seer; and if any such place be added tó a union (§ 5), the overseers to act as guardians until there shall be rate-payers qualified to elect a guardian, but no paid overseer is to act in such capacity. Where such extra-parochial place has belonging to it a church or chapel of the Church of England, the bishops may authorise (§§ 9 and 10) the publication of banns and the solemnisation of marriage therein, and all provisions as to keeping the marriage registers are to be applicable to such churches or chapels. **The foregoing are the only Acts of general interest passed in this short session. The others were chiefly continuance Acts, or for temporary financial supplies. We give their titles: MEMORANDUM. [The following List contains the Titles of the Public Acts of the Session not included in the foregoing Abstracts.] 1. To amend the Act for limiting the time of service in the Royal Marine Forces. 2. To facilitate the appointment of Chief Constables for adjoining counties, and to confirm appointments of Chief Constables in certain cases. 3. To confirm certain provisional orders of the General Board of Health applying the Public Health Act, 1848, to the districts of Ipswich, Oldbury, Stroud, Llangollen, and Dukinfield; and for altering the constitution of the Local Board for the Main Sewerage district of Wisbech and Walsoken. 4. To enable the subjects of the Ionian States to hold Military and Naval Commissions under the Crown. 7. To indemnify such persons in the United Kingdom as have omitted to qualify themselves for Offices and Employments, and to extend the time limited for those purposes respectively. 8. To continue appointments under the Act for consolidating the Copyhold and Inclosure Commissions, and for completing Proceedings under the Tithe Commutation Acts. 9. For settling aud securing an annuity on the Right Honourable Charles Shaw Lefevre, in consideration of his eminent services. [4000l. a-year, to be abated one-half in case of his holding office.] 10. To continue certain temporary provisions concerning Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in England. 11. To amend the Commissioners of Supply (Scotland) Act, 1856. 12. To amend an Act of 9 Geo. IV. cap. 82, intituled "An Act to make provision for the Lighting, Cleansing, and Watching of Cities, Towns Corporate, and Market Towns in Ireland, in certain cases." 13. For punishing Mutiny and Desertion, and for the better Payment of the Army and their Quarters. 14. For the Regulation of Her Majesty's Royal Marine Forces while on shore. 17. For raising the sum of 21,049,700l. by Exchequer Bills, for the service of the year 1857. 18. To continue the Act for charging the Maintenance of certain Paupers upon the Union Funds. 20. To apply a sum out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year 1857, and to appropriate the Supplies granted in this Session of Parliament. ABSTRACTS OF IMPORTANT PUBLIC ACTS PASSED IN THE FIRST SESSION OF THE SEVENTEENTH PARLIAMENT OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. TRANSPORTATION AND PENAL SERVITUDE. An Act to amend the Act of the 16 and 17 Victoria, cap. 95, to substitute JOINT STOCK COMPANIES' ACT, 1857. [20 and 21 Victoriæ, cap. 14.-July 13, 1857.] An Act to amend the Joint Stock Companies' Act, 1856 (cap. 47). Many of the amendments of this Act relate to the officials; the more interesting clauses are-§ 3, by which more than twenty persons carrying on trade in partnership, who are not registered under this or the previous Act, or who are not incorporated, or not engaged in working mines subject to the jurisdiction of the Stannaries, are declared severally liable for the total debts of the partnership; but the Registrar (§ 4), on the payment of 5s., is to give a certificate of incorporation if applied for. Under § 11, when a winding-up order has been issued, the official liquidator may obtain a warrant from the Court for the arrest of any shareholder of whom there is probable cause to suspect he is about to abscond, or to remove or conceal his property, and books, papers, moneys, and other property, may be seized; but such shareholder (§ 12) may apply to the Court for his discharge, and on showing cause, the Court may make such order as it shall think just. Calls (§ 13) are made specialty debts. When a Company is being wound up voluntarily (§ 17), and the whole or any portion of its property is about to be sold to another Company registered under this Act, the liquidators, with the sanction of the Company by whom they were appointed, may accept shares of the purchasing Company as payment, for the purpose of distribution among the shareholders of the Company being wound up; but any shareholder objecting may, on giving notice, insist on having the amount of his shares paid in money at such price as may be agreed upon by arbitration before the Company is dissolved. By § 29 "every Company consisting of seven or more shareholders, having a capital of fixed amount, divided into shares, also of fixed amount, duly constituted by law prior to the passing of this Act, and not being a Company hereby required to be registered, may at any time hereafter, upon compliance with the provisions of the Joint Stock Companies' Act, 1856, 1857, register itself as a Company under such Acts, with or without limited liability; subject to this proviso, that no company shall be registered as a limited Company unless either the liability of the shareholders is already limited to the amount of the unpaid calls on their shares, or an assent to its being so registered has been given by three-fourths in number and value of such of its shareholders as may have been present, personally or by proxy in cases where proxies are allowed by the regulations of the Company, at some general meeting summoned for that purpose." This Act and the previous one is to be read as one Act under the title of Joint Stock Companies' Act, 1856, 1857. COMMONS INCLOSURE. [20 and 21 Victoriæ, cap. 20.—August 10, 1857.] An Act to authorise the Inclosure of certain Lands, in pursuance of a Special Report of the Commissioners for England and Wales. The second general Inclosure Act for the year contains the following eighteen places : Cambridgeshire-Grunty Fen. Cheshire-Cuddington. CornwallCallington. Devonshire-Parracombe; Yalberton Tor. Glamorganshire-Coedpenmain; Hirwain Common; Saint Lythans Down. Hampshire-Wolverton. Hertfordshire-Little Hormead and Layston. Oxfordshire-Bigmore Common and Pound Common; Rotherfield Greigs and Rotherfield Peppard; Stokenchurch. WarwickshireCoventry, No. 2. Westmoreland-Great Musgrave; Hillbeck. shire-Hartlington Moor; Kirk Hammerton. York BURIAL OF DEAD WITHIN THE CITY OF LONDON. [20 and 21 Victoriæ, cap. 35.-August 10, 1857.] An Act to amend an Act passed in the 15 and 16 Victoria (cap. 85), intituled An Act to amend the Laws concerning the Burial of the Dead in the Metropolis,' so far as relates to the City of London and the Liberties thereof. This Act is to regulate the fees for burials in the new cemetery of the City of London at Little Ilford. It repeals so much of the former Act, so far as relates to the city parishes, as requires the consent of the bishop to the registration of fees; it gives power to the Commissioners of the Burial Board to fix the amount of the various fees for interment or for the liberty to erect monuments, &c., and, subject to the approval of vestries, to fix the fees, if any, payable to the sextons and clerks of the city parishes; and a schedule fixes the fees payable to incumbents for burials from their parishes, and for each burial in consecrated ground, for burial in a catacomb, 15s.; in a brick vault, 10s.; in a brick grave, 7s. 6d.; in a private grave, 5s.; in a common grave, 2s. 6d.; in a pauper grave, 2s. 6d. SUPERANNUATION ACT AMENDMENT. [20 and 2 Victoriæ, cap. 37.-August 17, 1857.] An Act to Repeal the 27th Section of the Superannuation Act, 1834 (cap. 24). By this Act the deductions for the Superannuation Fund from the salaries of officers in the civil service of Government are to cease from June 20, 1857. INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS. [20 and 21 Victoriæ, cap. 48.-August 17, 1857.] An Act to make better Provision for the Care and Education of Vagrant, Destitute, and Disorderly Children, and for the Extension of Industrial Schools. The short title of this Act, by § 1, is declared to be the 'Industrial Schools Act, 1857. A definition of terms is given in § 2, among which a 'child' is defined as being any boy or girl who, in the opinion of the justices, is above seven and under fourteen years of age; and 'parent' is any person legally liable to maintain a child. By §3 the Committee of Privy Council on Education are empowered to certify any industrial school under this Act, but not both under this Act and that for youthful offenders (17 and 18 Vict., cap. 86); an inspector is to examine and report on them annually (§ 4), and the certificate may be withdrawn if not properly conducted. Children taken into custody for vagrancy (§ 5) may be sent by the justice, in case the parent or proper guardian of the child cannot be immediately found, to any certified industrial school willing to receive it, for any period not exceeding a week, while inquiries are made; and after due inquiry (§ 5) may either discharge the child altogether, or, if the parent or guardian be found, deliver it up to them on receiving an assurance in writing that they will be responsible for the good behaviour of the child for any period_not exceeding twelve months; and in default of such assurance, and on conviction of the child, may order the child to be sent for such period as they think necessary to any certified industrial school willing to receive it, selecting a school conducted on the principles of the religious persuasion to which the parent of the child, in the opinion of the judge, shall belong, if any such school exists in the county or any adjoining county. If, after such assurance as has been mentioned, the child is again convicted, the person giving such assurance may be fined in any sum not exceeding 40s. if the vagrancy has been occasioned by their neglect. The time passed in any such school (§ 8) is not to be in the computation of time under 'The Poor Removal Act' (9 and 10 Vict., cap. 66). If any parent or guardian ($ 9), on religious or other grounds, wishes to select a school, he may do so by paying any expenses incurred thereby. A book is to be kept in every industrial school (§ 10) in which the religious denomination of each child is to be entered, and certain hours are to be fixed in which a minister of the religious persuasion, upon the representation of the parent or guardians, may visit such school for the purpose of giving religious instruction. The magistrate's order in duplicate (§ 11) to be sufficient warrant for the detention of a child. On application to the justices of any county within which the school is situated of the parent or guardian (§ 12), a child may be discharged before the expiration of the term for which he had been sent, if the justices are satisfied that a suitable employment in life has been provided for it, or (§ 13) upon good security being given. No child (§ 14) is to be detained in any industrial school against its own consent beyond the age of fifteen years. On application of the manager of any industrial school, the parent may be summoned before the justices, and examined as to his circumstances (§ 15), who at their discretion may order a weekly payment of not more than 3s. until the child attain the age of fifteen years, and in default of payment for four teen days the same to be recovered by legal process; but on application of either parent or manager, the sum payable (§ 16) may be increased or diminished, or the parent may be wholly released. The manager may (§ 17) allow a child to sleep out of the house in the dwelling of its parent or of any respectable person, and may revoke such permission. Children absconding (§ 18) may be sent back by an order of the justices; and (§ 19) persons harbouring any child that has absconded, or inducing it to abscond, are subjected to a penalty not exceeding 40s., to be recovered by summary proceedings. In serving of notices under this Act (§ 20), delivery at the last known place of abode to be deemed sufficient service. Guardians of Unions (§ 21) may contract with the managers of industrial schools for the maintenance and education of pauper children. The attested copy of the certificate (§ 22) is to be deemed sufficient proof of the constitution of an industrial school, and the justice's order, with a memorandum on it by the manager or matron of the school, sufficient proof of the identity of a child. When the certificate of a school is withdrawn (§ 23), notice is to be given in The Gazette. The Act does not extend to Scotland or Ireland and a number of forms are added in schedules. JOINT BANKING COMPANIES. [20 and 21 Victoriæ, cap. 49.-August 17, 1857.] An Act to amend the Law relating to Banking Companies. This Act provides that no Banking Company whatever shall be registered under the Limited Liability Act; but where consisting of more than seven persons, must register under this Act if formed under the Joint-Stock Companies Acts 1856 and 1857. A neglect to register renders the Companies unable to sue either in law or equity, or to make any dividend payable; and every director or manager becomes liable to a penalty of 51. per day while unregistered, to be recovered by any person, whether a shareholder or not. Existing Banking Companies, who are not hereby required to be registered, are permitted to register themselves with the consent of a majority of the shareholders at a general meeting held for the purpose, and no fees are to be taken for registering any Company under this Act which was in existence previous to its passing. The relations of the shareholders to each other, and their liabilities, are not affected by this Act, and suits and actions may be continued. Several Acts or parts of Acts relating to the formation of Banking Companies are repealed, and it is enacted that any number of persons not exceeding ten may carry on a banking business in partnership in all respects the same as any number of persons not exceeding six could do before the passing of this Act. § 13, on the formation of new Banking Companies, is the most important. It provides that " seven or more persons associated for this purpose may register themselves under this Act as a Company other than a limited Company, subject to this condition, that the shares into which the capital |