day of next term, and the other periods to be altered accordingly in computation; but nothing in this Act shall prevent any plaintiff from proceeding to take his bill pro confesso, according to the practice existing before the passing of this Act, where at the time of passing of this Act his proceedings shall be so far advanced that the powers of this Act would not enable him to accelerate the period for taking his bill pro confesso.

14. That where a defendant is in custody for contempt in not answering, and shall be able to put in his answer by borrowing or obtaining a copy of the bill, without taking an office copy of the bill, he shall not be compellable to take any such copy, but the Clerk in Court may (if he think the defendant is of sufficient ability to pay for an office copy) require him, before the answer is filed, to make an affidavit denying his ability in consequence of poverty to pay for an office copy of the bill.

15. That when any person shall have been directed by any decree or order to execute any deed or other instrument, or make a surrender or transfer, or to levy a fine, or suffer a recovery, and shall have refused or neglected to execute, make, or transfer, or levy or suffer the same, and shall have been committed to prison under process for such contempt, or, being confined in prison for any other cause, shall have been charged with or detained under process for such contempt, and shall remain in such prison, the Court may, upon motion or petition, and upon affidavit that such person has, after the expiration of two calendar months from the time of his being committed under, or charged with, or detained under such process, again refuse to execute such deed or instrument, or make such surrender or transfer, or levy or suffer such fine or recovery, order or appoint one of the Masters in Ordinary, or if the act is to be done out of London, then, if necessary, one of the Masters Extraordinary, to execute such deed or other instrument, or to make such surrender or transfer, for and in the name of such person, and to levy such fine or suffer such recovery in his name, and to do all acts necessary to give validity and operation to such fine and recovery, and to lead or declare the uses thereof; and the execution of the said deed or other instrument, and the surrender or transfer made by the said Master, and the fine or recovery levied or suffered by him, shall in all respects have the same force and validity as if the same had been executed or made, levied or suffered, by the party himself; and within ten days after the execution or making of any such deed or other instrument, or surrender or transfer, or levying or

suffering such fine or recovery, notice thereof shall be given by the adverse solicitor to the party in whose name the same is executed or made; and such party, as soon as the deed or other instrument, or surrender, transfer, fine, or recovery shall be executed, made, levied, or suffered, shall be considered as having cleared his contempt, except as far as regards the payment of the costs of the contempt, and shall be entitled to be discharged therefrom under any of the provisions of this Act applicable to his case; and the Court shall make such order as shall be just, touching the payment of the costs of or attending any such deed, surrender, instrument, transfer, fine, or recovery. 16. That where a person shall be committed for a contempt in not delivering to any person or persons or depositing in Court or elsewhere, as by any order may be directed, books, papers, or any other articles or things, any sequestrator or sequestrators appointed under any commission of sequestration shall have the same power to seize and take such books, papers, writings, or other articles or things, being in the custody or power of the person against whom the sequestration issues, as they would have over his own property; and thereupon such articles or things so seized and taken shall be dealt with by the Court as shall be just; and after such seizure it shall be lawful for the Court, upon the application of the prisoner, or of any other person in the cause or matter, or upon any report to be made in pursuance of this Act, to make such order for the discharge of the prisoner, upon such terms, and, if it shall see fit, making any costs in the cause, as to the Court shall seem proper. 17. That in any other case of a commitment for contempt, not herein specially provided for, the Court may upon any such application as last aforesaid, or upon any such report as aforesaid, make such order for the discharge of the prisoner, upon any such terms, and making, if the Court shall see fit, any costs in the cause, as to the Court shall seem proper. 18. That where any person committed for a contempt shall be entitled to his discharge upon applying to the Court, but shall omit to make such application, the Court may upon any such report as aforesaid compulsorily discharge such person from the contempt and from custody, and pay the costs of the contempt out of any funds belonging to him over which the Court may have power, or make them costs in the cause as against him, or may discharge him from the contempt, but leave him in custody for the costs, which may be cleared, if he be insolvent, under the provisions hereinafter contained in that behalf.

19. That where any party obstinately retains possession of lands or other real property after a writ of execution of a decree or an order for delivery of possession has been duly served and demand of possession made, and upon an affidavit of such service of the writ of execution, and of such demand made thereunder, and a refusal to comply therewith on the part of the person against whom the writ issued, the party issuing it shall be at liberty, upon an affidavit of service of the writ of execution and demand of possession and refusal, to obtain the usual order of course for the writ of assistance to issue, and that the intermediate writs of attachment and injunction further commanding the party to deliver possession, or any other writ, shall be unnecessary.

20. That in order to relieve persons in prison from the expense of a Master's attendance to take affidavits or answers, the Lord High Chancellor do, by one or more commission or commissions under the great seal, upon or in respect of which no fee shall be payable, nominate and appoint the warden, keeper, or other chief officer of every prison within the city of London, or the bills of mortality, and their deputies, to be Masters Extraordinary of the High Court of Chancery, for the purpose of taking and receiving such affidavits and answers as any person or persons within any such prison shall be willing or desirous to make, and for no other purpose; and the person so taking such affidavit or answer shall in respect thereof be entitled to receive a fee of one shilling, and no more; and the Court of Exchequer shall in like manner appoint such persons as aforesaid a commissioner or commissioners of the said Court, for the purposes aforesaid, and no others, and with the right to the like fee, and no more; and in every case of an answer being sworn in prison, a clerk of a master or baron (as the case may require) shall attend to take and carry back to and from the prison the answer, and shall in respect thereof be entitled to a fee of three shillings, and no more.

XVI. And be it enacted, That the discharge of any prisoner adjudicated upon under authority of an Act passed in the seventh year of his present Majesty's reign, intituled An Act to amend and consolidate the Laws for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors in England, or any other Act which may hereafter be passed for the relief of insolvent debtors, shall and may extend to all process issuing from any Court of Equity for any contempt of such Court for non-payment of money, or of costs, charges, or expenses in any such Court; and that, in such case, the said discharge shall be deemed to extend to all costs which such prisoner shall be liable to pay in consequence or by reason of such contempt, or on purging the

same; and that every discharge, so adjudicated as aforesaid, as to any debt or damages of any creditor of such prisoner, shall be deemed to extend also to all costs incurred by such creditor, before the filing of such prisoner's schedule, in any action or suit brought by such creditor against such prisoner for the purpose of the recovery of the same; and that all persons as to whose demands for any such costs, money, or expenses any such persons shall be so adjudged to be discharged, shall be deemed and taken to be creditors of such prisoner in respect thereof, and entitled to the benefits of all the provisions made for creditors by the said Act, or any future Act; subject nevertheless to such ascertaining of the amount of the said demands as may be had by taxation or otherwise, and to such examination thereof as is in the said lastmentioned Act, or as shall be in any future Act provided in respect of all claim to a dividend of such insolvent's estate and effects.

XVII. And be it further enacted, That where the process of contempt is for the non-performance of an act, for example, the not answering the plaintiff's bill, and the bill in equity to which the insolvent is a party is taken pro confesso, and he has not paid the costs of the contempt, or the insolvent has fully answered the plaintiff's bill or interrogatories, or otherwise cleared his contempt, except as far as regards the payment of the costs, or it has become in event unnecessary for him to do the act for the nonperformance of which he was committed or attached, the Court of Equity, in which the suit is depending, shall, upon the application of the party in contempt, discharge him from the same, except as to the costs thereof, for which he shall remain in custody, and such costs shall be deemed within the provision lastly herein before contained, and he shall be dischargeable therefrom, and from the process of contempt, in like manner as if the process of contempt were for non-payment of money or costs; provided that this order or regulation shall not weaken any of the other powers by this Act given, nor shall any thing herein contained lessen the operation of the said Act for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors.

XVIII. And be it enacted, That the powers and authorities given by this Act to the Court of Chancery, or to the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, shall and may be exercised as well by such Lord Chancellor as by (and they are hereby given to) the Lord Keeper or Commissioners of the Great Seal of Great Britain for the time being, and to the Master of the Rolls and ViceChancellor respectively; but the reports of the warden of the Fleet, and of the masters visiting there, shall be made to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper, or Lords Commissioners only, who alone are to make orders thereupon for discharge or relief of prisoners.

XIX. And be it further enacted, That such of the rules hereinbefore directed to be adopted by the Court of Chancery as are

numbered from five to twenty, both inclusive, shall be adopted by the Court of Exchequer, which Court shall, for the purposes of this Act, draw upon the suitors' fund of that Court.

XX. And be it further enacted, That the powers and authorities contained in such last-mentioned rules, and given by this Act to the Lord Chancellor, shall and may be exercised in like manner by, and are hereby given to his Majesty's Court of Exchequer, and may be exercised by the said Court, or by the Lord Chief Baron thereof; but such periodical visits only to be made to the Fleet prison, in regard to prisoners for contempt of the said Court, as the Lord Chief Baron shall direct, and by such officer or officers of the Court as he shall nóminate.

XXI. And be it further enacted, That wherever this Act, in describing or referring to any person, or any conveyance, transfer, matter, or thing, uses the word importing the singular number or the masculine gender only, the same shall be understood to include and shall be applied to several persons as well as one person, and females as well as males, and bodies corporate as well as individuals, and several conveyances, transfers, matters, or things respectively, as well as one conveyance, transfer, matter, or thing respectively, unless there be something in the subject or context repugnant to such construction.

2 WILL. IV. c. 33.

An act to effectuate the Service of Process issuing from the Courts of Chancery and Exchequer in England and Ireland respectively. [23rd May, 1832.]

WHEREAS great inconvenience and delays of justice arise from the defect of jurisdiction in Courts of Equity to effectuate the service of their process in such parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland as are not within the jurisdiction of the said respective courts; for remedy whereof, be it 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 it shall and may be lawful for the Courts of Chancery and of Exchequerin England respectively, if they shall so think fit, upon special motion of the complainant or complainants in any suit which has been or shall be instituted in such courts respectively, concerning lands or tenements or hereditaments situate or being within that part of the United Kingdom called England or Wales, to order and direct that service, in any part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and in the Isle of Man respectively, of any subpoena or subpoenas, letter missive or letters missive, and of all subsequent process to be had thereon, upon any defendant or defendants in such suit then resi