And be it Enacted, That the power given in the said last-recited Act to the Guardians of any Union to assist destitute poor persons to emigrate, who shall have been for Three Months inmates of the Workhouse, shall be held and construed to apply to all such des5 titute poor persons as shall have been for the space of Fourteen Days relieved in any manner by the said Guardians, under the provisions of the said recited Acts or of this Act. And be it Enacted, That the Boards of Guardians of the several Unions in Ireland shall and they are hereby authorized and required 10 to provide the sums necessary for carrying into execution the provisions of this Act, out of the rates made and levied by them under the authority of the said recited Act or Acts; but likewise that all rates made and levied by them after the passing of this Act for any of the purposes of the aforesaid Act or Acts, or of this Act, shall be made and 15 levied upon one uniform and equal assessment of the entire Union thereto, without distinction between the several electoral divisions therein contained, any thing in the said Act or Acts to the contrary notwithstanding. AND whereas much waste, immorality and other bad effects result 20 from the mendicancy and vagrancy that prevails to a great extent in Ireland; and provision being made for the due relief of all such poor persons as are really destitute and in danger of perishing from want, it is expedient to prevent and punish the begging for alms, for which there will no longer remain the excuse of necessity; BE it 25 Enacted, That from and after the passing of this Act every person who shall beg, or whose wife or children shall beg, for alms in any Union, shall, upon proof thereof before any Justice of the Peace, be committed, at the discretion of the said Justice, to the gaol or house of correction of the county or city in which such offence shall be 30 proved to have taker place, for a term not exceeding One calendar Month, with or without hard labour. And be it Enacted, That the said recited Acts and this Act shall be construed as one Act, except so far as the provisions of any one Act shall repeal or alter the provisions of any previous Act. 9. 35 And be it Enacted, That this Act shall extend only to that part of Act to extend the United Kingdom named Ireland. only to Ireland. 10. And be it Enacted, That this Act may be amended or repealed by Act may be any Act to be passed in this present Session of Parliament. amended this Session. To facilitate the Employment of the Labouring Poor for 5 [Note.-The Words printed in Italics are proposed to be inserted HEREAS by reason of an apprehended failure of a portion Preamble. of the Potato Crop of the present season in Ireland, it is expedient to make provision for facilitating and encouraging the Employment of the Poor in Districts where Distress may prevail; BE it therefore Enacted, by The QUEEN's most Excellent MAJESTY, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commous, in this present Parliament assembled, and the Authority of the same, THAT whenever, on representation of the existence of distress in any district, it may seem expedient to the 10 Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, that an Extraordinary Presentment Sessions for any barony, half barony, county of a city or county of a town in Ireland, the county of the city of Dublin excepted, should assemble and make Presentments for the execution of public works in such district, it shall be 15 lawful for the Lord Lieutenant, or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland, from time to time, by a notice to be published in the Dublin Gazette, and also in One or more newspapers circulating in the respective district, and of which notice copies shall be posted in the usual places for posting public Grand Jury notices in such 20 district, to direct and require that an Extraordinary Presentment Sessions for such barony, baronies, half barony, half baronies, county of a city or county of a town, as the case may be, shall meet and assemble at such place or places in such district for the purposes 649. Justices to hold Sessions for the purposes of this Act at the times and places appointed. 2. How Sessions are to be constituted. 6 & 7 Will. 4 c. 116, s. 9. 3. Such Sessions may make for works. purposes 5 10 And be it Enacted, That the Justices or Justice present at every such Extraordinary Presentment Sessions, together with the number of the Cess-payers appointed by the Grand Jury at the then preceding Assizes of the county, county of a city or county of 15 a town in which such Sessions shall be held, to be associated with the Justices at the ordinary Presentment Sessions to be holden next after such Assizes, for the purposes of an Act passed in the sixth and seventh year of the reign of his late Majesty King WILLIAM the Fourth, intituled, "An Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to 20 the Presentment of Public Money by Grand Juries in Ireland," for the barony or half barony, or the county of a ciy or county of a town, as the case may be, for which such Extraordinary Presentment Sessions shall be holden, shall constitute such extraordinary Presentment Sessions; and the provisions contained in 25 the said recited Act of the sixth and seventh years of the reign of King WILLIAM the Fourth, relative to the selection of a Chairman and of the Cess-payers to be associated with the Justices or Justice at Presentment Sessions, and to the casting voice of such Chairman, shall, so far as the same are applicable, extend to such Extraordi- 30 nary Presentment Sessions under this Act, and the Secretary of the Grand Jury and the County Surveyor or Surveyors shall attend thereat; and also an officer or person appointed by the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland, if the said Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors shall so think fit to direct. 35 And be it Enacted, That any such Extraordinary Presentment SesPresentments sions are hereby authorized and required to make presentments for such public works within the district for which such Sessions shall be held as they may think fit, specifying in all such presentments the maximum amount which shall be raised for the execution of any such work, and the 40 said Extraordinary Presentment Sessions shall sit from day to day until all the business which may come before them of the nature hereby described be despatched, or may adjourn for any period not exceeding Three 5 Three Days; and every such presentment so made by such Sessions And be it Enacted, That the Chairman at such Sessions shall cause to be made out and shall sign with his name a schedule of all works which shall have been duly approved and presented at such Sessions respectively, and shall deposit such schedule with the Secretary of the Grand Jury of such county, county of a city or county of a town, 10 who within Three Days shall transmit to the Lord Lieutenant, or other Chief Governor or Governors of Ireland a copy, signed by himself, and verified by his declaration before a Justice of the Peace, of such schedule of works so presented at such Presentment Sessions, and it shall be lawful for the said Lord Lieutenant, or other Chief Governor 15 or Governors, if he or they shall so think fit, to cause the same or copies thereof respectively to be reported upon by the Commissioners of Public Works, and to be afterwards transmitted to the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury for their sanction and approval. And be it Enacted, That it shall be lawful for the said Commis20 sioners of Her Majesty's Treasury from time to time, to authorize the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland to execute the said works so presented and specified in any such schedule of works, or such of the said works, or such part of them, as the said Commissioners of the Treasury shall think fit, at and for the amount so presented for 25 each such work respectively, or proportionate part of it; and it shall be lawful for the said Commissioners of the Treasury to advance and place at the disposal of the said Commissioners of Public Works the several and respective sums of money so presented for each and every such work, or proportionate part of it, so authorized to be by them 30 executed, to be by the said Commissioners of Public Works applied and expended respectively to and for and in the execution of the said several and respective works so to be executed by them, and to be accounted for to the said Commissioners of the Treasury. And be it Enacted, That the said Commissioners of Public Works 35 shall, upon the receipt of any such warrant of the said Commissioners of the Treasury, cause the execution or construction of any such respective works therein authorized to be proceeded with, subject nevertheless to such directions as they may from time to time receive from the said Lord Lieutenant or other Chief Governor or Governors 40 of Ireland, and shall for such purpose have and use all such powers and authorities as they are by any of the Acts now in force for the extension and promotion of Public Works in Ireland invested with for the construction of any road or bridge or other work for the construc 649. tion |