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PENALTY FOR SLANDER.

Dyer 155.

1 Roll 444.

3 EDWARD 1, CAP. 34.-None shall report slanderous news, whereby discord may arise.-Forasmuch as there have been oftentimes found 1 Leon. 287. in the country divisors of tales, whereby discord, or occasion of dis- 2 Inst. 225. cord, hath many times arisen between the king and his people, or 12 Co. 133. great men of this realm; for the damage that hath and may thereof 3 Bulstr. 225. ensue, it is commanded, that from henceforth none be so hardy to tell or publish any false news or tales, whereby discord, or occasion of discord or slander may grow between the king and his people, or the great men of the realm; and he that doth so, shall be taken and kept in prison, until he hath brought him into the court, which was the first author of the tale.

2 Inst. 227.

2 RICHARD 2, STAT. 1, CAP. 5.—The penalty for telling slanderous lies of the great men of the realm.-Item, of devisors of false news and 12 Co. 134. of horrible and false lies, of prelates, dukes, earls, barons, and other Vaughan 139. nobles and great men of the realm, and also of the chancellor, trea- Palmer 565. surer, clerk of the privy seal, steward of the king's house, justices of the one bench or of the other, and of other great officers of the realm, of things which by the said prelates, lords, nobles, and officers aforesaid, were never spoken, done, nor thought, in great slander of 2 Mod. 98, the said prelates, lords, nobles, and officers, whereby debates and dis- 161. cords might arise betwixt the said lords, or between the lords and the commons (which God forbid) and whereof great peril and mischief might come to all the realm, and quick subversion and destruction of the said realm, if due remedy be not provided: it is straightly 3 Bulstr. 235. defended upon grievous pain, for to eschew the said damages and Leon, 287. perils, that from henceforth none be so hardy to devise, speak, or 4 Co. 12. to tell any false news, lies, or other such false things, of prelates, Cro. El. 1. lords, and of other aforesaid, whereof discord or any slander might Cro. Car. 135. rise within the same realm; and he that doth the same shall incur Rast. 393. and have the pain another time ordained thereof by the statute of Westminster the first, which will, that he be taken and imprisoned till he have found him of whom the word was moved.

Dyer 155.

Kel. 26.

Jones 194.

228.

c. 5.

285.

12 RICHARD 2, CAP. 11.-The punishment of him that telleth lies of the peers or great officers of the realm.-Item, whereas it is con- 2 Inst. 227, tained, as well in the statute of Westminster the first, as in the 3 Ed. 1, c. 34. statute made at Gloucester, the second year of the reign of our lord 2 R. 2, stat. 1, the king that now is, that none be so hardy to invent, to say, or to Dyer 155, tell any false news, lies, or such other false things, of the prelates, 4 Co. 12. dukes, earls, barons, and other nobles and great men of the realm, Kel. 26. and also of the chancellor, treasurer, clerk of the privy seal, and steward of the king's house, the justice of the one bench or of the other, and other great officers of the realm, and he that doth so shall be taken and imprisoned, till he hath found him of whom the speech shall be moved; it is accorded and agreed in this parliament, that when any such is taken and imprisoned, and cannot find him by whom the speech be moved, as before is said, that

News.

he be punished by the advice of the council, notwithstanding the said statutes.

1 & 2 PHILIP & MARY, CAP. 3.-A confirmation of the stat. of 3 Edward 1, cap. 34, and 2 Richard 2, stat. 1, cap. 5, touching telling of news. Justices of peace in every shire, city, &c. shall have authority to hear and determine the said offences, and to put the said two statutes in execution. If any person shall be convicted or attainted for speaking maliciously of his own imagination, any false, seditious and slanderous news, saying, or tales, of the king or queen, then he shall for his first offence be set on the pillory in some Market-place near where the words were spoken, and have both his ears cut off, unless he pay to the queen an hundred pound within one month after judgment given, and also shall be three months imprisoned and if he shall speak any such slanderous and seditious news or tales of the speaking or report of any other, then he shall be set on the pillory, and have one of his ears cut off, unless he pay an hundred marks to the queen's use within one month after, and shall be one month imprisoned: and if he shall do it by book, rhyme, ballad, letter or writing, he shall have his right hand stricken off. And if any person being once convicted of any of the offences aforesaid, do afterward offend, he shall be imprisoned during his life, and forfeit all his goods and chattels. EXP.

4 & 5 PHILIP & MARY, CAP. 9. ..... Philip & Mary, cap. 3,

Anno 1 & 2

shall be revived, and made to continue until the last day of the next parliament. EXP.

1 ELIZABETH, CAP 6.-The penalty mentioned in the stat. of 1 & 2 Philip & Mary, cap. 3, for speaking false slanderous news of the king or queen, or for committing any of the offences expressed in the said act, shall be expounded to extend to the queen that now is, and to the heirs of her body. EXP.

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TO ACTS OF PARLIAMENT PASSED SUBSEQUENT OT A. D. 1844.

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PHYSICIANS AND SURGEONS.

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3 HENRY 8, CAP. 11.-An act for the appointing of physicians and surgeons. To the king our sovereign lord, and to all the lords spiri- Inconvenitual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assem- ing by igno bled. Forasmuch as the science and cunning of physic and surgery rant persons (to the perfect knowledge whereof be requisite both great learning physic or and ripe experience) is daily within this realm exercised by a great surgery. multitude of ignorant persons, of whom the greater part have no manner of insight in the same, nor in any other kind of learning; some also can no letters on the book, so far forth, that common artificers, as smiths, weavers, and women, boldly and accustomably take upon them great cures, and things of great difficulty, in the which they partly use sorcery and witchcraft, partly apply such medicines unto the disease as be very noious, and nothingmeet therefore, to the high displeasure of God, great infamy to the faculty, and the grievous hurt, damage, and destruction of many of the king's liege people, most especially of them that cannot discern the uncunning from the cunning: be it therefore (to the surety and comfort of all manner people) by the authority of this present parliament enacted, that no person within the city of London, nor within seven miles By whom of the same, take upon him to exercise and occupy as a physician every physior surgeon, except he be first examined, approved, and admitted by geon shall be the bishop of London, or by the dean of Pauls for the time being, 14 & 15 H. 8, calling to him or them four doctors of physic, and for surgery c. 5. other expert persons in that faculty, and for the first examination c. 8. such as they shall think convenient, and afterward alway four of By 34 & 35 them that have been so approved, upon the pain of forfeiture for any person every month that they do occupy as physicians or surgeons, not ing herbs, admitted nor examined after the tenor of this act, of five pounds &c. may mito be employed the one half thereof to the use of our sovereign ward sores, lord the king, and the other half thereof to any person that will sue &c. for it by action of debt, in which no wager of law nor protection shall be allowed.

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II. And over this, that no person out of the said city, and precinct A physician of seven miles of the same, except he have been (as is aforesaid) approved in the same, take upon him to exercise and occupy as a physician or surgeon, in any diocese within this realm, but if he be first examined and approved by the bishop of the same diocese, or, he being out of the diocese, by his vicar general; either of them calling to them such expert persons in the said faculties, as their discretion shall think convenient, and giving their letters testimonials under their seal to him that they shall so approve, upon like pain to them that occupy the contrary to this act (as is abovesaid) to be levied and employed after the form before expressed.

III. Provided alway, that this act, nor any thing therein contained, The privibe prejudicial to the universities of Oxford or Cambridge, or either leges of Oxof them, or to any privileges granted to them. Memoran.-That Cambridge

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surgeons be comprised in this act like as physicians, for like mischief of ignorant persons presuming to exercise surgery.

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PLACES OF RELIGIOUS WORSHIP.

52 GEORGE 3, CAP. 155.—An act to repeal certain acts, and amend other acts relating to religious worship and assemblies and persons teaching or preaching therein.-Whereas it is expedient that certain acts of parliament, made in the reign of his late majesty king Charles the second, relating to non conformists and conventicles, and refusing to take oaths, should be repealed, and that the laws relating to certain congregations and assemblies for religious worship, and persons teaching, preaching or officiating therein, and resorting thereto, should be amended; be it therefore enacted by the king's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, in this present parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that, from and after the passing of this act, an act of parliament made in the session of parliament held in the thirteenth and fourteenth years of his late 13 & 14 Car. majesty king Charles the second, intituled, an act for preventing the 2, c. 1. mischiefs and dangers that may arise by certain persons called Quakers, and others refusing to take lawful oaths; and another act of parliament, made in the seventeenth year of the reign of his late majesty 17 Car. 2, c. 2. king Charles the second, intituled an act for restraining non conformists from inhabiting in corporations; and another act of parliament, made in the twenty-second year of the reign of the late king Charles 22 Car. 2, c.1, the second, intituled an act to prevent and suppress seditious conventicles, shall be and the same are hereby repealed.

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II. And be it further enacted, that, from and after the passing Places of reof this act, no congregation or assembly for religious worship of ship certified protestants (at which there shall be present more than twenty and registerpersons besides the immediate family and servants of the person in whose house or upon whose premises such meeting, congregation or assembly shall be had) shall be permitted or allowed, unless and until the place of such meeting, if the same shall not have been duly certified and registered under any former act or acts of parliament relating to registering places of religious worship, shall have been or shall be certified to the bishop of the diocese, or to the archdeacon of the archdeaconry, or to the justices of the peace at the general or quarter sessions of the peace for the county, riding, division, city, town or place in which such meeting shall be held; and all places of meeting which shall be so certified to the bishop's or archdeacon's court, shall be returned by such court once in each year to the quarter sessions of the county, riding, division, city, town or place; and all places of meeting which shall be so certified to the quarter sessions of the peace shall be also returned once in each year to the bishop or archdeacon; and all such places shall be registered in the said bishop's or archdeacon's court respectively, and recorded at the said general or quarter sessions; the registrar or clerk of the peace whereof respectively is hereby required to register and record the same; and the bishop or registrar or clerk of the peace to whom any

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