SECTION VI. Of the Service of the Copy of the Writ and Notice. 378. A Copy of which writ. Proceeding under a statute, its provisions should be strictly complied with; the copy should therefore be very carefully compared with the original. 379. And notice of the time and place of executing the same. The notice should accompany the copy writ, and may be endorsed upon it; otherwise the notice should refer expressly to the writ, of which a copy shall have been served. The time and place of executing the writ must both be stated, and it is better to name some hour, as in the case of writs of inquiry. 380. Shall be given to the owner of the land, or left at his last known place of abode, or with his known agent. The owners of the land are not only the freeholders, but also any person entitled for life or lives, or for years, by any lease or agreement for a lease on which a rent less than two-thirds of the clear yearly value shall have been reserved, and of which the term shall have exceeded fourteen years from the commencement thereof, and any person holding under any extent or elegit, or other writ of execution, or as a receiver under any order of a court of equity. (Sect. 12 of the original Act.) 381. The service, when made under the original Act, should be on all those owners, or at their respective last known places of abode, or with their known agents. It does not appear clear whether service of the copy writ and notice, with the known agent, may be effected by leaving them at his residence; but it is presumed that tended, and would be sufficient. Act, it was found necessary, in such service is in Under the original some cases, to serve as many as four or five different owners. 382. The difficulty of service is removed by the Act 5 & 6 Vict. c. 54, s. 17, by which service of the copy writ and notice upon any person occupying or residing on the land chargeable with the Rent-Charge, or in case no person be found thereon, then affixing the same in some conspicuous place on the land, shall be deemed good service. (No. 113.) 383. Ten days previous to the execution thereof. The statute 14 Geo. II. c. 17, s. 4, provided that no cause should be tried at the assizes, unless notice of trial has been given at least ten days before such intended trial. Yet, under this statute, notice of trial on the 1st for the 11th, has always been considered sufficient. 384. And in proceedings at common law, where any number of days are mentioned without requiring them to be clear days, one day shall be inclusive, and the other exclusive. (Rule, Hilary Term, 2 Wm. IV. s. 8.) Under this rule, notice on the 1st for the 11th would be ten days' notice; but if ten clear days' notice was required, notice must be given on the 1st for the 12th. 385. The stat. 2 W. & M. (No. 229,) which authorizes a sale after the expiration of five days from notice of the distress, was held to mean five whole days, or five times twenty-four hours, and a distress at 2 p.m. on Friday, did not permit a sale on the following Wednesday at 11 a.m.; but where the distress was made in the morning of Saturday, it was held that a sale might be made on Thursday afternoon following. (No. 265.) 386. And the statute in question requiring ten days' notice, previous to the execution of the writ, to be given, there may be some doubt whether ten entire days are not requisite; for instance, notice before eleven o'clock on the 1st, for eleven o'clock on the 11th, and that notice in the afternoon of the 1st, for eleven o'clock on the 11th, would be insufficient. 387. To avoid any question, therefore, as to the sufficiency of the notice, it would be better, when practicable, to give ten clear days' notice, that is, notice on the 1st for the 12th. 388. In common law proceedings, all notices must be served before nine o'clock at night, but the rule does not apply to the service of process. The rule therefore cannot apply to writs under the Tithe Commutation Act, and, it is conceived, not to the notice of executing the same, these documents not forming part of ordinary law proceedings. 389. The service, however, on Sunday would be void. Stat. 29 Car. I. c. 7, s. 6. 390. If it is intended to attend the execution of the writ by counsel, notice to that effect must be given, otherwise the master will not allow the expense in the costs. SECTION VII. Of the Countermand of the Notice, and Re-issuing the Writ. 391. No provision is made by the statute for the case of the owner of the Rent-Charge not executing the writ according to the notice ; nor for giving costs to the land-owner by reason of the default; nor is there any direction given as to countermanding the notice, in case the owner of the Rent-Charge should wish to do so. 392. In cases of writs of inquiry of damages in actions at law, the plaintiff is allowed to countermand the notice of executing the writ two days before the day appointed for executing it (excluding Sunday)— If the execution of the writ to assess the arrears of the Rent-Charge is to be deferred, it may be assumed that the Courts would approve of notice of countermand being given; and from analogy to writs of inquiry, they would, in such case, expect at the least two days' notice (excluding Sunday), that is, Monday for Wednesday, or Friday for Monday, to be given; and in default of such notice of countermand, the Courts might be induced to order the land-owner to be paid his costs of the day, if they have the power to do so; and, if they have not, and the owner of the Rent-Charge has occasion to make any further application in the matter, he might possibly be put under the terms of paying such costs to the land-owner as the condition on which his application would be granted. On 393. If the execution of the writ is postponed, and it becomes necessary to enlarge the day of the return in the writ, it may be doubtful, if the copy of the writ has been served, whether the return may be altered without a further order of the judge. writs of trial before the sheriff, the parties have taken upon themselves to extend the return and get the writ resealed; but it does not follow that the same liberty may be taken with a writ to assess arrears of Rent-Charge, especially if the return day mentioned in the writ be past before the alteration and resealing take place, the writ being then spent. 394. But even as to writs of trial, Mr. Justice Coleridge, in Thomas v. Stanway, 8 Jurist, 668, said, "If by reason of adjournment, or any other matter or cause, the return day arrives before the cause is tried, the plaintiff resealing the writ, which he must, or at least may do, inserts some later day for the return without any new authority from the judge. advisedly use the words 'may do,' for I would not be understood as intimating a doubt but that on application to a judge, an order may be made for enlarging the time for the return of the writ." I 395. The learned judge, in the case referred to, seems to intimate, that the more regular course would be to obtain an order of a judge for the alteration in the writ of trial, and which shows the caution which ought to be exercised in making a writ for assessing arrears of Rent-Charge returnable, and if |