No. XIV.

where or before whom such action, bill, plaint, information, or indictment 9 Geo. IV. is or shall be, or commenced, prosecuted, entered, filed, or perferred, shall not permit or suffer any proceeding or proceedings to be had; and no commissioner or justice shall in anywise be liable to any criminal proceeding or civil action for any reasons to be given in the execution of this Act.

c. 41.

Act not to ex

tend to Bethle hem Hospital or to Lunatic Asy

Jums established under

48 G. 3. c. 96.

or 9 G. 4. c. 40.

Nothing herein to extend to

public Hospitals or Institutions;

L. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That nothing in this Act contained shall extend or be construed to extend to the royal hospital of Bethlehem, or to any building erected adjacent thereto for the confinement of criminal lunatics, or to the royal military or naval hospitals, or to any lunatic asylum already erected and established under an Act passed in the forty-eighth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act for the better Care and Maintenance of Lunatics, being Paupers or Criminals, in England, or hereafter to be erected and established under the provisions of an Act passed in the ninth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled An Act to amend and consolidate the Laws relating to the Erection Maintenance and Regulation of County Lunatic Asylums, and to the Care and Maintenance of Lunatics, being Paupers or Criminals, in England.

LI. Provided also, and be it further enacted, That nothing in this Act contained shall extend to any public hospital or parts of public hospitals, or other charitable institutions, supported wholly or partly by voluntary contributions, in which lunatics are received, or to any lunatic asylum built and established by voluntary contributions, and supported by applying the excess of payments of the more affluent in reduction of the payment by persons in more limited circumstances, excepting in as far as relates to certificates of admission, and visitations appointed by the lord chancellor, or lord keeper or commissioners of the great seal, or the lord Visitations, and chief justice of the Court of King's Bench, or the lord chief justice of the court of common pleas, or his Majesty's principal secretary of state for the home department, and the transmission to the clerk of the commissioners' annual report, as herein-before directed.

except as to Certificates of Admission, to

to the Trans

mission of

Names of Patients. Interpretation of Act.

LII. And, in order to remove doubts as to the meaning of certain words in this Act, be it enacted, that the word "county" shall be deemed to include any county, riding, division of the county of Lincoln, liberty, county of a city, county of a town, city, cinque port, or town corporate; that the word "parish "shall be deemed to include any township, hamlet, vill, tithing, extra-parochial place or place maintaining its own poor: that the words "county rate " shall be deemed to include any funds assessed upon or raised in or belonging to any county, riding, division of the county of Lincoln, liberty, county of a city, county of a town, cinque port, or town corporate, in the nature of county rates, and applicable to the purposes to which county rates are applicable; that the word "visitor" shall be deemed to include all justices, physicians, surgeons, or apothecaries, appointed at a general or adjourned quarter sessions to visit houses of reception for two or more insane persons; that the words "insane persons" shall be deemed to include any lunatic or dangerous idiot; that the words" parish patient" shall be deemed to include any person sent to and maintained at any house licensed for the reception of insane persons wholly or in part at the expence of any parish; that the words "clerk of the peace "shall be deemed to include any person acting as such, or any deputy duly appointed; that the word "apothecary" shall be deemed 55 G. 3. c. 194. to include any person anthorized to practise as such under the Act passed in the fifty-fifth year of King George the Third, intituled An Act for the better regulating the Practice of Apothecaries throughout England and Wales, or under an Act passed in the sixth year of George the Fourth, intituled An Act to amend and explain the said Act of the fifty-fifth year of his late Majesty; and the words "treasurer of the county "shall be deemed to include any officer who has the custody of any funds assessed upon or raised in or belonging to any county, riding, division of the county of Lincoln, liberty, county of a city, county of a town, cinque port, or town corporate, in the nature of county rates, and applicable to the purposes to which county rates are applicable; and that the word "person" shall

6 G. 4. c. 133.

be deemed to include any number of persons; and that the meaning of the aforesaid words shall not be restricted, although the same may be subsequently referred to in the singular number and masculine gender only.

No. XIV.

9 Geo. IV.

c. 41.

LIII. And be it enacted, That the powers and authorities granted by this Act shall be deemed and taken to be a public Act, and shall be Public Act. judicially taken notice of as such by all judges justices and others, without being specially pleaded.

LIV. And be it further enacted, That this Act, and the several matters and things therein contained, shall commence and take effect from and after the first day of August and not sooner, and shall continue in force for the term of three years, and from thence to the end of the next session of Parliament.

Commence

ment and Continuance of Act.

SCHEDULE (A.) referred to in this Act.

SCHEDULE (B.)

WEEKLY REGISTER to be kept in each House for the Inspection of Commissioners or Visitors.

No. XV.

10 Geo. IV.

c. 18.

In Cases of Restraint, the Necessity to be certified by the Physician
Surgeon or Apothecary.

[No. XV.] 10 Geo. IV. c. 18.-An Act to explain amend and alter the Act of the Ninth Year of the Reign of his present Majesty, for regulating the Care and Treatment of Insane Persons in England.-[14th May 1829.]

WHEREAS an Act was passed in the ninth year of the reign of his

present Majesty, intituled An Act to regulate the Care and Treatment 9 G. 4. c. 41. of Insane Persons in England: And whereas doubts have arisen as to some of the provisions of the said Act, and the same requires to be amended and altered, for the more effectually carrying into execution the beneficial purposes thereof; be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiri. tual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this Five CommisAct it shall and may be lawful to and for any five or more of the com- sioners may asmissioners appointed under the authority of the said recited Act, (two of semble for gewhom at least shall not be physicians or surgeons,) to assemble them- neral Purposes selves when and as often as they shall think fit, for the purpose of exe- at any Time, cuting and performing the several matters and things by the said recited Notice of such Act and by this Act entrusted to them, notice being given under their Meeting having hands to require the clerk of the said commissioners to convene a meetbeen given by ing of the commissioners; and the said clerk is hereby required and comthe Clerk. manded duly to summon the rest of the said commissioners four days before such intended meeting.

II. And be it further enacted, That the commissioners so met as Commissioners aforesaid shall and may, if they shall so think fit, grant or renew, at any at such Meetsuch meeting, or at any adjourned quarterly meeting, licences to keep ings may grant houses for the reception of two or more insane persons; provided that or renew Liif at any such meetings any application for such licence shall be made for cences. the first time, all such notices plans and statements shall be given and made by the applicant, as if such application had been made at any of

No. XV.

10 Geo. IV.

c. 18.

Commissioners may reduce Fees on Li.

cences in certain Cases.

Commissioners may grant new Licences to

other Persons,

or for other

tain Cases.

the quarterly meetings of the said commissioners; and such notices plans and statements shall be given and made fourteen days at the least before the said intended meeting: Provided also, that any such licence, so granted, may be confirmed altered or amended at the next quarterly meeting of the said commissioners; provided also, such licence shall cease and determine and be of no effect at the expiration of fifteen days from and after the holding of such quarterly meeting, unless then confirmed by the said commissioners.

III. And whereas it is by the said recited Act required, that for the first and every annual licence certain payments shall be made; be it enacted, That in cases where, from the change of the person or the place to be licensed, or other casual circumstances happening before the expiration of the original licence, it shall be requisite to grant or renew a licence for a less period of time than thirteen calendar months, it shall and may be lawful for the said commissioners and justices, as the case may be, to reduce the payments to be made on such licences to not less than five pounds in the whole.

IV. And whereas it is by the said recited Act provided, that in those cases only where the person licensed shall die, his licence shall continue in force; be it enacted, That if any person, duly licensed under this or the said recited Act, shall, by sickness or other infirmity, become incapable of keeping such house, or if any house so licensed shall be pulled Houses, in cer- down or occupied under the provisions of any Act for public purposes, or shall, by fire tempest or other unavoidable calamity, be rendered unfit for the accommodation of insane persons, it shall and may be lawful for the said commissioners, or any five or more of them, two of whom shall not be physicians or surgeons, at any quarterly or other meeting convened as aforesaid, upon the payment of not less than one pound for each licence, to grant a new licence to such other person as they shall think fit; and also to grant to the person whose house has so been rendered unfit, a licence to keep such other house for the accommodation of two or more insane persons, as the said commissioners, or any five of them as aforesaid, shall think fit: Provided always, that notice of such intended change of persons be given to the clerk of the commissioners fourteen days before the meeting at which such licence shall be granted; and provided also, that all such plans and statements shall be given and made of such new house as are required when application is made for a licence for the first time at the quarterly meeting of the said commissioners, and shall be delivered to the clerk of the commissioners fourteen days before the meeting at which such licence shall be granted: Provided also, that the cause of such change of house shall be duly specified in writing to the said clerk three days after the happening thereof.

Detached Buildings to be considered Part of the House.

Commissioners, &c., may alter the periodical Visits of medical Attendants.

Justices may
act at any Ge-
neral or Quarter

Sessions,

V. And be it enacted, That if any place or building detached from any licensed house, but belonging to or in anywise appertaining to such house, shall be used for the reception of one or more insane person or persons, such place or building shall be considered part of such house for all the purposes of this and the said recited Act.

VI. And be it enacted, That when any house, licensed for the reception of two or more insane persons, shall be licensed to receive less than eleven insane persons, then and in such case it shall and may be lawful for any five or inore of the said commissioners, two of whom shall not be physicians or surgeons, or any three of the said visitors, if they shall so think fit, to direct and permit, under their hands and seals, that such house shall be visited by the physician surgeon or apathecary once only in four weeks, instead of twice in every week, as required by the said recited Act; provided that fifteen days shall intervene between each of such visits.

VII. And be it further enacted, That the justices shall have full power and authority to do any Act or Acts at any general or quarter sessions of the peace, as they are by the said recited Act authorized and enabled to do at the Michaelmas general or quarter sessions of the peace, and such Act or Acts shall have the same effect force and obligation as if they had been done at the Michaelmas general quarter

sessions.