Cases to Subaltern Officers, Adjutants, Paymasters, Quartermasters, Surgeons, Assistant Surgeons, Surgeons' Mates, and Sergeant-Majors of the Militia; and to authorise the Employment of the Non-commissioned Officers.

[11th August, 1854.]

Sect. 1. Secretary-at-War to issue the money required for pay of regular militia. Rates of pay. Rates of pay when absent on furlough. Clothing. Contingent fund.

2. Adjutant, &c. to reside where the Secretary-at-War shall appoint.

3. Adjutants and non-commissioned officers of militia may be employed in their counties.

5. In absence of the adjutant, the sergeants to be under the command of the sergeant-major.

6. Militia when called out for training or exercise entitled

to pay.

7. Volunteers attached to regiments of the line to be subject to the Mutiny Act.

8. Allowances to certain subalterns and surgeons' mates and assistant surgeons. Rank of certain officers.

9. A declaration to be taken to entitle officers, &c. to such allowances. Form of declaration.

10. Secretary-at-War may place certain officers unfit for duty upon a retired allowance, upon making the following declaration. Form of declaration.

11. Allowances to officers reduced in 1829.

12. A declaration to be taken by officers claiming the said allowances. Form of declaration.

13. Out-pension to reduced non-commissioned officers and drummers not to be received while serving.

14. Subalterns, mates, &c. to attend the exercise, &c. Commanding officers may grant leave of absence.

15. If the regiment be not called out before the time fixed for the payment, the allowance shall be paid, on making the declaration, without certificate of attendance.

16. Allowances to be paid quarterly.

17. On neglect of attendance, subalterns, &c. shall forfeit allowance.

18. Allowance not to be paid while the militia embodied. 19. Act not to give right to allowances on future disembodiment.

20. Persons on half-pay, or entitled to allowance as having served in the army or navy, empowered to receive pay, &c. during training.

21. Adjutants, &c., non-commissioned officers, or privates, not to lose their right to Chelsea or Kilmainham pensions, &c. 22. Allowance to be made for medicines.

23. Adjutants appointed before the 24th December, 1814, entitled to receive, after a service of twenty years, if unfit for further service, an allowance of 8s. per day, provided they do not hold certain other appointments. Adjutants appointed since the 24th December, 1814, entitled to receive, after thirty years' service, &c., an allowance of 6s. per day. Right to half-pay reserved. Certain terms extended to adjutants in cases of long and meritorious services.

24. Allowances to adjutants, surgeons, and quartermasters. 25. Reduced adjutants to receive 4s. per day till the 31st July, 1855. Right to half-pay reserved.

26. Adjutants and sergeant-majors entitled to allowance under the 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 44.

27. Allowances granted to adjutants who have been appointed since the 24th December, 1814, &c., on completion of certain periods of service. No adjutant whose commission bears date between the 24th December, 1814, and the 9th July, 1823, excluded. Right to half-pay and pension reserved.

28. Reduced adjutants may take such allowance with any pay or other allowance under the 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 44, and the 26 Geo. 3, c. 107. Proviso.

29. Restrictions as to allowances to reduced adjutants of the

[11th August, 1854.) Sect. 1. Metropolitan Sewers Acts continued till the 31st August, 1835.

2. Pending vacancy in office, or during absence of chairman or deputy chairman, commissioners present to appoint a person to preside at court.

3. Limit of amount to be borrowed on security of rate. 600,0002.

4. No priority amongst mortgagees or annuitants, except with respect to existing charges.

5. Securities to continue valid notwithstanding the expira tion of the act or the discontinuance of the commission. 6. Quarter sessions of the metropolitan counties to ley rates required for such securities.

7. Separate districts may be formed for sewerage purposes of places where no sewers rate at present raised.

8. Inhabitants to elect sewerage board of such districts. 9. Mode of elections.

10. Qualification of members.

11. Members of sewerage board to continue in office till the 31st August, 1855.

12. Surveyor to be appointed.

13. Power of sewerage board to make rates, &c.

14. This act incorporated with the 11 & 12 Vict. c. 112. 15. Saving as to certain provisions of the 12 & 13 Vist c. 93, and the 16 & 17 Vict. c. 125.

CAP. CXII.

An Act to afford greater Facilities for the Establishment of Institutions for the Promotion of Literature and Science and the Fine Arts, and to provide for their better Regulation [11th August, 1854.)

CAP. CXIII.

An Act to amend the Law relating to the Administration of the Estates of deceased Persons. [11th August, 1854.] Sect. 1. Heir or Devisee of Real Estate not to claim Paymcat of Mortgage out of Personal Assets. Not to effect Rights claimed under any Will, &c. before the lat January, 1855.

2. Extent of Act.

Whereas it is expedient that the law whereunder the real and personal assets of deceased persons are administered should be amended: be it enacted, &c. as follows:

Sect. 1. When any person shall, after the 31st December, 1854, die seised of or entitled to any estate or interest in any land or other hereditaments which shall at the time of death be charged with the payment of any sum or sums of money by way of mortgage, and such person shall not, by his will or deed or other document, have signified any cen trary or other intention, the heir or devisee to whom such land or hereditaments shall descend or be devised shall not be entitled to have the mortgage debt discharged or satisfied out of the personal estate or any other real estate of such person, but the land or hereditaments so charged shall as between the different persons claiming through or under the deceased person, be primarily liable to the payment of all mort gage debts with which the same shall be charged, every part thereof, according to its value, bearing a proportionate part of the mortgage debts charged on the whole thereof: provided always, that nothing herein contained shall affect or diminish any right of the mortgagee on such lands or hereditaments tǝ obtain full payment or satisfaction of his mortgage debt either out of the personal estate of the person so dying as aforesaid cr otherwise: provided also, that nothing herein contained shal affect the rights of any person claiming under or by virtue of

West Indian colonies mentioned in the schedule hereto : be it | enacted &c. as follows::

Preliminary.

10. The offices of the commissioners, and all powers, rights, and privileges pertaining thereto, shall continue and be in force only for a period of six years next ensuing the date at which

2. This act shall not take effect until her Majesty has, by Order in Council, to be made as hereinafter mentioned, directed the same to come into operation in one or more of the said

scheduled colonies.

3. In the construction and for the purposes of this act the following terms shall have the respective meanings hereinafter assigned to them; that is to say,

"Land" shall extend to sugar and other plantations, messuages, tenements, and hereditaments, corporeal and incorporeal, of every tenure or description, and shall include and denote that estate or interest in any hereditaments which any person applying for a sale is possessed of, is entitled to, or has any mortgage, charge, or incumbrance upon :

"Incumbrance" shall mean any debt, portion, legacy, or other sum of money constituting a charge or lien on land,

or raiseable out of land: "Incumbrancer" shall mean any person entitled to such incumbrance, or entitled to require the payment or discharge thereof:

"Possession" shall include the receipt of the rents and profits:

"Owner" shall mean any person entitled in possession to land, or the receipt of the rents and profits thereof, or who would be so entitled if there were no incumbrances on such land, for a term of not less than thirty years unexpired, or for an estate or interest for his own life, or for an estate or interest determinable on the dropping of any other life or lives, or for any greater estate or interest:

"Person and owner" shall extend to a body politic or corporate, as well as to an individual:

"Commissioners' shall mean the persons appointed commissioners for the sale of incumbered estates in the West Indies, as hereinafter mentioned.

Constitution and Powers of Commissioners.

4. It shall be lawful for the Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury for the time being to appoint any number of persons, not exceeding three, to be commissioners under this act during her Majesty's pleasure, and upon every vacancy in the office of any such commissioner in like manner to appoint some other person to such office; and the said persons so to be from time to time appointed shall be commissioners for the execution of this act, and shall be styled "The Commissioners for Sale of Incumbered Estates in the West Indies."

5. Of the above commissioners, one shall be styled "The Chief Commissioner," and the other or others shall be styled "The Assistant Commissioner or Commissioners."

6. The chief commissioner shall be a barrister-at-law of not less than ten years' standing, and shall reside in England; the assistant commissioners shall from time to time be employed in the execution of this act in such manner as the chief commissioner may direct.

7. For the purpose of aiding in the execution of this act, the governor or other person administering the government of any colony may appoint to be local commissioners for such colony during pleasure any number, not exceeding three, of the following persons; that is to say,

Any vice-chancellor, chief justice, judge, attorney-general, solicitor-general, or other legal or public officer holding any office in the colony in which such appointment is made; or

Any other person usually resident in such colony.

8. The commissioners shall cause to be made for their commission such seal or seals as they may require, and shall cause to be sealed with one of such seals all orders, conveyances, and other instruments proceeding from the commissioners in pursuance of this act; and all such orders, conveyances, and other instruments, or copies thereof, purporting to be sealed with such seal of the commissioners, shall be received in evidence without any further proof.

9. The Commissioners of her Majesty's Treasury may from time to time appoint and remove a chief secretary, and also such assistant secretaries, clerks, messengers, and officers as they may deem necessary for the purposes of this act.

of Parliament.

11. No commissioner shall during his continuance in office be capable of being elected or of sitting as a member of the House of Commons.

12. There shall be paid out of monies to be provided by Parliament,

To the chief commissioner, two assistant commissioners, chief secretary, and to all such assistant secretaries, clerks, messengers, and officers as may be appointed by the chief commissioner in England, such salaries as the Commis sioners of her Majesty's Treasury may from time to time recommend, so that the same do not exceed in the following cases the sums hereinafter mentioned; that is to say, In the case of the chief commissioner, the sum of 20007. by the year:

In the case of each assistant commissioner, the sum of 15002 by the year.

The salaries of the local commissioners, and of all such assistant secretaries, clerks, messengers, and officers as may be appointed under this act in any colony, shall be paid out of monies to be provided by the colonies, as hereinafter mentioned.

13. The commissioners may fix such scale of fees to be paid in respect of proceedings under this act, both in England and the colonies, as they think fit, but all fees to be paid in any colony shall be subject to disallowance or alteration by the Legislature of such colony.

14. All expenses incidental to carrying this act into execu. tion, and not being such salaries as aforesaid, or defrayed by fees, shall be paid for, if incurred in England, out of monies to be provided for that purpose by Parliament, and if incurred in any colony, by monies to be provided for that purpose by the Legislature of such colony in manner hereinafter mentioned.

15. Every commissioner and local commissioner appointed under this act shall, before he enters upon the execution of his office, take the following oath; that is to say,

"I, A. B., do swear that I will faithfully, impartially, and honestly, according to the best of my skill and judgment, fulfil all the powers and duties of a commissioner under an act passed in the year of the reign of Queen Victoria, intituled [here set forth the title of this act.]" And such oath shall, in the case of the chief commissioner and assistant commissioners, be taken before one of the judges of her Majesty's superior courts in England, and in the case of any local commissioner, be taken before the judge of the supreme court of the colony for which he is appointed commissioner.

16. The appointment of every commissioner and local commissioner shall be published as follows; that is to say, The appointment of the chief commissioner and assistant commissioners, in the London Gazette:

The appointment of any local commissioner, in the newspaper of the colony in which Government notices are usually published:

and no commissioner or local commissioner shall act until publication as aforesaid has been made of his appointment.

17. The commissioners shall constitute one court of record, having, for the purposes of this act, and subject to the provisions thereof, jurisdiction throughout England and any colony or colonies within which this act comes into operation; and all proceedings, inquiries, suits, or trials to be taken, made, or had under this act, and all investigations of any matters or things arising out of or incidental to any such proceedings, inquiries, suits, or trials, may, subject to the provisions herein. after contained, be at any stage or at any time transferred from England to any colony, or from any colony to England.

18. All acts, matters, and things which the commissioners are by this act empowered to do, and all the powers and authorities hereby given to them, may, under any order of the commissioners made for that purpose, be done or exercised by the person or persons hereinafter mentioned; that is to say, In England, by the chief commissioner, either alone or with one assistant commissioner:

In any colony, by any assistant commissioner, either alone or jointly with the local commissioners of such colony, or any one of them, or by the local commissioners or commissioner of such colony, or any two of them, if more than two.

19. The commissioners shall frame, and cause to be printed and circulated, or otherwise promulgated, as they see occasion, forms of application and directions indicating the particulars of the information to be furnished to the commissioners when any, application is made to them under this act, with reference to title, incumbrances, and the circumstances of land, and such other information as in the judgment of the commissioners may assist them in forming an opinion on such application, and also such other forms and directions as the commissioners may deem requisite or expedient for facilitating proceedings under this act.

20. The commissioners shall, having regard to the laws and usages of each colony in which the same are intended to take effect, frame rules for the following purposes; that is to say, For regulating the course of procedure under this act; the several powers and duties of the assistant and local commissioners; the conduct of proceedings in England and the colonies; and the transfer thereof from England to the colonies, and from the colonies to England: For securing the prompt and due distribution and payment of the monies received upon sales under this act amongst or for the benefit of the persons entitled thereto : For the protection, in respect of such monies, of the interests of persons under disability, and of future interests: For the protection of the interests of absent parties, and of the interest of parties in cases where the proceedings are transferred from England to the colonies, or vice versâ: Generally for the due execution of the powers vested in the commissioners under this act, and for giving effect to the provisions and objects thereof:

and all rules so made shall, unless disallowed in manner hereinafter mentioned, have the same force as if they had been enacted by Parliament.

21. All rules made under the above authority shall be laid before her Majesty in Council, and it shall be lawful for her Majesty by Order in Council to disallow the same, and any rule so disallowed shall from the date of its disallowance be void, but all matters and things previously done in pursuance thereof shall have the same validity as if no such disallowance had taken place.

22. The commissioners shall have power-
1. To require, by summons under their seal, the attendance
before them, at a time and place to be mentioned in such
summons, of all such persons as they may think fit to
examine in relation to any question or matter depending
before them:

2. To require, by a like summons, all such persons to produce before them all deeds, books, papers, documents, and writings relating to such question or matter: 3. To examine upon oath, or, in the case of persons allowed to make affirmation or declaration in lieu of an oath, upon affirmation or declaration, (as the case may require), all persons attending under such summons, and all persons attending voluntarily as witnesses. 23. The commissioners may, in their discretion, receive in evidence affidavits; and such affidavits may be made in any part of her Majesty's dominions before any person empowered by law to take affidavits, and in any other part of the world before any person authorised by order under the seal of the commissioners to take affidavits; and the commissioners may by a like order under their seal authorise any person in any part of the world to examine, in such manner as they think fit, any witness or witnesses in relation to any application to or matter pending before the commissioners, and to administer oaths, affirmations, or declarations for the purpose of such examination.

24. The commissioners, in relation to any matter or question before them, shall have power

To send cases for the opinion of any court of law or equity sitting in England or in any colony within their jurisdiction:

To send questions of fact to be tried in England by a jury, or in any such colony as aforesaid either by a jury or in any other manner in which questions of fact are usually tried in such colony.

25. In all cases within their jurisdiction, the commissioners shall, with respect to the following matters, that is to say, The enforcing the attendance of persons summoned to give evidence,

The enforcing the production of deeds, books, papers, documents, and writings,

1

The punishing persons refusing to give evidence, or guilty of a contempt,

The enforcing any order whatever made by them under any of the powers or authorities of this act, have in England all such powers, rights, and privileges as are possessed by the High Court of Chancery for such or the like purposes in relation to any matter depending in such court, and have in any colony within their jurisdiction all such powers, rights, and privileges as are possessed by the supreme court of judicature in such colony for such or the like purposes in relation to any matter or thing depending in such court; and it shall be lawful for the commissioners in any such colony as aforesaid either to carry into effect such powers, rights, and privileges by officers appointed by themselves, or to request any such court of judicature as aforesaid, or any officer thereof, to enforce any orders made by them, and such court or officer shall thereupon enforce the same accordingly.

Sales by Commissioners, and Distribution of Purchase Monies.

26. Subject to the restrictions hereinafter mentioned, where any land situate in a colony within the jurisdiction of the commissioners is subject to any incumbrance, the commissioners shall have power to sell the same, or such part thereof as they think fit, upon application made to them in manner hereinafter mentioned by the owner of such land or any incumbrancer thereon.

27. Where an application for a sale of any such land as aforesaid has been made to any competent tribunal in the colony, and dismissed with costs, no application by the same party for a sale of the same land, or any part thereof, shall be entertained by the commissioners unless it is shewn that such costs have been paid.

28. Where any such land as aforesaid is vested in any person or persons in trust for any owner, an application for the sale thereof may be made by such owner, either with or without the concurrence of such trustee or trustees, or by such trustee or trustees with the concurrence of such owner.

29. Where any incumbrance is vested in a trustee or trustees, or settled on divers persons in succession, the commissioners may act on an application made by such trustee or trustees, or by the first person entitled to the income of such incumbrance, or by any other person having, in the opinion of the commissioners, an amount of interest in the incumbrance sufficient to justify his making an application for a sale.

30. Every application for a sale of land under this act shall be in such form as the commissioners direct, and may, subject to any rules to be framed by the commissioners, be made, at the discretion of the applicant, either to the commissioners acting in England, or in the colony in which such land is situate.

31. The commissioners shall, upon the receipt of such application as aforesaid, make such inquiries as to the circumstances of the land in respect of which the same is made, and of the parties interested therein, either as incumbrancers, owners, or otherwise, and direct such notices to be given, as they think necessary to enable them to form a judgment as to the expediency of a sale, and shall hear, by themselves, their counsel or agents, any persons interested in such land who may apply to them to be heard, and shall, upon the conclusion of such inquiries, and after hearing such parties, if any, as aforesaid, make such order in the premises as to the allowance or disallowance of a sale of such land as they think just. 32. No sale shall be made by the commissioners of any land in the cases following:

Where the amount of yearly interest on the incumbrances attaching to the land in respect of which any application is made, and to any other land subject to the same incumbrances, does not exceed one-half of the net yearly value of such land and other land, if any, such yearly value to be calculated on the average profits or income derived therefrom after deducting all necessary outgoings during the preceding seven years, or during such other period as the commissioners may, having regard to any special circumstances, think fit:

Where, for any reason whatever, it appears to the commis

sioners unjust or inexpedient that a sale should be made. 33. In making any sale of land under this act, the commissioners shall have regard to the interests of any yearly tenants or other persons, not being incumbrancers, who may be entitled for the time being, by themselves or their agents, to receive