conviction of any such offender shall not be received in evidence in any action or suit at law or in equity against him or his sureties. the affairs of same. XXV. Any Savings Bank established under this Act, may Provision for be closed before the time fixed for that purpose by the Ins- winding up trument of Association, under a By-law to be passed for that any Savings purpose, with the concurrence of thee fourths of the whole Bank and number of votes of the Stockholders therein, at a General closing the Meeting called expressly and in the manner provided by the By-laws of the Bank, for the purpose of considering the pro- General Meetpriety of closing the Bank, and the time at which the Bank ing for conshall be finally closed shall be fixed by such By-law, and shall sidering of such closing be not less than one year from the passing thereof; and if any such By-law be passed, and also if no such By-law be passed, Expiration of but the period for which such Bank is to continue according to the Instrument of Association be within one year of expiring, then in either case the Bank shall receive no further deposits, and the Directors shall give notice that the Bank will finally close on the day appointed for that purpose, and that no further Notice that no deposits will be received, and shall by such notice require all de- further Deposits will be positors to withdraw their deposits on or before the commen- received, &c. cement of the six months next before the day appointed for the final closing of the Bank, and all interest shall cease on any deposits which are not withdrawn pursuant to such notice; term of Association. money. Trustees for and the Directors shall proceed to convert all the securities Conversion o held by the Bank into money, and to discharge all liabilities securities into of the Bank, and finally to close all the business thereof, dividing the money which shall remain, after discharging all its liabilities, among the Stockholders, in proportions to their respective shares in the Stock of the Bank: and notwithstand- Directors to ing the arrival of the time which shall have been appointed for remain as the final closing of the Bank, the Directors in office at the time winding up shall remain in office as Trustees, to complete and close the affairs. business of the Bank, and they or their survivors or survivor shall as such Trustees have, for that purpose only, all the Delivery of powers hereby vested in the Directors, and such powers may securities in be exercised by any majority of them or of the survivors of hands of Rethem, and the Receiver General, being satisfied that all the Ceiver Genliabilities of the Bank have been discharged, or that such as are undischarged amount only to a certain sum, may deliver up to the Directors or Trustees, the money or debentures in his hands and belonging to the Bank, or such amount thereof as will leave in his hands no more than the amount of such undischarged debts. eral. XXVI. Any failure on the part of any Savings Bank estab- Provision for lished under this Act to meet its engagements to or with regard the case of the to any depositor, shall have, to all intents and purposes, the failure of any Savings Bank, same effect as regards the closing of the Bank and the other and what shall proceedings to be had under the next preceding Section and be deemed the powers and duties of the Directors, as if a By-law had been such a failure. passed 25* Duty of Receiver General in such case. Directors con. Act to be jointly and severally liable for all damages passed in the manner required by the said Section, providing for the closing of the Bank at the end of one year from the day on which such failure shall take place, and the Directors shall act accordingly; and in such case it shall be the duty of the Receiver General, and he shall have full power and authority to cause the moneys or securities in his hands and belonging to the Bank, and the interest thereon, to be applied solely to the payment of the sums due to depositors in the Bank in equal proportions, and for this purpose he may sell, dispose of, and convert into money any of the said securities, and if he shall see fit to deliver any of such moneys or securities to the Directors of the Bank for the purpose of being applied as aforesaid, he shall cause good and sufficient security to be given by Bond to Her Majesty, that such moneys or securities shall be faithfully so applied, and upon any breach of the con dition of the said Bond, the same shall be enforced on behalf of the Crown, and the sum recovered shall be applied first in aid of the funds of the Bank to pay the claims of depositors therein, and the remainder to the public uses of the Province. XXVII. If the Directors of any Savings Bank established travening this under this Act shall wilfully or knowingly commit, or cause or allow to be committed, any contravention of this Act, or shall be guilty of any neglect of the duties hereby imposed on them, the Directors then in office shall (in addition to any other penalty or liability they may thereby incur) be jointly and severally responsible and liable for any loss or damage which any depositor or other person may sustain, by reason of such contravention or neglect of duty, saving always the recourse of any of the said Directors who shall not have participated in such contravention or neglect of duty, against those who have so participated, or any of them. Officers, &c., to be com petent wit XXVIII. Any officer or servant of any Savings Bank established under this Act, or any Stockholder thereof, shall be a nesses, unless competent witness in any suit, action or proceeding by or against such Bank or under this Act, provided he be not otherwise incompetent. otherwise disqualified. XXIX. Service of process or of any notice or other document on any Savings Bank established under this Act, may be validly made by leaving a duly certified copy thereof, with any Director or Officer of the Bank or any grown person in the employ of the Bank, at the place at which its business is carried on, except only in cases where, from the nature of the process, notice or document, service thereof ought to be made on some particular Member or Officer of the Corporation in person; but any process, notice, or document which, in the case of a private party, might be validly transmitted to such party by mail, may, with like effect, be transmitted by mail to such Bank by its corporate name, addressed to its place of business as aforesaid. XXX. The validity of any thing done by the Directors of Irregularity in any Savings Bank established under this Act or any of them, election, &c., shall not be affected by any irregularity or invalidity in the not to invalielection or appointment of the Directors or any of them, pro- Directors. vided such thing be done before such irregularity or invalidity shall have been declared by some competent tribunal, and the office of such Director or Directors declared vacant. date acts of XXXI. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to give any Business of Savings Bank, established under it, the right of issuing Bank Bank to be Notes, or of carrying on the business of Banking, or any kind strictly that authorized by of business whatever, except such as is expressly authorized by this Act. this Act or belongs legitimately to the operations of a Savings Bank, but no such Bank shall be bound to receive or to retain any money offered in deposit, or deposited by any person, if the Directors shall think proper to refuse to receive or to retain the same. Banks esta may execute and take XXXII. No Savings Bank established under the provisions Provisions as of the Act herein first above cited and repealed, in operation, at to Savings the time this Act shall come into force, shall be bound by the pro- blished under visions of this Act; and the Act first above cited and repealed the Act hereby shall continue in force seven years from the passing of this Act, repealed. as regards every such Bank which shall not avail itself of the provisions of this Act in the manner hereinafter mentioned; Pro- Proviso: vided always, that if the Trustees of any such Bank as afore- Trustees of said, in office at the time when this Act shall come into any such Bank force, or any majority of them either alone or jointly with any an Instrument other person or persons, shall, with the consent of three fourths of Association of the depositors in the said Bank, such consent to be given advantage of monthly by vote at a meeting called for that purpose, or by this Act. the signature of each depositor, and within six months after this Act shall come into force, execute an instrument of Association under the provisions of this Act, agreeing thereby to continue and carry on the said Bank as a Savings Bank under this Act, by the name which it bore under the Act hereby repealed, and to assume all the liabilities of the said Bank of what kind soever, and shall comply with all the requirements of this Act, (except as hereinafter provided with regard to the conversion of the securities then held by such Bank into such securities as may be held by a Savings Bank under this Act), then the Trustees and other parties who shall execute such Instrument of Association, and their successors, shall by the name so taken be a Corporation and Savings Bank under this Act, to all intents and purposes whatsoever, and subject to all the provisions thereof, and all the property and claims to property of the Savings Bank established as aforesaid under the Act hereby repealed, shall be transferred to and vested in the said Corporation and Savings Bank established under this Act, which shall be held to be one and the same with the Savings Bank established under the Act hereby repealed, and shall be subject to Proviso: to securities not to apply to such Bank during one year. Proviso: Surplus funds to all the liabilities thereof; Provided always, that the proviLimitation as sions of this Act limiting the securities which a Savings Bank established under it may lawfully hold, shall not, during one year from the time this Act shall come into force, apply to any Savings Bank continued under this Section, but such Bank shall have the said year or such longer period as the Governor in Council shall by order in Council allow to convert its securities into money or such securities as may be lawfully held by a Savings Bank under this Act: And provided always, that any existing Savings Bank which shall take advantage of this Act, shall afterconverting the assets of such institution into such securities as are required by this Act, divide any surp us they may have of such assets beyond the liabilities of such Savings Bank, amongst the depositors in such Savings Bank at the time of the passing of this Act, and all other persons who have been depositors in the said Bank, in proportion to the amounts respectively deposited by them in such Bank; and such portions of the said surplus so divided as shall not be claimed within three years from the passing of this Act, by the parties entitled thereto, shall be distributed amongst such charitable institutions as the Directors may select for that purpose. to be divided among Depo sitors. And if not claimed. Governor may appoint an Inspector or Savings Their duties. Report to the any contra vention of the Law be discovered. XXXIII. The Governor may appoint an Inspector or Inspectors of Savings Banks, who shall have all the powers of CommisInspectors of sioners for inquiring into matters connected with the public business, and may examine any party under oath to be administered by any Commissioner: and it shall be the duty of each Inspector to visit each Savings Bank in that portion of the Province which shall be assigned to him, at least twice in each year, and to examine thoroughly the state of its affairs, for which purpose those in charge of the books and papers of the Bank shall allow him free access thereto, and all information which he may require; and if any Inspector shall find that the provisions of this Act (or of the Act cited in the first section if the Bank be subject to that Act) have been contravened by or in respect of any Bank, or if the state of its affairs shall be such as to endanger in the opinion of the Inspector the safety of the Depositors, or if any necessary information be refused him, he shall report the facts to the Governor, who shall by Order in Council, forbid the receiving of any further deposits by such Bank after the publication of such order in the Canada Gazette; and the Governor by any Order in Council, may either such Report. remove the prohibition to receive deposits, or confirm the same and order the affairs of the Bank to be wound up, in which latter case the Bank shall receive no more deposits, and shall be close and otherwise dealt with in the manier provided in this Act, for winding up the affairs of any Bank established, under Penalty for this Act and if any deposit be received after the publication of contravening such Order in Council forbidding the receiving of deposits, every Director and Trustee of the Bank shall be personally liable to the Depositors for the principal and interest of such deposit, unless he shall have protested against the receiving of deposits Order upon such order. and and published such protest in some newspaper published in or near the Bank's place of business, within forty-eight hours after the date of the publishing of the Order in Council not to receive deposits. XXXIV. The Parliament of this Province may amend this Parliament Act in any way, or make any further provision for enforcing may amend its enactments, without its being deemed an infringement of this Act, &c. the rights of any Savings Bank established under it or of the Stockholders therein. XXXV. Nothing in this Act shall apply to the Montreal Pro- Montreal Provident and Savings Bank, and the Act herein first above cited vident and shall remain in force as regards the said Bank, except in so far Savings Bank as it may have been altered or affected by other Acts specially by this Act. relating to the said Bank. CAP. XCVII. An Act to regulate proceedings in Appeals from the decisions of Justices of the Peace in Summary Convictions. [Assented to 30th May, 1855.] not affected WHEREAS it is necessary with a view to prevent frivo- Preamble. lous appeals from the decisions of Justices of the Peace in matters connected with summary convictions, further to regulate the proceedings on appeals from the decisions of Justices of the Peace in cases of summary convictions: Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's Most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Legislative Council and of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, constituted and assembled by virtue of and under the authority of an Act passed in the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain. and Ireland, and intituled, An Act to re-unite the Provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, and for the Government of Canada, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, as follows: ment shail Lot technical ob I. In any appeal to a Superior Court from the conviction, In appeals judgment or decision given by any one or more Justices of the under 14 & 15 Peace under the provisions of an Act passed in the Session V. c. 95, judg held in the fourteenth and fifteenth years of Her Majesty's Reign, be given for intituled, An Act to facilitate the performance of the duties of Appellant on Justices of the Peace, out of Sessions, with respect to summary jections not convictions and orders, no judgment shall be given in favour of urged before the appellant if the appeal be based on an objection to any in- the Justice whose judg. formation, complaint or summons or to any Warrant to ap- ment is apprehend a defendant, issued upon any such information or pealed from, complaint for any alleged defect therein in substance or in form, and overruled by him. or for any variance between such information, complaint, summons or warrant and the evidence adduced on the part of the informant |