Page:The statutes of Wales (1908).djvu/103

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INTRODUCTION
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Parliament relating to the revenue or excise, Wales was to be included where "England" or "Great Britain" was mentioned. This was re-enacted in 1890 by 53-54 Victoria, c. 21, s. 38 (1).

A.D. 1758.—In an Act of 1758 for the relief of debtors (32 George 2, c. 28), the 11th section provided that the Justices of the Great Sessions in Wales were to hear and determine in a summary manner complaints as to any abuses arising where gaolers, bailiffs, and others employed in the execution of legal process had in their respective offices been guilty of misconduct towards prisoners under arrest.

A.D. 1767-1772.—By the Act (8 George 3, c. 14, 1767-8) Parliament directed that the sheriffs of the several counties in Wales were to provide necessary lodging and other accommodation for the Justices of Great Sessions when on circuit, and an allowance not exceeding ten pounds for each county and for each sessions, was to be made by the Auditor, out of the land revenues of the Crown derived from the Principality of Wales, to the sheriffs for the said expenses. By a further Act (12 George 3, c. 30, 1772), owing to the considerable surplus accruing from the stamp duties appropriated for the payment of the salaries of the Welsh Judges, it was ordered that increases of salary should be made from and after April 5, 1772, to the Judges, but subject to a reasonable abatement if the surpluses did not continue and were insufficient.

A.D. 1773.—An Act (13 George 3, c. 51) was passed to discourage the practice of commencing trifling and frivolous suits in the Courts at Westminster upon causes of action arising within Wales, and of trying the said actions in the nearest adjoining English county to that part of the Dominion of Wales in which they had arisen. The origin of the Courts at Westminster assuming this jurisdiction over causes in Wales, and directing the trial in the adjoining English county, does not distinctly appear. But undoubtedly this practice had existed for a considerable time, and