the profits of land held as such; not for bage and pannage yielding no profit; L. Bute v. Grindall, 1 T. K. 338. he commander of a regiment not rateable for premises taken for the use regiment, and never used in any manner for his private benefit; Lord erste. Lord Somers, 2 T. R. 372. master gunner for a barrack house, rateable, being stated by the sessions occupier; Hurdis, 3 T. R. 497. [Lord Kenyon said, "It might have been contended below that he was not occupier in the legal sense of the word, yet the finding of the sessions precluded that question."-This is one of the numerous instances which occur in the books of catching at a word, and giving the go-by to the real question intended to be submitted. The sessions, of course, intended to reserve a case upon the particular facts; and the statement that the party was occupier, is no more than is implied in the confirmation of the rate. And in the subsequent case of King v. Field, 5 T. R. 591. above referred to, it being urged that the sessions had stated the appellant was occupier, Lord Kenyon said, it was not so stated as a fact, that the Court could not deliberate upon it, but as a point upon which the sessions desired to have their opinion.] barrack master, there being several apartments beyond what were sary for regimental business, in which he resided with his family; , 3 East, 506. [In this case the authorities bearing upon the subject were very fully examined, and Lord Ellenborough laid down the general doctrines respecting it as follows:-" The principle is, that if the party have the use of the building, or other subject of the rate, as a mere servant of the crown, or of any public body, or in any other respect, for the mere exercise of public duty therein, and have no beneficial occupation of, or emolument resulting from it, in any personal and private respect, then he is not rateable. The property of the crown, in the beneficial occupation of a subject, whether he be a civil or a military officer, is equally rateable. But if the use of a residence upon the property be either as the servant of the crown, and for public purposes only, or as a mere public officer or servant, or of any other description, the parties having the use of the property merely for such purposes, are not rateable; because the occupation is throughout that of the public, and of which public occupation the individuals are only the means and instruments."] In Wilford v. Copland, 3 Bos. and Pull. 129, it was ruled, that the masters chancery were not liable to be rated under a local Act, for the rooms used em for the purposes of their office, in the public building appropriated that purpose. The case was regarded as depending upon the same prinples with the rateability to the poor. Lord Alvanley delivered an elaborate dement, in the course of which he incidentally observed (with reference to what had passed on a former occasion), that it was difficult to conceive at the residence of a porter, who had the care of the whole building, could ake each master rateable for his own apartment." The proprietor of a chapel, of which a profit is made by letting out pews, is ateable; Robson v. Hyde, Cald. 310. The trustees of a dissenting meeting, who receive rents for seats, are lia, |