Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/328

196 shall have Power and Authority and are hereby empowered to review rehear reverse or affirm the said Judgments and Decrees.

A.D. 1698-9]

Whereas by a Clause in an Act made in the 22nd and 23rd Years of King 2, intituled An Act for laying Impositions on Proceedings at Law, it is enacted That in all Actions of Trespass, Assault and Battery, and other personal Actions, the Plaintiff in such Actions, in case the Jury shall find the Damages to be under the Value of forty Shillings, shall not recover or obtain more Costs of Suit than the Damages so found shall amount unto; which Clause having Reference to an Act made in the 43rd Year of Queen, for avoiding infinite Numbers of small and trifling Suits commenced in the Courts at Westminster, hath been understood to relate only to the said Courts; Be it therefore 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 as well the said Clause, and all the Powers and Provisions thereby, or by any other Law now in Force, made for Prevention of Frivolous and Vexatious Suits in Law commenced in the Courts at Westminster, shall from and after the first Day of May which shall be in the Year One thousand and seven hundred, be extended to, and be of the same Force and Efficacy in all such Suits, to be commenced or prosecuted in the Court of Great Sessions for the Principality of , the Court of Great Sessions for the County Palatine of Chester, the Court of Common Pleas for the County Palatine of Lancaster, and the Court of Pleas for the County Palatine of Durham, as fully and as amply as if the said Courts had been mentioned therein.

2. And whereas the holding of Persons inhabiting within the said Principality of and Counties Palatine, to special Bail in small Actions, is oppressive and Vexatious to the Subject: For Remedy whereof be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, That no Sheriff or other Officer within the said Principality or Counties