Court of General Gaol-Delivery.

WHERE any person shall be indicted and committed to prison, at least three days before the sitting of the said court, a jury shall be convened according to ancient custom, consisting of twelve good and lawful men, to try the fact before such court: and the said court shall be held at Castle-Rushen, as occasion shall require, by order of the governor; at which court all persons indicted shall be arraigned as heretofore accustomed *.

Court Ecclesiastical.

THE spiritual court shall not hereafter imprison any person upon a contempt for not appearing before them upon any process or citation; but instead thereof, upon application to the governor, and producing to him the certificate of the contempt, a soldier shall be granted to take such contemner before the said court, on any day appointed, and a reasonable fine to be set upon him for the contempt, as accustomed in such cases in the temporal courts: Provided that when the sumner is put to trouble to apply for a soldier, the contemner shall pay him twopence for every parish through which he shall travel, before such contemner be released out of the soldier's custody †.

Curates.

ALL curates hired from easter to easter, or longer, shall give a quarter of a year's warning before easter

day to his master, in case his will be to depart, and go away from him: and the master shall give the like warning to his curate, in case he will put him away. Provided the ordinary shall place and displace all such curates at his discretion *.

Deemster.

IN great matters and high points, the lieutenant, or any of the council for the time being, to take unto them the deemsters, with the advice of the elders of the land, to deem the law truly to the parties, as they will answer thereof and all doubtful points to be registered up in the treasury, that they may be ready when the like chance falleth, that one doom be not given at one time, and another contrary †.

Deposition.

No copy of a single deposition shall be given from the rolls-office, without the whole depositions +.

Dogs.

FORASMUCH as there are daily complaints of great losses and nuisances occasioned by dogs worrying sheep and lambs, and doing other damages in this isle, and that the legal relief against the same hath been found very dilatory and insufficient; for the more speedy and effectual remedy thereof, it is enacted, That after the publication of this act, upon the first instance and complaint of any damage being done by any dog belonging to or harboured by any person, and proof thereof made

*Book of Spiritual Laws. + Ordinance 1422. ‡ A. T. 1734.

by the testimony of one single witness, or by strong circumstances, before the deemster, who is hereby authorized to take cognizance thereof, or to direct the same to be inquired into by a jury, as he shall, in his discretion, think most proper, and afterwards to judge of the fact, and award the damages, and thereupon to grant execution against persons keeping, harbouring, or encouraging such dogs in or about their houses that shall appear to have done such damages as aforesaid, for the said loss and damage, estimating a mutton after the rate of five shillings, a sheep four shillings, and a yearling and a lamb at three shillings severally; and also order the said dogs to be forthwith hanged or destroyed. And if the fact cannot be made plainly to appear against such dogs in manner aforesaid, but there shall be circumstances that any dog complained of is any way suspicious of the fact, or annoying the high roads, then the deemster may lawfully order such dogs to be forthwith hanged or destroyed *.

Every person having, keeping, or making use of any greyhound, or half-bred greyhound, pointer, or spaniel, for coursing, pointing, setting, or shooting, or any dog fit for, or that shall be made use of for any of the like purposes, shall yearly pay the sum of six shillings for each and every such dog, and for each and every hound, beagle, or other dog, fit and proper for hunting, or which shall be made use of for that purpose, three shillings yearly, and for every other dog not used for diversion, or fit for killing game, sixpence yearly: which sums are to be collected yearly by the parochial surveyors of the highways, between the first day of September, and the first day of March in each year, and the said surveyors shall make a true account in writing of such dogs in their respective parishes, and by whom kept, and shall deliver the same with the sums collected, to the clerk of the rolls, upon the first or second day of

* A. T. 1758.

May in each year; and they are thereupon to be allowed and paid a shilling in the pound out of such money, for collecting and paying in the same, and the remainder thereof to be added to the fund, arising from publichouse licences, and applied to the use of the highways; and if any doubt or dispute arise concerning the levying and collecting of the said sums, the same shall be heard and finally determined by and before a deemster *.

Drunkard.

As often as any man or woman shall be found drunk, the party so offending, if not of ability to pay a fine, shall, for the first offence, be punished in the stocks; for the second, be tied to the whipping-stocks; and for the third, be flogged therein t.

Embargo.

No order, precept, or command, prohibiting the importation or exportation of any foreign goods, or any goods of the growth, produce, or manufacture of this island, shall be granted or made without the consent of the governor, council, deemsters, and keys of the said isle: Provided, that if it appears upon any just complaint made to the governor, that the public want corn or other necessaries by too great an exportation, or suffer by a more than usual importation of any goods or merchandize, then the governor is to call the council, deemsters, and keys to consult and consider of the same, and give orders therein according as they shall see most necessary for the public good of the island ‡.

*A. T. 1776. + Ord. 1610.

A. T. 1737.

Execution.

WHEN any action is recovered, the moar shall go to his house who is judged to make amends for any trespass committed between party and party, and shall deliver sufficient stress or double within fourteen days after judgment is given; and the said stress to be called at the church three several Sundays together: and if he that oweth it do not come and loose it upon the fourth Sunday or sooner, the officer may sell it lawfully, and the party loseth it for ever, having the overplus paid back to him *.

Whenever any coroner or lockman shall sell pawn goods, or goods taken in execution under any decree or execution whatever, by public cant or auction, he shall have and be allowed for his extraordinary trouble, loss of time, and expences, a shilling out of every pound, to be retained out of the said goods, exclusive of the creditor's debt, and the former fees and all other charges attending; which poundage is to be regulated by the debt in execution: and in like manner to be allowed upon the sale of any goods by auction under any interlocutory order of the court of chancery, one shilling in the pound of the produce thereof t.

Fees.

THE fees allowed in legal proceedings by the act of Tynwald of 1734, being under the consideration of the legislature, on account of their inadequacy to the times, they are therefore here omitted.

Journies and attendance are to be paid for over and

* Cust. Laws, 1577.

+ A. T. 1748.