Acts, and provides for the funds out of which their expenses shall be defrayed. It contains further provisions, which will be hereafter adverted to. The Sanitary Act, 1866, (29 & 30 Vict. c. 90, Part II.,) amends the Nuisances Removal Acts in certain important particulars, and will also be adverted to hereafter. But in this place it is important to observe that the 46th section of the Act incorporates nuisance authorities to be designated by such names as they shall usually bear or adopt, with power to sue and be sued in such names, and to hold lands for the purposes of the several Acts conferring powers on the nuisances authority. By the 14th section the expression "Nuisances Removal Acts," shall mean the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, and Part II. of the 29 & 30 Vict. c. 90, i.e., ss. 14 to 34. By s. 15 "nuisance authority" shall mean any authority empowered to execute the Nuisances Removal Acts. Meaning of Terms. The second section of 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, enacts as follows: In this Act the following words and expressions have the meanings by this section hereinafter assigned to them, unless such meaning be repugnant to or inconsistent with the context; (that is to say,) the word "place" includes any city, borough, district under the Public Health Act, parish, township, or hamlet, or part of any such city, borough, district, town, parish, township, or hamlet; the word "guardians" includes the directors, wardens, overseers, governors, or other like officers having the management of the poor for any parish or place where the matter or any part of the matter requiring the cognizance of any such officer arises; the word "borough," and the expressions "mayor, aldermen, and burgesses," "council," and 66 borough fund," have respectively the same meaning as in the Acts for the regulation of municipal corporations, and shall also respectively mean, include, and apply to any royal borough, royal town, or other town having a warden, high bailiff, borough-reeve, or other chief officer, and burgesses, or inhabitants, however designated, associated with him in the government or management thereof, or any town or place having a governing body therein in the nature of a corporation or otherwise, and to the chief officers and governing bodies of such boroughs, towns, and places, and to the funds and property under the management of or at the disposal of such chief officers and governing bodies; the expression "Improvement Act" means an Act for regulating and managing the police of, and for draining, cleansing, paving, lighting, watching, and improving a place, and an Act for any of those the word "owner" includes any person purposes; receiving the rents of the property in respect of which that word is used from the occupier of such property on his own account, or as trustee or agent for any other person, or as receiver or sequestrator appointed by the Court of Chancery or under any order thereof, or who would receive the same if such property were let to a tenant; the word "premises" extends to all messuages, lands, or tenements, whether open or inclosed, whether built on or not, and whether public or private; the word "parish" includes every township or place separately maintaining its poor, or separately maintaining its own highways; the expression " quarter sessions" means the court of general or quarter sessions of the peace for a county, riding, or division of a county, city, or borough; the word "person," and words applying to any person or individual, apply to and include corporations, whether aggregate or sole; and the expression "two justices," shall, in addition to its ordinary signification, mean one stipendiary or police magistrate acting in any police court for the district (sec. 2). In this section the operative words are, "means," "includes," "extends," and "apply to." The effect of the word "means" is to limit, that of all the other words to enlarge the interpretation. Reg. v. Kershaw, 6 E. & B. 1007. In places where the Acts for the regulation of municipal corporations are in operation, the words of the second section, "borough," "mayor, aldermen, and burgesses," "council," "borough fund," are to have the meanings, and no other, which in those Acts they have. It is clear from the context that the expression "governing bodies" points at depositories of powers more large and general than are conferred by statute for a specific object only, such as the relief of the poor, the repair of the highways, and the like. An Union is not a "place" within the meaning of the Act. By s. 15 of 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, the several words used in that Act shall be construed in the same manner as is declared with reference to the same words in the above-cited Act, termed "The Nuisances Removal Act for England, 1855," and all the provisions therein contained, shall be applicable to the 23 & 24 Vict. c. 77, except so far as they are repealed thereby, or be inconsistent with anything therein provided. PART I. THE LOCAL AUTHORITY. Description of Nuisances that may be dealt with, p. 7. Constitution of the Local Authority, p. 13. Expenses, p. 13. Power of Entry for the Purposes of the Acts, p. 20. Power of Police with respect to Nuisances, p. 26. Disinfection, p. 28. Hospitals, &c., p. 30. Places for reception of Dead Bodies, 31. Quarantine, p. 33. Cellar Dwellings, p. 34. Departing from the order observed in the Acts themselves, let us first discover the description of nuisances that may be dealt with under them. The eighth section of the 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, is in these words: The word "nuisances" under this Act shall include Any premises in such a state as to be a nuisance or injurious to health: Any pool, ditch, gutter, watercourse, privy, urinal, cesspool, drain, or ashpit so foul as to be a nuisance or injurious to health: Any animal so kept as to be a nuisance or injurious to health: |