Page:Ruffhead - The Statutes at Large - vol 2.djvu/44

6 and used within the Counties of this Realm, and taken before Sheriffs for the time being, in their Counties severally, Under-Sheriffs, their Clerks, Bailiffs,- and Ministers, at their Tourns or Law-Days, holden before them severally in the Counties, which Indictments and Presentments be oftentimes affirmed by Jurors having no Conscience, nor any Freehold, and little Goods, and often by the said Sheriffs menial Servants and ailiffs, and their Under-Sheriffs, by which Indictments and Presentments the said lawful liege People be attached and arrested by their Bodies, mi put in Prison by the said Sheriffs, Under-Sheriffs, their Clerks, Bailiffs, and Ministers, to the great Loss of their Goods ; and they so being in Prison by the said Sheriffs, Under-Sheriffs, their Clerks, Bailiffs, and their Ministers, are constrained to make grievous Fines and Ransoms, and levy of them great Fines and Amerciaments for the said Indictments and Presentments, in great Hindrance and utter Undoing of the said liege People ; (2) after which Fines, Ransoms, and Amerciaments so rated and levied by the said Sheriffs, Under-Sheriffs, Clerks, Bailiffs, and their Ministers, the People aforesaid be inlarged out of Prison, and the said Indictments and Presentments be imbezilled and withdrawn"(3) Our said Lord the King considering the Premisses, by the Advice and Assent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and at the Request of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, and by Authority of the same, hath ordained and etablished, That all Manner Indictments and Presentments that shall be taken hereafter before any of his said Sheriffs of his Counties for the time being, their Under-Sheriffs, Clerks, Bailiffs, or Ministers, at their Tourns or Law-Days before mentioned, they nor any of them shall have Power or Authority to attach, arrest, or put in Prison, or to levy any Fines or Amerciaments of any Person or Persons so indicted or presented, by reason or colour of any such Indictment or Presentment taken or to be taken before them or any of them, nor to make or take of any such Person or Persons so indicted or presented, any Fine or Ransom ; (4) but that the said Sheriffs, and their Under-Sheriffs, Clerks, or Bailiffs, and their Ministers, shall bring, present, and deliver all such Indictments and resentments taken before them, or any of them, in their Tourns or Law-Days aforesaid, to the Justices of Peace, at their next Sessions of the Peace that shall be holden in the County or Counties where such Indictments or Presentments shall be taken, before the said Justices of such County or Counties for the time being : (5) And if any of the said Sheriffs, Under-Sheriffs, Clerks, Bailiffs, and their Ministers, do not bring, deliver, and present all such Indictments or Presentments so taken before them and every of them in their Tourns, or Law-Days, as before is recited, at such Sessions of the Peace, before the said Justices of Peace, that then all such Sheriffs, Under-Sheriffs, Clerks, Bailiffs, and their Ministers, and every of them that so shall fail in bringing, delivering, and presenting of such Indictments or Presentments, shall forfeit to the King Forty Pounds at every Time that they or any of them doth the contrary : (6) And that the said Justices of Peace shall have Power and Authority to award Process upon all such Indictments and Presentments, as the Law doth require, and deliver in like Form, as if the said Indictments and Present