warrant of distress they shall make and issue for the levying of any sum or sums to which any person or persons is or are now or may hereafter be rated or assessed in or by any rate or assessment for the relief of the poor, or in any warrant for the levying of any arrears of the same, order that a sum, such as they may deem reasonable, for the costs and expenses which such overseers shall have incurred in obtaining the same, shall also be levied of the goods and chattels of the person or persons against whom such warrant shall be granted, together with the reasonable charges of the taking, keeping, and selling of the said distress.

And by sect. 7, in all cases where such costs and expenses as aforesaid shall have been paid and received, or any proceedings taken or imprisonment had for nonpayment of the same, such payment and receipt, and such proceedings or imprisonment, shall be deemed legal to all intents and purposes, and no action or other proceeding shall be had or proceeded in for or in respect of the same.

Commitment in default of distress.] By stat. 12 & 13 Vict. c. 14, s. 2, when to any warrant of distress for the levying of any sum or sums to which any person or persons is or are now or may hereafter be rated or assessed in or by any rate or assessment herein before mentioned, it shall be returned by the constable or person having the execution of such warrant that he could find no goods or chattels, or no sufficient goods or chattels, whereon to levy such sum or sums, together with the costs of or occasioned by the levying of the same, it shall be lawful for any two or more justices of the peace before whom the same shall be returned, or for any two or more justices of the peace for the same county, riding, division, liberty, city, borough, or place, if in their discretion they shall so think fit, to issue their warrant of commitment against the person with relation to whom such return shall be so made as aforesaid, in the form (D.) in the schedule to this Act annexed, or in any form to the like effect, and thereby order such person to be imprisoned in the common gaol or house of correction for any time not exceeding three calendar months, unless the sum or sums therein mentioned shall be sooner paid; and every such warrant of commitment, made or issued for default of distress as aforesaid, shall be made as well for the nonpayment of the costs and expenses so as aforesaid incurred in obtaining such warrant of distress, if the same shall be so ordered as aforesaid, and the costs attending the said distress, and also the costs and charges of taking and conveying the party to prison, (the amount of such several costs, expenses, and charges being stated in such warrant of commitment,) as for the nonpayment of the sum or sums alleged to be due for the said rates.

But nothing herein shall be deemed or construed to autho

rize justices to grant or issue one warrant of commitment against several persons in default of distress (c).

The following is the form of the

Commitment.

in the

-, and

To the overseers of the poor of the parish of [county] of -, and to the constable of· to all other peace officers in the said [county], and to the keeper of the [house of correction] at ---> in the said [county]. Whereas on last past a complaint was made before E F., esquire, one of Her Majesty's justices of the peace in and for the said [county] of — by the churchwardens and

,

overseers of the poor of the parish of, in the said [county], that A. B., being a person duly rated to the relief of the poor of the said parish, in and by a rate made on in the sum of - had not paid the same or any part thereof, but had refused so to do; and afterwards on at the parties aforesaid appeared before E. F. and G. H., esquires, two of Her Majesty's justices of the peace in and for the said county [or the said churchwardens and overseers, by C. D., one of the said overseers, appeared before E. F. and G. H., esquires, two of Her Majesty's justices of the peace in and for the said county; but the said A. B., although duly called, did not appear by himself, his counsel or attorney, and it was then satisfactorily proved to the said justices, that the said A. B. had been duly served with the summons in that behalf, which required him to be and appear at that day before such two or more justices of the peace as should then be there, to answer the said complaint, and to be further dealt with according to law]; and then having heard the matter of the said complaint, and it being then duly proved to the said justices upon oath [in the presence and hearing of the said A. B.] that an assessment for the relief of the poor of the said parish of

dated

the was duly made, allowed, and published, and that the said A. B. was therein and thereby assessed at the sum of aforesaid, and that the said sum had been duly demanded of the said A. B., but that he had not paid, and had refused and still refused to pay the same, and the said A. B. then not showing to the said E. F. and G. H. any sufficient cause for not paying the same, the said justices thereupon then issued a warrant to commanding them to levy the said sum of - and the sum of, for the

(c) 12 & 13 Vict. c. 14, s. 3.

costs incurred in obtaining that warrant, by distress and sale of the goods and chattels of the said A. B.: and whereas it now appears to us, the undersigned, two of Her Majesty's justices of the peace in and for the said [county], as well by the return of the said to the said warrant

of distress as otherwise, that the said hath made diligent search for the goods and chattels of the said A. B., but that no sufficient distress whereon to levy the said sums above mentioned could be found: these are therefore to command you the said churchwardens and overseers, and constable and peace officers, or some or one of you, to take the said A. B., and him safely convey to the [house of correction] at aforesaid, and there deliver him to the said keeper, together with this precept: and we do hereby command you the said keeper of the said [house of correction] to receive the said A. B. into your custody in the said [house of correction], there to imprison him for the space of unless the said sums of - and -, together with the sum of- - for the costs attending the said distress, and the further sum of -, being the costs and charges of this commitment, and of taking and conveying the said A. B. to prison, making in the whole the sum of shall be sooner paid unto you the said keeper; and for your so doing, this shall be your sufficient warrant.

Given under our hands and seals, this in the year of our Lord

day of

"

in the [county] aforesaid.

J. S. (L. S.) J. N. (L. S.)

Tender of rate and costs.] By stat. 12 & 13 Vict. c. 14, s. 6, in all cases where any proceedings have been or shall hereafter be taken to compel payment of any sum for which any such person is or shall be so rated or assessed as aforesaid, if at any time before such person shall be committed to and lodged in prison for nonpayment thereof, or for or by reason of its being returned to such warrant of distress as aforesaid that there are no goods or chattels or no sufficient goods or chattels of such person whereon the same may be levied as aforesaid, such person shall pay or tender to the churchwardens or overseers of the poor, or any of them, or other person authorized to collect or receive such rate, the sum so sought to be recovered, together with the amount of all costs and expenses up to that time incurred in the proceedings so taken to compel payment thereof as aforesaid, then and in every such case the person to whom such sum and costs shall be so paid or tendered shall receive the same, and thereupon no further proceedings for the recovery of the same shall be had or taken. A tender of the rate, without the costs, is of no avail (d).

(d) Walsh v. Southwell et al., 20 Law J. 165, m.

As to the costs of the distress where the amount does not xceed 201., see ante, vol. 1, p. 403.

How, where an appeal is pending.] By stat. 41 G. 3, c. 23, s. 2, every sum of money at which any person shall be rated or assessed, in any rate or assessment made for the relief of the poor of any parish, township, vill, or place, shall and may be levied and recovered by distress, and all other lawful ways and means, notwithstanding the person so rated or assessed, or any other person or persons, shall have given notice of appeal from or against such rate or assessment, for any cause whatsoever provided always, that if any person rated, or assessed in any such rate or assessment, shall give such notice of appeal, then, from and after the giving of such notice, and until the appeal shall have been heard and determined, no proceedings shall be commenced or carried on to recover any greater sum of money from such person, than the sum at which he, or any occupier of the same premises, shall have been rated or assessed in the last effective rate which shall have been collected in such parish, township, vill, or place.

And in case the said court of general or quarter sessions of the peace shall, upon appeal, order any such rate or assessment to be quashed, the said court may order any sum of money, in and by such rate or assessment charged on any person, or any part of any such sum, not to be paid, and then and in every such case no proceedings shall, after making such order, be commenced; or if any proceedings shall have been previously commenced, such proceedings shall be no further prosecuted or carried on for the purpose of levying or enforcing the payment of any sum which shall be so ordered by the said court not to be paid as aforesaid; provided always, that no justice of the peace, constable, or other officer of the peace, or other person, shall be deemed a trespasser, or liable to any action, for any warrant, order, act, or thing, which such justice, constable, or other officer or person shall have granted, made, executed, or done, for the purpose of levying or enforcing the payment of any such sum or sums of money, before he shall have had notice in writing of the order for the nonpayment of such sum or sums of money, which the said court is hereby authorized to make as aforesaid (e).

Or, if upon the hearing of any such appeal, the court of general or quarter sessions shall order the name of any person to be struck out of such rate or assessment, or the sum rated or assessed on any person to be decreased or lowered; and if it shall be made appear to the said court that such person hath previously to the hearing of such appeal, paid any sum of money, in consequence of such rate or assessment, which he

(e) 41 G. 3, c. 23, s. 3.

ought not to have paid or been charged with, then the said court shall order every such sum of money to be repaid and returned by the said churchwardens and overseers of the poor, to the person having paid the same, together with all reasonable costs, charges, and expenses, occasioned by such person having paid or been required to pay the same; and every sum so ordered to be repaid or returned, shall and may, together with all such costs, charges, and expenses as aforesaid, be levied and recovered from them, or any of them, by distress, and all such other ways and means, as the money charged, rated, or assessed on any person, by any rate or assessment made for the relief of the poor, can or may be by law levied or recovered (ƒ).

How, in the case of ratepayers removing.] By stat. 17 G. 2, c. 38, s. 12, after reciting that " persons frequently remove out of parishes and places without paying the rates assessed on them, and other persons do enter and occupy their houses and tenements part of the year, by reason whereof great sums are annually lost to such parishes and places :" it is enacted, "that where any person or persons shall come into, or occupy any house, land, tenement, or hereditament, or other premises, out of or from which any other person assessed shall be removed, or which at the time of making such rate was empty or unoccupied, that then every person so removing from, and every person so coming into or occupying the same, shall be liable to pay such rate in proportion to the time that such person occupied the same respectively, in the same manner, and under the like penalty of distress, as if such person so removing had not removed, or such person so coming in or occupying, had been originally rated and assessed in such rate; which said proportion, in case of dispute, shall be ascertained by any two or more of His Majesty's justices of the peace."

In what place the distress may be levied.] By stat. 17 G. 2, c. 38, s. 7, for the more effectually levying money assessed for the relief of the poor, it is enacted, that the goods of any person assessed, and refusing to pay, may be levied by warrant of distress, not only in the place for which such assessment was made, but in any other place within the same county or precinct; and if sufficient distress cannot be found within the said county or precinct, on oath made thereof before some justice of any other county or precinct (which oath shall be certified under the hand of such justice on the said warrant), such goods may be levied in such other county or precinct, by

(ƒ) 41 G. 3, c. 23, s. 8.