LEGITIMACY DECLARATION. [21 and 22 Victoriæ, cap. 93.—August 2, 1858.] An Act to enable Persons to establish Legitimacy and the Validity of Marriages, and the Right to be deemed Natural-born Subjects. Persons whose right to be deemed natural-born subjects of the Queen depends wholly or partly upon the validity of a marriage, are enabled by this Act to apply to the Court of Divorce and Matrimonial Causes, for a decree, after investigation, declaring that the marriage in question was a valid marriage, and that the petitioner is a natural-born subject; but the attorney-general must have a copy of the petition a month before it is filed. Persons in Scotland may pursue the like course in the Court of Session. Witnesses may be cited, and the Courts have power to award costs. COPYHOLD ACTS AMENDMENT. [21 and 22 Victoriæ, cap. 94.—August 2, 1858.] This Act wholly repeals the 16 and 17 Vict., cap. 57, and parts of several other Acts. Its provisions are, to a great extent, professional, but it enables the tenant or lord of any copyhold lands, to which the last admittance shall have taken place, or the last heriot have become due, before July 1, 1853, to compel enfranchisement; but no tenant to be entitled to do so until after payment or tender of such a fine, or the value of such a heriot, as would have become due in case of a death or alienation, and of two-thirds of such a sum as would have become due to the steward. Where power is given to the lord to purchase a tenant's land, power is also given to charge the same land, or the manor, to the same uses as a tenant has to charge enfranchisement moneys. Provision is also made for the appropriation of moneys paid for the enfranchisement of lands held under crown or corporation manors. COURT OF PROBATE ACT, 1858. [21 and 22 Victoriæ, cap. 95.-August 2, 1858.] An Act to amend the Act of the 20 and 21 Vict., cap. 77. By § 1 the judge of the High Court of Admiralty and the judge of the Court of Probate are enabled to sit for each other; by § 2 serjeants and barristers-at-law are to be entitled to practise in all matters whatsoever in the Court of Probate; by § 3 the judge may sit in chambers, and despatch such business as he considers can be heard in chambers with advantage to the suitor, but no question to be so heard which either party shall require to be heard in court. The Treasury (§ 4) are to cause chambers to be provided; and the power of the judge, when sitting in chambers (§ 5), to be in all respects the same as if sitting in open court. By § a fourth registrar is appointed; by § 7, on any vacancy in the office of the four registrars, the vacancy to be filled up by the one next in seniority, excepting of course the case of the junior; clerks (§ 8) having served five years in the principal registry of the Court of Probate are to be eligible as registrars or district registrars of the said court; and persons articled to proctors of Doctors' Commons or other ecclesiastical courts (§ 9), as soon as they have served the full term for which they were articled, are entitled to be admitted as proctors of the Court of Probate on the payment of such fees as shall have been fixed. Where the personalty is under 2001. (§ 10), and the deceased was not possessed or entitled to real estate of the value of 300l., the jurisdiction is given to the judge of the County Court of the district in which such person may have died or had a fixed place of abode, in respect of the granting or revoking probate of will or letters of administration in case there be any contention; and by § 11 the 54th section of the previous Act is repealed, while, by § 12, the 59th is directed to apply to applications for revocations of probates as well as to the granting of them. Power is given by § 13 to the County Courts to make rules and orders and to frame scales of fees for counsel, solicitors, &c., practising in such courts under the Court of Probate Act. All noncontentious business (§ 14) in any ecclesiastical court is transferred to the Court of Probate as well as all suits; and all bonds given to any person exercising testamentary jurisdiction (§ 15) before Jan. 11, 1858, are to remain in force. An executor (§ 16) not acting or not appearing to a citation to be treated as if he had renounced. The judge of the Court of Probate (§ 17) to have the power of altering or amending grants of probate or letters of administration made before Jan. 11, 1858. By § 18 the provisions of the previous Act are extended to executors and administrators residing out of the jurisdiction of her Majesty's Courts of Law or Equity, whether it be or be not intended to institute proceedings in the Court of Chancery. Between the death of any person dying intestate (§ 19) and the grant of letters of administration, the property is to vest in the judge of the Court of Probate for the time being. Second and subsequent grants of probate or letters of administration (§ 20) must be made in the registry where the original will or the original letters of administration are deposited. The Court of Probate (§ 21) may require security by bond, with or without sureties, from the receiver of real estate appointed by the court; and may, on application, order one of the registrars to assign the same to some person to be named in such order to sue for the same either at law or in equity as trustee for all persons interested. The provisions respecting pending suits (§ 22) to apply also to appeals. The registrar (§ 23) is empowered to issue subpoenas for the production of papers and writings in the possession or within the power of any person, and the refusal or neglect to produce them to be deemed a contempt of court. The registrars also (§ 24) are invested with the powers, and are to do all the acts heretofore done by surrogates. Copies of wills (§ 25) required to be transmitted by a district registrar, may be certified as correct under a stamp approved of by the judge of the Court of Probate; and certificates from the principal registry (§ 26) need not be under the hand of a registrar, but may be issued with a stamp provided for that purpose. As doubts had existed whether the 89th section of the previous Act required the production of one or more papers only, not being all the papers, it is enacted by § 27 that requisitions may be issued for the transmission of a single paper. By § 28 power is given to the Court to enforce its decree as to costs. Letters of administration granted in Ireland (§ 29) are not to be resealed in England until a certificate has been filed under the hand of a registrar of the court in Ireland that a bond has been given in a sum sufficient to cover the property in England as well as in Ireland. Commissioners to administer oaths, &c. (§ 30), are to be appointed for the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands; § 31 provides for the making of affidavits in foreign parts, and § 32 for the like in the Isle of Man, the Channel, and any of her Majesty's colonial or foreign possessions. Persons forging any seal or signature in matters relating to this Act (§ 33) to be deemed guilty of felony, and on conviction to be liable to penal servitude for life or any term not less than seven years; and persons taking a false oath before a surrogate, or any person authorised to administer oaths (§ 34), to be deemed guilty of perjury, and be liable to the penalties and consequences of wilful and corrupt perjury. Provision is made (§ 35), for the necessary absence of officers; power is given to the court (§ 36) over the proctors, solicitors, &c., practising, as in other courts; and provision is made (§ 37) for the expenses of classifying, indexing, and removing of documents or books as the judge shall from time to time certify to be necessary. The short title (§ 38) to be 'Court of Probate Act, 1858.' PUBLIC HEALTH. [21 and 22 Victoria, cap. 97.-August 2, 1858.] An Act for vesting in the Privy Council certain Powers for the Protection of the Public Health. This is a temporary Act, which is to expire on August 1, 1859; giving all the powers of the General Board of Health, on its discontinuance on September 1, 1858, to the Privy Council; and enables it to issue rules for securing the due qualification of persons contracted with by Boards of Guardians and Unions as vaccinators; to direct inquiries as to the public health in any place or places; to retain the medical officer of the Board of Health, who is to make a report of the state of the public health up to December 31, and the report is to be laid before parliament; and provides for the authentication of orders issued by the Privy Council, and also as to proceedings for penalties under the Vaccination Act. LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT, 1858. [21 and 22 Victoriæ, cap. 98.-August 2, 1858.] An Act to amend the Public Health Act, 1848, and to make further provision for the Local Government of Towns and Populous Districts. 6 This Act (§ 1) is to be cited as The Local Government Act, 1858;' interprets the terms (§ 2) as in previous acts, but adds cities; provides (§ 3) that it shall not extend to Scotland nor Ireland, nor to any place within the limits of the metropolis as defined by the Act for the Better Local Government of the Metropolis; and (§ 4) that it shall be construed with and be deemed to form a part of the Public Health Act, 1848; it is to take effect from September 1, 1858 (§ 5), in places where that Act is wholly or partially in operation, and is not to affect the qualification or powers of Local Boards of Health in such places; and (86) they are to continue to have all the powers, duties, and liabilities possessed by them under that Act. Terms are also defined in § 7, and penalties incurred under the incorporated acts are to be recovered and applied in the same way as under the Act of 1848; and (§ 8) Local Boards may, from September 1, 1858, exercise their powers without requiring the sanction of the General Board of Health, but all sanctions for raising money on mortgage of rates to continue in force until they be repaid; and all proceedings, contracts, &c. (§ 9) begun under any section of the previous Act repealed by this Act may be proceeded with. In the event of a failure to elect a Local Board (§ 10), any receiver G appointed under the previous Act may make and collect the rates as thereby directed to satisfy all liabilities of the Local Board; and in case of the failure to elect or the lapse of a Local Board (§ 11), the ratepayers may proceed to the election of a new Local Board in the manner directed by this Act, and the result is to be made known to the secretary of state. As to the adoption of the Act and constitution of Local Boards; it may be adopted (§ 12) by corporate boroughs to which the Public Health Act, 1848, has not been applied, by resolution of the council, but not until after the election on November 1, 1858; in places under the jurisdiction of improvement commissions, where all or part are elected by owners and ratepayers, by a resolution of such commissioners; and in all other places, having a known or defined boundary, by a resolution of the owners or ratepayers, but in no case unless a month's previous notice of the meeting has been given, nor unless two-thirds of the members present concur in the adoption of such resolution; but the chairman, with the consent of the majority, may adjourn the meeting from day to day. Such meetings are to be summoned (§ 13) in corporate boroughs by the mayor; in places under improvement commissioners by the chairman; and in other places by the churchwardens or overseers, or one of them, and if there are no such officers, or if the officials should refuse, by any person appointed by one of the secretaries of state; notice of the meeting is to be given by advertisement, and by affixing it on all churches and chapels in the place; the meeting is to choose a chairman, who shall propose the adoption of the resolution, and if any owner or ratepayer demand a poll, it is to be taken by voting papers in a prescribed form, and be subject to all the conditions of the previous Act, and any person forging, destroying, or abstracting such papers, or personating the voter, is to be liable, on conviction before two justices, to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three months with or without hard labour. Where a less place is included within a greater (§ 14), such place is not to be entitled to adopt this Act, unless such greater place has refused, or unless the secretary of state has decided that such less place shall be excluded, for the purposes of this Act, from the greater. Any corporation or body of commissioners exercising powers of sanitary regulation (§ 15) may adopt part or parts of this Act, by resolution, such resolution to be forwarded to the secretary of state, but the parts conferring the power to borrow money must be subject to the provisions of this Act. Any place (§ 16) not having a defined boundary may petition the secretary of state to have the boundary defined, such petition to be signed by one-tenth of the resident ratepayers, and supported by evidence; the secretary is then to direct an inquiry as to the genuineness of the petition and the 'propriety of the request, and fourteen days' notice of such inquiry is to be given; the secretary may then either dismiss the petition or make order as to the boundary of such place, and may also make order as to the cost of the proceedings; when the boundary is settled, the place may adopt the Act in the usual way, a summoning officer having been appointed in the order settling the boundaries. A power of appeal (§ 17) is given to one-twentieth of the owners and resident ratepayers against the adoption of the Act, either to the whole place or a part thereof, by petition to the secretary of state, such petition to be presented within twenty-one days from the date of passing the resolution, and, where it is for the exclusion of a part, it must contain an explanatory plan and the reasons for such exclusion; an inquiry, with notice, is to take place as in the case of boundaries, and the order of the secretary to be binding. An appeal may also be made to the secretary (§ 18) by any owner or ratepayer, in case of the alleged invalidity of the vote for the adoption of this Act, but within fourteen days of the date of the resolution, and is, in like manner, to be inquired into and decided upon. When a resolution to adopt this Act has been passed (§ 19), notice is to be given to the secretary of state, in corporations by the mayor, in other places by the chairman of the commissioners or by the summoning officer, and notice is to be given by advertisement for three successive weeks in the local newspapers, and by affixing copies to the church and chapel-doors; and when the time for appeal has expired or the appeal been dismissed, notice is to be published in the London Gazette' that the Act has been adopted in such place. The adoption of this Act (§ 20) is to be dated from two months after the passing of the resolution, or of the order in case of appeal or of a division of the district into wards; and no objection (§ 21) shall be made at any trial to the validity of the adoption of this Act, unless fourteen days' notice be given, stating fully the nature of the objection, and no objection can be made after the expiration of six calendar months from the date of the constitution of the district, the publication in the London Gazette' (§ 22), and in the newspapers, &c., to be sufficient proof of its having been adopted. The costs incurred in its adoption (§ 23) to be a charge upon the district rates, to be repaid by not more than five annual repayments with interest not exceeding the rate of 51. per cent. The Local Boards for carrying the Act into execution (§ 24) are to be-in corporate boroughs, the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses acting by the council; in other places, by the Board of Improvement Commissioners; and in other places, by members to be elected by the owners and ratepayers according to a prescribed scale of property qualification; the district may, with the sanction of the secretary of state, be divided into wards, and he shall decide what number of members shall be elected to the Local Board by each ward; the elections are to be conducted as directed by the previous Act, and any person nominated as a candidate, by giving one clear day's notice, may send an agent to accompany the deliverer or collector of the voting papers, who is not however to interfere in the delivery or collection of such papers; casual vacancies are to be filled up within a month from their occurrence, but the member chosen is to retain his office only so long as the member would have done whose place he fills; the first meeting of places, not corporations, nor under à Board of Commissioners, to be fixed by the returning officer not more than ten days after the election. The disqualification of members of a Local Board (§ 25) are not to extend to any sale or lease of lands or a loan of money to the Local Board; nor for absence from the meetings if not for more than six months continuously; nor by reason of a contract as shareholder in a company, but, being a shareholder, he shall not vote on any question in which the company is interested; and the secretary of state may dispense in any case with the prohibition against a shareholder in a company for the supply of water, or of works of a like public nature, from voting in a question in which such company is interested. In case of a district becoming a corporate borough (§ 26), the powers of the Local Board are to vest in the town council. With the sanction of the secretary of state (§ 27), adjoining districts may unite upon such terms as the Local Boards may agree upon; and Local Boards (§ 28) are empowered, with the consent of the adjoining district, to execute such works as they are empowered to do in their own, and any moneys required to be paid |