XV. And be it enacted, That upon all examinations and inquiries made by order of the Governor in Council, for ascertaining the truth as to any fact relative to any matter concerning the collection or management of the Revenue, or the accounting for the same, or the conduct of officers or persons employed therein, and upon like examinations and inquiries made by the Collector of the Customs, or by the chief officer employed in the collection and management of the Revenue, in or at any port, district or place, or by any person or officer authorized by the Governor in Council to make such examinations and inquiries, any person to be examined as a witness shall deliver his testimony on oath to be administered to him by the officer or person making the examination or inquiry, who is hereby authorized and empowered to administer the same: and any person wilfully making any false statement, in any such examination upon oath or in any solemn affirmation or declaration substituted as aforesaid for an oath, whether such oath shall have been required by this Act or by any other Act relating to the Revenue, shall be deemed guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury, or of a misdemeanour punishable in the same manner as wilful and currupt perjury, and shall on conviction be liable to be punished accordingly.

XVI. And be it enacted, That all books, papers, accounts, and documents of what kind soever, and by whom and at whose cost soever the paper and materials thereof may have been procured or furnished, which shall have been kept by or used, or shall have been received or taken into the possession of any officer or person employed or having been employed in the collection or management of the Revenue or in accounting for the same, by virtue of his employment as such, shall be deemed to be chattels belonging to Her Majesty, and all monies or valuable securities which shall have been received or taken into his possession by virtue of his employment shall be deemed to be monies and valuable securities belonging to Her Majesty; and if any such officer or person shall at any time fraudulently embezzle any such chattel, money or valuable security, (and any refusal or failure to pay over or deliver up any such chattel, money or valuable security to any officer or person who being duly authorized by the Governor in Council, shall demand the same after the passing of this Act, shall be a fraudulent embezzlement thereof,) he shall be deemed to have feloniously stolen the same, and may be indicted and proceeded against, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be punished, in the same manner as any servant who having fraudulently embezzled any chattel, money, or valuable security, received or taken into his possession by virtue of his employment, for or on the account of his master and being in law deemed to have feloniously stolen the same, may be indicted, proceeded against and punished Provided always, that nothing herein contained shall prevent, lessen or impeach any remedy which Her Majesty or any other party may have against such offender or his

sureties,

Summary remedy against

officers receiving Revenue

pay over the

same.

sureties, or against any other party whomsoever; but nevertheless the conviction of any such offender shall not be received in evidence in any suit or action at law or in equity, against him.

XVII. And be it enacted, That if at any time it shall appear clearly, by the books or accounts kept by or in the office or any officer or person employed in the collection or management of the Revenue or in accounting for the same, or by his and refusing to written acknowledgment or confession, that such officer or person hath by virtue of his office or employment received monies belonging to Her Majesty, and amounting to a sum certain, which he hath refused or neglected to pay over to the officer duly appointed to receive the same, and in the manner and at the time lawfully appointed, then upon affidavit of the facts, made by any officer cognisant thereof, thereunto authorized by the Governor in Council, before a Justice or Judge of any Court having jurisdiction in civil matters to the amount of the sum so ascertained as aforesaid, it shall be lawful for such Justice or Judge to cause to be issued against, and for the seizure and sale of the goods, chattels and lands of the officer or person so in default as aforesaid, such writ or writs as might have issued out of such Court, if the bond given by him had been put in suit, and judgment had been thereupon obtained in favour of Her Majesty, for a like sum, and any delay by law allowed between judgment and execution had expired; and such writ or writs shall be executed by the Sheriff or other proper officer, and such sum as aforesaid shall be levied under them with costs, and all further proceedings shall he had, as if such judgment as aforesaid had been actually obtained.

Revenue of

ed from certain charges.

XVIII. And be it enacted, That no officer or person regularly employed in the ficers exempt collection or management of the Revenue, or in accounting for the same, shall while he shall be such officer or so employed, be compelled to serve in any other public office, or in any municipal or local office, or on any jury or inquest, or in the militia; any law, usage or custom to the contrary notwithstanding.

Governor em

powered to remit duties, tolls, &c., in cases where

great injustice

and inconve

nience would

otherwise arise.

XIX. And whereas it is expedient that the Executive Government should be empowered to relax the strictness of the laws relative to the collection of the Revenue, in cases where without such relaxation great public inconvenience or great hardship and injustice to individuals could not be avoided: Be it therefore enacted, That it shall be lawful for the Governor of this Province when he shall deem it right and conducive to the public good, to remit any duty or toll payable to Her Majesty, imposed, or authorized to be imposed by any Act of the Provincial Legislature, or any forfeiture or pecuniary penalty imposed or authorized to be imposed by any such Act, for any contravention of the laws relating to the collection of the Revenue or to the management of any public work producing toll or revenue, although any part of such forfeiture or penalty be given by law to the

informer

informer or prosecutor, or to any other party; and such remission may be made by any general regulation or by any special order in any particular case, and may be total or partial, unconditional or conditional, and if conditional, and the condition be not performed, the order made in the case shall be null and void, and all proceedings may be had and taken as if it had not been made: Provided always, that a detailed statement of all such remissions as aforesaid, shall be annually submitted to the several branches of the Legislature, within the first fifteen days of each ensuing session thereof.

Such omis

sion may be

made by general regulation.

Proviso.

Remission of

penalty to act as a pardon for the offence.

XX. Provided always, and be it enacted, That if the Governor of this Province shal! direct, that the whole or any part of any penalty imposed by any Act relating to the Revenue be remitted or returned to the offender, such remission or return shall have the effect of a pardon for the offence for which the penalty shall have been incurred, which shall thereafter have no legal effect prejudicial to the party to whom such remission shall have been granted: Provided also, that it shall be Proviso. lawful for Her Majesty's Attorney General or other law officer to sue for and recover in Her Majesty's name, any penalty or forfeiture imposed by any Act relating to the Revenue, before any Court or other judicial authority, before which such penalty or forfeiture shall be recoverable under such Act, (and in such case, the whole of such penalty or forfeiture, shall belong to Her Majesty for the public uses of the Province, unless the Governor in Council shall, as he is hereby empowered to do, allow any portion thereof to the seizing officer or other person by whose information or aid the penalty or forfeiture shall have been recovered,) or to direct the discontinuance of any suit for any such penalty, by whom or in whose name soever, the same shall have been brought; any thing in any Act, whether passed during the present Session or otherwise, or in any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

Council.

XXI. And be it enacted, That the words "Governor " or " Governor of this Interpretation Province," whenever they occur in this Act, shall be understood to mean and clause. include the Lieutenant Governor, or person administering the Government; and whenever anything is directed to be done by the "Governor in Council," it shall Governor in be understood that the same is to be done by the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, or person administering the Government of this Province, by and with the advice and consent of the Executive Council thereof; and the words "Provincial Revenue. Revenue" or "Revenue," shall be understood to mean and include and apply to all Provincial Revenue and branches thereof, and public monies, whether arising from duties of Customs or other duties, or from tolls for the use of any public works, or from penalties or forfeitures, or other source whatsoever, in so far as the collection, management and accounting for the same, shall be respectively subject to the control of the Provincial Legislature; and any officer, functionary, Revenue offi

or

cers.

or person whose duty it shall be to receive any monies forming part of the Revenue, or who shall be entrusted with the custody or expenditure of any such monies, although he may not be regularly employed in collecting, managing or accounting for the same, shall be subject to the provisions of this Act, so far as regards the accounting for and paying over such monies, whatever be the office or employment Singular num- by virtue of which he shall receive or be entrusted with the same; and words importing the singular number only shall be understood to include several persons, matters or things of the same kind, as well as one person, matter or thing, unless it be otherwise specially provided, or there be something in the subject or context, repugnant to or inconsistent with such construction.

ber, &c.

Proviso, as to

disposal of public lands.

XXII. Provided always, and be it enacted, That nothing in this Act contained, the Act for the shall be construed to repeal or alter any enactment in the Act passed in the Session held in the fourth and fifth years of Her Majesty's Reign, and intituled, An Act for the Disposal of the Public Lands, but this Act shall apply to Revenue derived from the lands in the said Act mentioned, and to the officers and persons employed in collecting, managing, and accounting for the same, in so far only as its provisions shall be consistent with those of the said Act.

Act may be

XXIII. And be it enacted, That this Act may be altered, varied or repealed

altered during by any Act to be passed during the present Session.

this session.

Limitation of this Act.

XXIV. And be it enacted, That this Act shall remain in force until the fifth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, and thence until the end of the then next Session of the Provincial Parliament, and no longer.

MONTREAL :-Printed by STEWART DERBISHIRE and George Desbarats,
Law Printer to the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty.

An Act to secure the right of property in British Plantation Vessels navigating the Inland Waters of this Province, and not register. ed under the Act of the Imperial Parliament of the United Kingdom, passed in the third and fourth years of the Reign of His late Majesty King William the Fourth, intituled, An Act for the Registering of British Vessels, and to facilitate transfers of the same, and to prevent the fraudulent assignment of any property in such Vessels.

WH

[17th March, 1845.]

Preamble.

HEREAS it is expedient to secure the right of property in British Plantation Vessels, navigating the Inland Waters of this Province, and not registered under the Act of the Imperial Parliament, intituled, An Act for the registering of British Vessels, passed in the third and fourth years of the reign of His Majesty, William the Fourth, and to facilitate transfers of Vessels, and to prevent the fraudulent assignment of the property in such Vessels: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, constituted and assembled by virtue of and under the authority of an Act passed in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and intituled, An Act to re-unite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and for the Government of Canada, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That this Act shall commence upon the first day of July, one thousand eight Commencehundred and forty five, except when any other commencement is hercin particu- ment of Act. larly directed.

II.