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Justices of

peace may

enquire of offenders.

A writ directed by

the justices

to the bishop.

No indictment but

months

the least, and after such accusation or information so had, to inquire by the oaths of twelve men, in every of their four quarter sessions yearly to be holden, of all and singular such accusations or informations to be had or made of any of the offences abovesaid, to be committed or done after the said first day of May, within the limits of their com mission; and that upon every such accusation and information, the offender or offenders shall be inquired of, and indicted before the said justices of peace, or three of them at the least, as is aforesaid, of the said contempts and offences, by the verdict of twelve honest and indifferent men, if the matter of the said accusation and information shall seem to the said jury good and true.

II. [Justices may bind the accusers to appear, by recognisance in the sum of five pounds.]

III. [Process of outlawry shall be awarded against the persons indicted. Justices of peace may determine the offences, and bail persons indicted.]

IV. Provided always, and be it enacted, that the said justices of peace, or three of them at the least, at their quarter sessions, where any offender or offenders shall be or stand indicted of any of the contempts or offences abovesaid, shall direct and award, one writ in the king's name to the bishop of the diocese, where the said offence or offences be supposed to be committed or done, willing and requiring the said bishop to be in his own person or by his chancellor, or other his sufficient deputy learned, at the quarter-sessions in the said county to be holden, when and where the said offender shall be arraigned and tried, appointing to them in the said writ, the day and place of the said arraignment; which writ shall be of this form: Rex, &c. Episcopo L. salutem, Præcipimus tibi quod tu, Cancellarius tuus, vel alius deputat, tuus sufficienter eruditus, sitis cum Justic. nostris ad pacem in com. nostro B. conservand. assignat. apud D. tali die, ad sessionem nostram, adtunc et ibm. tenend. ad dand. consilium et advisament eisdem Justiciariis nostris ad pacem, super arranament. et deliberationem offendent, contra form. Statuti concernen. sacrosanct. Sacramentum Altaris.

V. Provided always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no person or persons shall be indicted of any within three of the contempts or offences abovesaid, but only of such contempts or offences as shall be done or perpetrated within three months next after the said offence or offences so committed or done.

after the offence.

The defend.

his inno

VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, ant may try that in all trials, of any such offenders before the said jus tices, as is aforesaid, the person or persons being complained on and arraigned, shall be admitted to purge or try his or their innocency, by as many or more witnesses in

cency by witnesses.

number, and of as good honesty and credence, as the witnesses be which deposed against him or them, or any of them.

1 Eliz. c. 2.

I. Where, at the death of our late sovereign lord, King Edward the Sixth, there remained one uniform order of common service and prayer, and of the administration of sacraments, rites, and ceremonies in the church of England, which was set forth in one book, intituled, "The Book of Common Prayer, and Administration of Sacraments, and other Rites and Ceremonies in the Church of England;" authorized by act of parliament, holden in the fifth and sixth years of our said late sovereign lord, King Edward the Sixth, intituled, "An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer, and Administration of the Sacraments;" the which was repealed and taken away by act of parliament in the first year of the reign of our late sovereign lady, Queen Mary, to the great decay of the due honour of God, and discomfort to the professors of the truth of Christ's religion :

II. [Repeals the statute of Mary concerning the Book of Common Prayer, and confirms the said book.]

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of common

prayer.

IV. And that, if any manner of parson, vicar, or other whatsoever minister, that ought or should sing or say Common Prayer, mentioned in the said book, or minister the sacraments, from and after the feast of the nativity of St. John Baptist next coming . The penalty shall preach, declare, or speak any thing in the derogation for depravor depraving of the said book, or any thing therein contained, ing the book or of any part thereof, and shall be thereof lawfully convicted, according to the laws of this realm, by verdict of twelve men, or by his own confession, or by the notorious evidence of the fact, shall lose and forfeit to the queen's highness, her heirs, and successors, for his first offence, the profit of all his spiritual benefices or promotions, coming or arising in one whole year next after his conviction; and also that the person so convicted shall, for the same offence, suffer imprisonment for the space of six months, without bail or mainprise.

cond of

fence.

V. And if any such person once convict of any offence The penalty concerning the premises, shall after his first conviction for the seeftsoons offend, and be thereof in form aforesaid lawfully convict, that then the same person shall for his second offence suffer imprisonment by the space of one whole year, and also shall therefore be deprived, ipso facto, of all his spiritual promotions, and that it shall be lawful to all patrons or donors, of all and singular the same spiritual promotions or of any of them, to present or collate to the same, as though the person or persons so offending were dead.

offence.

The penalty VI. And that if any such person or persons, after he for the third shall be twice convicted in form aforesaid, shall offend against any of the premises the third time, and shall be thereof in form aforesaid lawfully convicted, that then the person so offending and convicted the third time, shall be deprived, ipso facto, of all his spiritual promotions, and also shall suffer imprisonment during his life.

The penalty VII. And if the person that shall offend, and be conof an offen- victed in form aforesaid, concerning any of the premises, der having no spiritual shall not be beneficed, nor have any spiritual promotion, promotion. that then the same person so offending and convict, shall for the first offence suffer imprisonment during one whole year next after his said conviction, without bail or mainprise.

The forfei

ture of them

which do any thing, or speak in the deroga

tion of the

mon prayer,

cansing

other prayer to be said or sung.

VIII. And if any such person, not having any spiritual promotion, after his first conviction shall eftsoons offend in any thing concerning the premises, and shall in form aforesaid be thereof lawfully convicted, that then the same person shall for his second offence suffer imprisonment during his life.

IX. And it is ordained and enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any person or persons whatsoever, after the said feast of the nativity of St. John Baptist next coming, shall in any interludes, plays, songs, rhymes, or by other open words, declare or speak any thing in the derobook of com- gation, depraving, or despising of the same book, or of any thing therein contained, or any part thereof; or shall by open fact, deed, or by open threatenings, compel or cause, or otherwise procure or maintain any parson, vicar, or other minister in any cathedral or parish church, or in chapel, or in any other place, to sing or say any common or open prayer, or to minister any sacrament, otherwise, or in any other manner and form, than is mentioned in the said book; or that by any of the said means shall unlawfully interrupt or let any parson, vicar, or other minister in any cathedral or parish church, chapel, or any other place to sing or say common and open prayer, or to minister the sacraments or any of them, in such manner and form as is mentioned in the said book; that then every such person, being thereof lawfully convicted, in form abovesaid, shall forfeit to the queen our sovereign lady, her heirs and successors, for the first offence, a hundred marks.

Second of-J fence.

Third of fence.

X. And if any person or persons being once convict of any such offence, eftsoons offend against any of the last recited offences, and shall in form aforesaid be thereof lawfully convict; that then the same person so offending and convict shall for the second offence forfeit to the queen our sovereign lady, her heirs and successors, four hundred marks.

XI. And if any person, after he in form aforesaid shall

have been twice convict of any offence concerning any of the last recited offences, shall offend the third time, and be thereof in form above said lawfully convict, that then every person so offending and convict shall, for his third offence forfeit to our sovereign lady the queen, all his goods and chattels, and shall suffer imprisonment during his life.

XII. And if any person or persons, that for his first The penalty if the party offence concerning the premises shall be convict in form convicted aforesaid, do not pay the sum to be paid by virtue of his do not pay conviction, in such manner and form as the same ought to his forfei be paid, within six weeks next after his conviction; that ture within then every person so convict, and so not paying the same, limited. shall for the same first offence, instead of the said sum, suffer imprisonment by the space of six months, without bail or mainprise.

XIII. And if any person or persons, that for his second offence concerning the premises shall be convict in form aforesaid, do not pay the said sum to be paid by virtue of his conviction and this statute, in such manner and form as the same ought to be paid, within six weeks next after his said second conviction; that then every person so convicted, and not so paying the same, shall, for the same second offence, in the stead of the said sum, suffer imprisonment during twelve months, without bail or mainprise.

the time

38 Geo. 3, c. 78.

I. [After forty days from the passing this act, no person to print or publish a newspaper until an affidavit be delivered at the stamp-office.]

II. [Affidavit to specify the names and abode of the printer, publisher, and of the proprietors, if they do not exceed two, exclusive of the printer and publisher, and if they do, then of two proprietors, and their proportional shares, and the description of the printing house, and the title of the paper.]

III. [Where the proprietors exceed two, the names of two of the greatest proprietors, exclusive of the printer and publisher, to be specified in the affidavit.]

IV. [Affidavit to be made as often as the printers, publishers, or proprietors named therein, or their respective abodes, shall be changed, &c. or as often as the commissioners for stamps shall require.]

V. [Affidavit to be signed by the parties, and taken by a commissioner or officer specially appointed.]

VI. [When the printers, publishers, and proprietors, required to be named in the affidavit, do not exceed four, the whole to swear; and where they do exceed that num

to be ad

the truth of their con

and all

to the contrary:

ber, four to swear to certain particulars, and to give notice to the parties not swearing, on penalty of fifty pounds each.]

VII. [Penalty of one hundred pounds for printing, publishing, or vending a newspaper without such affidavit having been signed, &c.]

VIII. [Persons making false or imperfect affidavits, liable to the penalties for perjury.]

Affidavits to IX. And be it further enacted, that all such affidavits be filed, and they, or cerand affirmations, as aforesaid, shall be filed and kept in tified copies, such manner as the said commissioners shall direct, and the same, or copies thereof, certified to be true copies, as mitted in all hereinafter is mentioned, shall respectively, in all proceedproceedings, civil or cri- ings, civil and criminal, touching any newspaper, or other minal, as such paper as aforesaid, which shall be mentioned in any evidence of such affidavits or affirmations, or touching any publication, matter, or thing contained in any such newspaper or other tents,against paper, be received and admitted as conclusive evidence of the persons the truth of all such matters, set forth in such affidavits or swearing, affirmations as are hereby required to be therein set forth mentioned against every person who shall have signed and sworn or therein, un affirmed such affidavits or affirmations, and shall also be less proved received and admitted, in like manner, as sufficient evidence of the truth of all such matters against all and every person who shall not have signed, or sworn, or affirmed the same, but who shall be therein mentioned to be a proprietor, printer, or publisher of such newspaper or other But if any paper, unless the contrary shall be satisfactorily proved: person shall provided always, that if any such person or persons, rehave de- spectively, against whom any such affidavit or affirmation, livered, pre- or any copy thereof, shall be offered in evidence, shall publication prove that he, she, or they hath or have signed, sworn or of the paper affirmed, and delivered to the said commissioners or such to which the officer as aforesaid, previous to the day of the date or pubproceedings lication of the newspaper or other such paper, as aforesaid, affidavit that to which the proceedings, civil or criminal, shall relate, an he has affidavit or affirmation that he, she, or they, hath or have ceased to be ceased to be the printer or printers, proprietor or proprietors, printer, &c. he shall not or publisher or publishers of such newspaper, or other such be so deem paper as aforesaid, such person or persons shall not be ed after such deemed, by reason of any former affidavit or affirmation so delivery.

vious to the

relate, an

In newspa pers there shall be

printed the names and

abode of

delivered as aforesaid, to have been the printer or printers, proprietor or proprietors, or publisher or publishers, of such paper, after the day on which such last-mentioned affidavit or affirmation shall have been delivered to the said commissioners or their officer as aforesaid.

X. And be it further enacted, that in some part of every newspaper, or other such paper as aforesaid, there shall be printed the true and real name and names, addition and additions, and place and places of abode, of the printer and printers, and publisher and publishers, of the same,

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