САР. С. Preamble. An Act to legalize a certain By-law of the Municipal [Assented to 1st July, 1856.] HEREAS it appears by a Petition from the Municipal Council of the Township of Cornwall, presented to Parliament at the present Session, that on the twenty-second day of February, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, the said Municipal Council, acting on the Petition of a large number of the freeholders of the said Township, praying them to erect a Town Hall for the use of the said Township, adopted a By-law to raise by debentures the sum required for the purchase of a site and erecting a Town Hall thereon; That the said By-law was duly published in the manner pointed out by the Act passed in the Session held in the fourteenth and fifteenth years of Her Majesty's Reign, and chaptered one hundred and nine, for three months from the first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, and was finally passed by the said Council on the eleventh day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, the day appointed in the notice appointing the day for the adoption of the said By-law; That a site was purchased and a Town Hall erected thereon, and opened for use on the Annual Township Meeting in January last, and has since been used for the meetings of the said Council; That Debentures were issued by authority of the said By-law for four hundred and seventy-five pounds currency, which with the sum of twenty-five pounds paid by the Council, was expended in the purchase of a site and erection of the Town Hall; and that two hundred pounds, part of the Debentures aforesaid, have been redeemed; That the said By-law was finally passed on the eleventh day of June, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, after the passing of the Act of the eighteenth Victoria,_chapter one hundred and thirty-three, which requires that all By-laws for raising money by loan should be submitted to the Electors for ratification; and the said Council have further set forth in the said Petition, that at the time of adopting the said Bylaw, they were not aware of the passing of the said Act, altering the mode of sanctioning a By-law for raising a loan, and were not made aware of the fact until some months afterwards; And whereas the said Council have by their said Petition, prayed that an Act may be passed to remove any doubt that may exist as to the legality of the said By-law, and to legalize the same, and it is expedient to grant their prayer: Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, enacts as follows: The By-law I. The said By-law is hereby declared to be valid in all mentioned in respects, and the debentures issued by authority thereof to have the Preamble, been legally issued, and the amount thereof, with the interest confirmed. therein therein specified and accruing thereon, shall be to all intents and purposes a debt of the said Municipality. II. This Act shall be deemed a Public Act. САР. СІ. The Lower Canada Municipal and Road Amendment [Assented to 1st July, 1856.] Public Act. WHEREAS it has become necessary to amend certain parts Preamble. of The Lower Canada Municipal and Road Act of 18 V. c. 100. 1855, and to remove doubts as to the interpretation of other parts thereof: Therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of Canada, declares and enacts as follows: INTERPRETATION. I. The words "said Act" whenever they occur in this Words " said Act shall, notwithstanding the citing of other Acts therein, be Art" to mean understood to refer to The Lower Canada Municipal and Road 18 V. c. 100. Act of 1855. one Act with 2. This Act and the said Act shall be considered as form- This Act to be ing but one Act, in the same manner as if all the provisions in construed as this Act contained had originally formed part of the said Act, 18 V. c. 100. except only in so far as any parts of the said Act are hereby repealed. NOTICES. II. Nothing in the eighth and ninth sections or in any other Sections 8 & 9 part of the said Act shall prevent the Secretary-Treasurer of any of 18 V. e. 100, Council or the County Superintendent from giving or certify- to certain amended, as ing any notice either public or special required by the said Act notices. as amended by this Act: and whenever any such notice is given by either of the said officers, the certificate of the publication or service thereof shall be attested under the oath of office of the person giving the notice, if he has taken such oath; if not, under a special oath, as required by the said Act. PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO MUNICIPAL COUNCILS CORPORATE SEAL. III. Notwithstanding any thing contained in the eleventh Section 11 of section of the said Act, every Municipal Corporation shall 18 V. c 100, hereafter have a common seal; and every instrument or docu- amended. ment in writing which under the said Act should be signed by Every Munithe Chief officer of any such Corporation shall be equally valid cipality to without his signature, provided the seal of the Corporation and the have a common seal, &c. Apppointments valid tho' made after the time aved by the said Act, &c. Nothing in sub-section 9, of section 15 of 18 V. c. 100, to affect Bylaws made un der 16 V. c. 22 the signature of the Secretary-Treasurer be affixed thereto, whether such instrument or document shall have been executed before, or after the passing of this Act. APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS. IV. No appointment of any officer shall be held or declared to be void solely by reason of the same having been made after the period fixed by the said Act for making such appointment; and any act done by any person previous to the appointment of a Secretary-Treasurer to any Council which might or should have been done by such officer, if appointed, shall have the same force and effect as if the same had been done by suck Secretary-Treasurer so duly appointed. POWERS COMMON TO ALL COUNCILS. V. Nothing contained in the ninth sub-section of the fifteenth section of the said Act, shall in any way relate to or affect any By-laws made or to be made under the authority of the Act passed in the sixteenth year of Her Majesty's Reign, intituled: An Act to establish a Consolidated Municipal Loan Fund for and 18 V. c. 13. Upper Canada, as amended by the Act passed in the eighteenth year of Her Majesty's Reign, intituled: An Act to extend and amend the Act to establish a Consolidated Municipal Loan Fund for Upper Canada, by applying the same to Lower Canada, and for other purposes. Word "Judge" section 17 of 18 V. c. 100, explained. Place of sit- County Coun- Intoxicating PERSONS DISQUALIFIED AS MEMBERS OR OFFICERS VI. The word "Judge," in the seventeenth section is hereby declared to apply and to have been intended to apply only to the Judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, the Superior Court, the Court of Vice Admiralty and the Circuit Court. POWERS OF COUNTY COUNCILS. VII. Whenever a Registry Office has been established, or a public edifice for the use of the County Council has been provided, or is in course of construction, at a place appointed by By-law under the said Act for the sittings of such Council, such sittings shall continue to be held at the place so appointed, until otherwise determined by the Legislature. VIII. In addition to the powers vested in County Councils under the said Act, every County Council shall have power to make, in the month of March of every year, By-laws for the following objects: 1. To prohibit and prevent the sale of all Spirituous, Vinous, Alcoholic, and intoxicating Liquors, or to permit such sale subjec to such limitations as they shall consider expedient; 2. To determine under what restrictions and conditions, and Licenses to in what manner the Revenue Inspector of the District shall sell the same. grant Licenses to Shop Keepers, Tavern Keepers, or others, to sell such Liquors ; 3. To fix the sum payable for each such License, provided Sum payable that it shall in no case be less than the sum now payable for License. therefor; 4. For the ordering and governing of all Shop Keepers, Governing Tavern Keepers, or other retailers of such Liquors, in what- persons so licensed. ever place they may be sold, as they may deem proper and expedient for the prevention of drunkenness. cil to revise IX. Every County Council shall also have power and autho- Power to rity to revise, amend or annul all By-Laws, Reports or Procès- County CounVerbaux, made, passed, approved or homologated by any Local &c. By-laws Council within the County, except those made by Town or of Local Village Councils, whenever the same are appealed from in the Councils, ap manner hereinafter provided : pealed against 2. Whenever a majority of the persons interested if they be less Special Session than ten in number, and whenever any number not less than five of County of the assessable inhabitants of a Local Municipality, or the Coun- Council to revise By-law, ty Superintendent of the County in which such Municipality is &c. appealed situate, shall, within fifteen days after the homologation of any from. Valuation-Roll or Procès- Verbal, or after the expiration of the period within which such Valuation-Roll or Procès-Verbal is allowed to be revised and homologated by a Local Council, or within fifteen days after the first publication of any By-Law passed by the Council of such Local Municipality, if the ByLaw, Report, Procès-Verbal, or Valuation-Roll, be made, passed, approved, homologated or published after the passing of this Act, otherwise within thirty days from and after the passing of this Act, file in the office of any County Council, a petition in appeal, praying for the revision or amendment of any such Valuation-Roll or Procès-Verbal or for the amendment or disallowance of any such By-Law, and setting forth the grounds or reasons for which such revision, amendment or disallowance is prayed for, it shall be the duty of the Warden of the County to convene a Special Session of the County Council and to give Public Notice of such Special Session; and every such Special Session shall be held within twenty days from the date of the filing of such petition; cil, and its 3. The County Council at any such Special Session shall, Decision_of after hearing the Petitioners and the Mayor, Councillors or County CounClerk of the Local Council, or any of such parties who may effect. require to be heard, homologate without amendment, or amend and homologate as so amended, such Procès-Verbal or Valuation-Roll, and shall confirm, amend or disallow such By-Law as they may deem expedient, and every Procès-Verbal, Valuation-Roll Adjournment sine die with out decision to operate confirmation. Publication of decision. County Coun Valuation-Roll or By-Law so amended, shall come into force as so amended from the day of the date of such amendment, and every By-Law so disallowed shall become null and void to all intents and purposes as if the same had never been passed; 4. But whenever any such County Council shall close such Special Session, or shall adjourn the same sine die, or for any period beyond ten days from the first day thereof without having decided upon the merits of the petition in Appeal, the ProcèsVerbal, Valuation-Roll or By-Law, to which such petition relates, shall be considered as having been homologated by such Council; 5. Every By-Law of a Local Council when amended by the County Council, shall be published as so amended in the manner in the said Act provided, and every judgment of a County Council disallowing any By-Law passed by a Local Council shall be published in like manner; 6. No County Council shall have power to disallow or amend cil not to disal- any By-Law passed by the Council of a Town or Village Municipality, nor shall the Mayor of any Town or Village Mua By law of a Town or nicipality vote or take any part in the proceedings before a Village, &c. County Council on appeals from other Local Councils; 7. Every County Council shall, at a special session to be holden for that purpose, at some period not later than the thirtyfirst day of December in the present year, and not later than the first day of June, in every other year during which new Valua tion Rolls shall hereafter be made, examine the Valuation Rolls of the different Local Municipalities in the County and ascertain whether the valuation made in each bears a just relation to the valuation made in the others; and thereupon the County Council may increase or decrease the valuations of al assessable property in any one or more of such Local Municipalities by adding or deducting such sums upon the hundred as may in their opinion be necessary to produce a just relation between all the valuations in the County; but no such Con cil shall reduce the aggregate amount of the valuations made by the Valuators in the whole County; 8. Whenever it shall be represented to a County Council that the residents of any two or more Townships, no one of which contains a population sufficient to constitute a Municipality, are desirous of being united for the purpose of forming jointly a Municipality, it shall be lawful for such County Council by a Resolution to unite for that purpose so many of such Townships, under the joint names thereof, as shall be necessary to make the joint population of such United Townships amount to three hundred souls; and from and after the first day of January next after the publication of such resolution, the Townships so united, shall form a Local Municipality, and an election of Councillors for |