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10d. For ditto, drawn by four horses, the sum of 8d.: For ditto, drawn by three or two horses, the sum of 6d. For every chaise, chair, calash, or other carriage, drawn by one horse, the sum of 3d.; and for every horse, mule, or ass, not drawing, the sum of 1d.

"The said tolls are to be taken above and exclusive of all other tolls, and to be vested in the mayor, commonalty, and citizens, and disposed of for the purposes of this act. The commissioners on refusal of payment, may levy the same by distress, which may be sold after four days. The commissioners may also erect turnpikes, &c. to be vested in the mayor, &c. Tolls may be collected at the turnpikes already erected, but street tolls are to be paid but once on the same Sunday; and the commissioners may lease, &c. the tolls, and appoint officers who are to account upon oath, and refusing so to do, justices are to inquire into the default, and commit the offenders, until payment or composition be made; but the commissioners are to allow the officers salaries. The penalty on forcibly passing through the gates, &c. and in giving and receiving tickets, &c. to avoid payment of the tolls, is 40s. over and besides such damages and punishments the law subjects such offenders to. The tolls may likewise be farmed, and may be assigned for money borrowed: the assignments which are transferrable, to be entered in a book, and all creditors deemed equal in degree.

"All the monies to be raised, by virtue of this act, are vested in the mayor and commonalty, and to be applied to the purposes of this act, and to no other use or purpose whatsoever. The charges of procuring and passing this act, are to be paid out of the first monies which shall arise by virtue of it; and all writings that relate to the execution of this act, shall not be chargeable with stamps, or any duty whatsoever.

"The penalties and forfeitures are to be recovered by distress and sale of the offender's goods and chattels, by warrant under the hand and seal of one or more justices of the peace, and after rendering the overplus to the parties, whose goods and chattels shall be so distrained and sold, they

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shall be paid to the chamberlain of the said city, and be applied, the one half to the informer, and the other towards the purposes of this act; and in case of sufficient distress not found, the offenders may be committed to prison, for any space of time not exceeding thirty days, nor less than ten days.

"Proceedings are not to be quashed for want of form, nor removeable by Certiorari. No action shall be commenced against persons for any thing done in pursuance of this act, until twenty-one clear days notice shall be thereof given in writing to the commissioners clerk, or after sufficient satisfaction or tender thereof hath been made to the party aggrieved, or after six calendar months next after the fact committed, and the defendant may plead the general issue; and if judgment be given to them, they shall have treble

costs.

"The acts 22 and 23 Charles II. 3 William and Mary, and 10, 17 and 33 George II. are hereby in part repealed.

"And this act shall be deemed a public act, and taken notice of as such, by all judges, justices, &c. without specially pleading the same."

Another act was passed at the same time for widening the streets, &c. by which it was ordained that, "from and after the passing of this act, the court of mayor and aldermen to be holden in the outer chamber of the city, and hereby impowered to do all acts as they might lawfully do by virtue of the said recited act, and this act, and the provisions of the said recited act having been found to be defective, in cases where persons seized and possessed of, or interested, or claiming any interest in lands, tenements, or hereditaments, necessary to be purchased for the purposes of the said act, have not produced and evinced a clear title to their respective interests by them claimed, for remedy in the premises, a jury is to assess the value of the land, &c. and the purchase money being paid into the bank, in the name of the accomptant general, the premises thereupon are to be vested in the mayor, &c. and all claimants, by motion or petition to the court of Chancery, are entitled

to receive their rightful portion of the purchase money in a summary way of proceeding.

"And whereas the provisions made in and by the said recited act, for preventing the fatal effects of fire, within the city and liberties of London, has not been found sufficient to answer the purposes thereby intended, it is therefore hereby enacted, that all party walls which from and after the expiration of three calendar months next after the passing of this act, shall be erected or built within the said city, or liberties thereof, shall be two bricks and a half thick at least in the cellar story, and two bricks thick upwards to the top above the tiling; and to rise nine inches at least above the tiling of the roof, and that the same shall be built of stone, or of good sound hard well burned bricks, and none other; and also, that from and after the expiration of the said three calender months, no sort of linthaling, bond timber, or any other timbers whatsoever, except the timbers of the roof, the girders, and templets, not more than three feet in length under the ends of the said girders, the ends of the trimmers, and the ends of the joists shall be laid into the party-walls that may be erected and built within the said city and liberties, and that the ends of girders, ends of trimmers, and the ends of joists, lying within such party-walls, shall not exceed one foot, and that none of the girders, trimmers, or ends of joists in adjoining houses, shall meet or be laid opposite to each other, and that the sides thereof shall be at least nine inches distance from each other, and that in case the ends of joists shall happen to lie in the party-walls, then, instead of timber, linthaling scantlings of Portland stone, nine inches wide, and three inches thick, shall be laid in the party walls, upon which the ends of the joists shall rest; and if any persons shall offend in the premises, they shall forfeit for every such offence, the sum of forty pounds, to be recovered with costs of suit, by any who shall sue for the same; one moiety of such forfeiture, when recovered, to be paid and delivered to the treasurer of Christ Hospital, for the relief of the poor children brought up and maintained in that hospital, and the other moiety to the person who shall sue for the same."

On

On the 12th of May, an act passed for paving, &c. the Borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent. The preamble to this act sets forth, "That the several streets and lanes within the parishes of St. George, St. Saviour, St. Olave, St. John, and St. Thomas, and the parts of the parishes of Saint Mary, Newington, and Saint Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, which are called Blackman Street, Kent Street, Bermondsey Street, and a street called Snow's Fields, all in and near the town and borough of Southwark, in the county of Surrey, being in general very ill paved, cleansed, and not duly lighted and watched, and the present methods prescribed by the law for paving, cleansing, &c. the said streets, &c. being insufficient for those purposes; it is therefore hereby enacted, that the said several streets, &c. included in this act, shall for the purposes of this act be, and the same are hereby divided into two separate and distinct districts or divisions, viz. the parishes of St. George, St. Saviour, St. Mary, Newington, and so much of the high street of the said borough, as is in the parish of St. Olave, shall make one division, and shall be called the west division, and the other parts of the said parish of St. Olave, the parishes of St. John, and St. Thomas, and the parts of the said parish of St. Mary Magdalen, Bermondsey, shall be the other division, and be called the east division."

"The knights of the shire, the burgesses to serve in parliament for the borough of Southwark, the treasurer of St. Thomas's Hospital in the borough of Southwark, the treasurer of Guy's Hospital within the said borough, the bailiff of the borough of Southwark, and the comptroller of the Bridge Yard, all for the time being, together with severa others, inhabitants of the said parishes and places, are the constituted commissioners for putting this act into execution.”

"The knights of the shire for the county of Surrey, and the burgesses to serve in parliament for the borough of Southwark, the treasurers of St. Thomas's and Guy's Hospitals, the bailiff of the Borough, and the comptroller of the Bridge Yard, may act upon all occasions in the execution of this act in both divisions.

" No

"No person is capable, on penalty of fifty shillings, of acting as a commissioner in the execution of this act, unless in his own right, or in right of his wife, he is in the actual possession or receipt of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, of the clear yearly value of 50l. or possessed of, or entitled to, a personal estate, in the value of 1,000l.

"The regulations of this act are of a similar nature to those in the act for the city of London, and it need only be observed, that the rate is not to exceed in the whole the sum of two shillings in the pound in any one year; and that the property of the pavements, lamps, iron, timber, furniture, watch houses, turnpikes, toll houses, and of all other materials and things which shall be provided or made use of for the purposes of this act, are vested in the commissioners within their respective divisions for the time being, and they or any five or more of them, are authorized to bring any action in the name of any one or more of them, or to prefer indictments, against any person who shall take, or carry away, any or any part of such materials or things, or disturb them in the possession thereof."

This act was followed by one beneficial to the county of Essex, by which it was enacted, that the river Chelmer should be navigable from Maldon to Chelmsford.

The year 1766, was not productive of many circumstances more immediately connected with the internal concerns of London. It was, however, a year of interest in the great establishment of the nation; for it was now that the obnoxious American Stamp Act was discussed in parlia ment. The ultimate consequence was, the loss of the whole American territory, which a few years afterwards declared itself independent of the mother country.

The mismanagement of the persons intrusted with administration, had stimulated disaffection abroad, and induced distress at home. The exceeding high price of provision had urged the poor in several parts of the kingdom to commit riot and depredation; they dtroyed the flour mills, seized on the corn and other necessaries of life, which they sold at a moderate price, but gave the money to the owners.

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