Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 11.djvu/856

814 XVIII. And be it hereby declared and enacted by the AuthotityAuthority [sic] aforesaid, That all the Laws now in being, for the due making of Bread, or to regulate the Price and Assize thereof, or to punish Persons who shall adulterate Meal, Flour, or Bread, do and shall stand and remain in full Force, in the Whole, and every Part thereof, not altered by this present Act.

XIX. And whereas Doubts have arisen, whether by the said Act, passed in the Thirty-first Year of the Reign of His late Majesty King George the Second, where the Chief Magistracy of any Borough or Corporation lies and is vested in Two Bailiffs, One of the said Bailiffs, in the Absence of the other, is, by the said Act, authorised and impowered to set an Assize on Bread; be it enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That in such Boroughs and Corporations, One of the said Bailiffs in the Absence of the other, shall be authorised and impowered to set an Assize on Bread, under the said Act, or this Act, and to do all other Matters and Things therein and hereby directed for setting the same.

the several Powers and Authorities granted by Charters to the United Company of Merchants of England trading to the East Indies have been found, by Experience, not to have sufficient Force and Efficacy to prevent various Abuses which have prevailed in the Government and Administration of the Affairs of the said United Company, as well at Home as in India, to the manifest Injury of the Publick Credit, and of the Commercial Interests of the said Company; and it is therefore become highly expedient that certain further Regulations, better adapted to their present Circumstances and Condition, should be provided and established: And whereas the electing and chusing of Directors of the said United Company every Year, in such Manner as at present prescribed by Charter, has not answered the good Purposes intended thereby, but, on the contrary, by limiting the Duration of their Office to so short a Time, evidently tends to weaken the Authority of the Court of Directors, and to produce Instability in the Councils and Measures of the said Company:’ May it therefore please Your Majesty that it may be enacted; and be it enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That at the next ensuing General Election of Directors of the said United Company, instead of an Election of Twenty-four Directors to serve for the Space of One Year only, there shall be chosen, in such Manner and Order as the Directors of the said United Company for the Time being shall appoint, Six Directors expressly for the Term of One Year, and Six other Directors for the Term of Two Years, and Six other Directors for the Term of Three Years, and the remaining Six Directors for the Term of Four Years, and not otherwise; and from thenceforth yearly and every Year, and at the Expiration of each and every of the said Terms respectively, Six new Directors, and no more, shall be chosen, from Time to Time, in the Place of such Directors whose Term shall have expired, and who are hereby declared incapable of being then rechosen; and at every subsequent Election, during the Continuance of the Charter of the said United Company, Six new Directors shall be chosen, and shall continue to be Directors for the Term of Four Years, and no longer, to be accounted from the Day on which the Election of such Directors was respectively made; and in case the Office and Authority of any such Director shall become void by Death, Removal, or otherwise, another shall be chosen from Time to Time in his Place, to serve as a Director during the Remainder of such Term for which the Person whose Office shall have become void was chosen, and no longer.

II. And it is hereby further enacted, That no Person or Persons whatsoever, employed in any Civil or Military Station, Office, or Capacity whatsoever, in the East Indies, or claiming or exercising any Power, Authority, or Jurisdiction therein, shall be capable of being appointed or chosen into the Office of Director, until such Person or Persons shall have returned to and been resident in England for the Space of Two Years; any Law or Usage to the Contrary notwithstanding.

III. And whereas it has been found, that the Provision made by the Charter of the Tenth Year of the Reign of King William the Third, under which, Persons possessed of Five hundred Pounds Stock are intitled to vote in General Courts, has been productive of much Inconvenience in the present Situation of the Company, and tends to promote the mischievous Practice of making collusive Transfers, which Practice hath not been sufficiently prevented by the Provision made by an Act of the Seventh Year of His present Majesty’s Reign, whereby the Right of voting is limited to Persons having been Six Calendar Months in Possession of their Stock; be it further enacted, That all Transfers of Stocks whatsoever made to any Person or Persons, in any fraudulent or collusive Manner, on Purpose to qualify him, her, or them, to give his, her, or their Vote or Votes, at any Election of Members of the Court of Directors, or in any General Court of the said United Company, (subject nevertheless to Conditions or Agreements, either Verbal or in Writing, to defeat or determine such Transfers, or to retransfer or return the same), shall be deemed and taken against those Persons who