Page:Petty 1851 The Down Survey.djvu/398

 accounts in Ireland, who are hereby authorized accordingly to state the same upon the said vouchers and oaths, using therein the strictest enquiry they can make to discover the truth of such debts, certificates, and vouchers, for which they are hereby authorized to administer an oath or oaths as they shall see cause; and having taken in their said vouchers, and transmitted them to the register for debentures, in like manner as they are by the Act for stating and determining the accounts of the soldiery appointed to do for those certificates, bills, or vouchers, upon which soldiers' accounts are to be stated, they are to give forth certificates or debentures under their hands and seals of what sums they find so to be due unto the said persons or any of them; and such their certificates being allowed by the commissioners of Parliament, they, the said commissioners of Parliament, are thereupon to set forth and make over unto them, their respective heirs, executors, or administrators, lands for the same, at the rate of four years' purchase for unplanted  lands, and six years' purchase for planted or tenanted lands, the same to be set out by survey to be taken upon oath, in which the houses, buildings, and timber are to be valued, and the lands rated as they were let for, or were worthy to be let in the year one thousand six hundred and forty. And the said lands and premises so set out to them or any of them are to be held and enjoyed by them in free and common socage, in like manner as the adventurers, officers, and soldiers are to hold their lands, and under such covenants and conditions as in this Act are prescribed for them, the said adventurers, and soldiers. Provided always, and be it enacted, that if any person or persons shall make, procure, or produce any false bill, certificate, or voucher, or shall make any false oath, to the prejudice of the Commonwealth, for or concerning any such debt, upon discovery and due conviction of the same, every such offender shall not only forfeit all arrears and debts due unto him or them (if any remain due at the time of the discovery), but shall be liable to imprisonment and sequestration of his or their estates to the use of the Commonwealth.

Provided that all and every the mines of silver and gold in and upon any of the said forfeited lands disposable by this Act, be reserved and exempted from sale, to be kept for the best advantage of the Commonwealth; and that all dues and rights payable out of any other mines be still paid and continued to the use of the publique, according to the laws and statutes in that behalf.

And be it further enacted and declared by this present Parliament, and the authority of the same, that it shall and may be lawful for all persons of what nation soever, professing the Protestant religion, to purchase or take to farm any of the aforesaid forfeited houses and lands in Ireland so set out, allotted, sold, demised or otherwise disposed of, or any other the forfeited lands in Ireland, not hereby disposed of, and to inhabit, dwell, and plant in and upon them or any of them, and in any of the counties, cities, or towns mentioned in this Act, to be peopled, inhabited, and dwelt in; and that all and every such person and persons shall have and enjoy all rights, priviledges, freedoms, and immunities which belong unto, or may lawfully be claimed by Protestants, natives of this Commonwealth, both in England and Ireland.