section 32
ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACT
All penalties and forfeitures incurred
within the
London area
were to be sued for (*a) in any of the Courts of
Record at Westminster (*b), by the President in the name of the Treasurer.
Those incurred elsewhere were to be sued for (*a) (court not stated *c) by
the county clerk for the county where the offence was committed. Actions
were to be taken within 6 months of the offence. When penalties or
forfeitures were recovered a part was to be paid "to the informer" and the
other part was to go "towards defraying the expenses attending the
execution of this Act".
[(*a) "shall and may be sued for and recovered". I
interpret the shall as conveying a responsibility to enforce the Act. In
the light of an
opinion given by the Attorney General to the Royal College
of Physicians in 1782
(see 2.5.4)
and its circumstances the Act has to be interpreted as
prohibiting enforcement by any one other than the Royal College of
Physicians and County Clerks
within their respective jurisdictions. Subsequent Acts stated such
prohibitions specifically.
(*b) THE WESTMINSTER COURTS: King's Bench, Common
Pleas and Chancery sat in Westminster Hall until 1825 and then in new
adjoining buildings until 1882 when the new courts of Justice were opened
in the strand. Courts of Record are those which have an official record of
proceedings, recognized as conclusive evidence of what has taken place
there. (
Bankes, F.R.
1958
p.332;
Archer, P.
1956
pp 28,99,100).
Dicken's London gives 1820 (not 1825) for the
move from Westminster Hall and gives a description. "The appearance of the
courts as they were held in the Hall up to the year 1820 is well
represented in the familiar drawing of Gravelot. Each court consisted of a
simple bench raised within a canopy and side curtain, a bench beneath for
the officers of the court, a bar within which were assembled the Queen's
Counsel, and outside stood the barristers and the public. The Chancery and
King's Bench were stationed at the extreme end of the Hall, opposite the
great door, near which, in the north-western corner, was the Common Pleas.
The rest of the Hall was taken up by the stalls of a booksellers,
fruiterers, and others, who plied their trade with as much zeal and noise
as did the advocates higher up the Hall. It is not quite known where the
Exchequer was; it was probably held, at least, ordinarily, in the Exchequer
Chamber, which was also used for the arguments of great questions of law."
(*c) In practice
probably at County Quarter Sessions. See
Recognizance, note *b]
MISCELLANEOUS
section 33
PROTECTION
In any action brought "for any thing done in pursuance of
this Act" the defendant/s could give the Act in evidence at the trial and,
if it appeared the thing was done in pursuance and by the authority of the
Act, the jury were directed to give the verdict for the defendant/s who
were to recover treble costs.
section 30
HOSPITALS
nothing in the Act was to extend to public hospitals.
section 34
The Act a public Act.