And be it Enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the Sheriff to appoint a new oversman, in the event of the death or other incapacity of the oversman first appointed by him, and also for either of the parties to substitute a referee in place of the one 5 first appointed being incapacited from acting by death or other

wise.

And be it Enacted, That the said arbiters or oversman may call for the production of any documents in the possession or power of either party, which they or he may think necessary for deter10 mining the matters in dispute, and may examine the parties or their witnesses on oath, and administer the oaths necessary for that purpose, and take all evidence competent according to the law of Scotland.

And be it Enacted, That the expenses of such application and 15 answers, with the other expenses incident thereto, to be settled by the Sheriff, or by the arbiters or oversman, as the case may be, shall be borne by the parties applying for a site, unless the Sheriff, arbiter or oversman shall award a less sum than shall have been offered by such party, in which case each party shall bear his own 20 expenses incident to the proceedings or arbitration; and in all cases the expenses of the arbiters or oversman, as the case may be, and of recording their decreet arbitral or award in the Sheriff Court books of the county, shall be borne by the parties who shall apply

25

for sites.

And be it Enacted, That if the proprietors or proprietor of the ground shall prefer an annual duty or rent, instead of a price to be paid down, it shall and may be lawful for the said Sheriff to fix the amount of such annual rent or duty payable in all time to come, for security or recovery of which the proprietor or proprietors shall be 30 entitled to the rights and privileges competent by the law of Scotland to superiors for recovery of their feu-duties, and upon the price, where the consideration shall have been fixed, being paid or consigned, the said decreet shall be delivered up to the applicants, and shall be held to all intents and purposes a valid and sufficient conveyance to the ground of such sites in favour of such applicants and their successors continuing to constitute a congregation of the denomination or communion to which the said applicants may belong, or the trustees for their behoof, and the recording of such decree in the competent register of sasines shall, without any infeftment thereon, be held 40 validly and effectually to vest and seise the grantees and their successors in office for the time being in all time thereafter, without any renewal of the investiture in the lands contained in the said decree.

35

332.

A 3

And

13. When value of the Land

is ascertained,

Sheriff to set

out Sites. &c.

14. Providing for cases when Sites are re

quired on entailed Lands.

15. Lands acquired for

diverted to

other purposes.

And be it Enacted, That, on the price or consideration being fixed and determined, the Sheriff shall pronounce a decree specifying the measurement and boundaries of such sites, the price or the annual rent or feu-duty to be paid for them, the parties in whom the same are to be vested in trust, together with the mode in which the successors of such parties are from time to time to be nominated or appointed, and the purposes of such trust, together with all other conditions of the sale or transfer.

5

And be it Enacted, That if sites shall be acquired under this Act from lands held under entail, it shall and may be lawful for the 10 Sheriff, or the arbiters and oversman, as the case may be, to fix the yearly feu-duty, or rent to be paid to the heirs of entail as the amount or value of such sites, and provided that nothing that shall be done under the provisions of this Act shall be held to infer an irritancy of the rights of any heir of entail whose lands may have 15 been taken for the purposes of this Act, or any of them.

And be it Enacted, That it shall not be lawful to the congregations Sites not to be for whose behoof sites shall have been acquired under the provisions of this Act to divert the land so acquired, or the buildings erected thereon, to any other purpose than the purpose for which the same 20 shall have been acquired; and if such land, or the buildings erected thereon, shall at any time be so diverted, or shall for the period of Five Years be left unemployed, for the purposes for which the same were acquired, it shall be competent for the party from whom the ground was taken, or his or her representatives holding the lands 25 from which the said ground was taken, to apply by petition to the Sheriff of the county in which such lands or buildings are situated, setting forth the diversion or abandonment, and praying to have the right of the congregation declared forfeited; and the said Sheriff shall thereupon take such steps as he may think necessary for ascertaining 30 the truth of said allegation, and shall be empowered to inquire into and decide upon the case by making up a record in the usual form, and he shall pronounce decree therein, finding that the said right has been forfeited, or otherwise as he shall think right; and if he shall pronounce decree finding that the said right has been forfeited, 35 the recording of such decree in the competent register of sasines shall, without any infeftment, be held validly and effectually to reinvest and be in the said party so applying for and obtaining decree of forfeiture without any further conveyance.

(Ireland.)

A

BILL

To amend an Act of the Second and Third Years of his late Majesty, by providing additional Booths or Pollingplaces at Elections in Ireland, where the Number of Electors, whose Names shall begin with the same Letter of the Alphabet, shall exceed a certain Number.

5

[Note.-The Words printed in Italics are proposed to be inserted in the Committee.]

HEREAS by an Act passed in the second and third Preamble. years of the reign of his late Majesty King WILLIAM the Fourth, intituled, "An Act to amend the Representation of the People of Ireland," it is enacted, "that whenever in any one barony or half-barony of the county, or in any county of a city or county of a town, or in any borough, the number of registered Voters appearing upon the books of the Clerk of the Peace, capable of voting at any Election for the same, shall exceed Six hundred Voters, it shall and may be lawful for the Returning Officer or Officers, and he and they 10 are thereby required to provide Two or more polling-places for such barony or half-barony, or for such county of a city or county of a town, or borough, and to make such a division or divisions of the Voters, according to the first letter of their names, that it shall not be necessary for more than Six hundred Voters to poll in any one place 15 of polling, but so as not to divide the names beginning with the same letter of the alphabet; and that it shall and may be lawful for the Returning Officer or Officers, and he and they are thereby required to provide as many new places of polling as may be necessary for the purpose, and to appoint as many additional Deputies and Poll Clerks as shall be necessary to take the poll in such additional places of polling (not exceeding one Deputy and one Poll Clerk for each such

182.

place