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Prosecutions before justices of the peace.
No information exhibited before justices of the county shall be objectionable because there are distinct commissions of the peace within whose jurisdiction the offence was committed.
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65. For the recovery of any penalty imposed by this Act, or any other Act or Acts of Parliament relating to the revenue of excise, and incurred for or by reason of any offence committed against this Act, or the said other Acts or any of them, or for the condemnation of any goods, commodities, or chattels, seized as forfeited under or by virtue of this Act, or the said other Acts or any of them, . . . the information thereupon may be exhibited before any one or more of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the county, shire, division, city, town, or place wherein the offence shall have been committed, or the person or persons committing the same shall be found, or where the goods, commodities, or chattels shall have been seized as aforesaid; and such information shall and may be heard, adjudged, and determined by any two or more of his Majesty's justices of the peace for the said county, shire, division, city, town, or place; . . . and any two or more of such justices of the peace shall and they are hereby authorized and required, upon any such information having been so exhibited as aforesaid, and upon the appearance and pleading of the person or persons against whom such information shall have been exhibited, or who shall claim any goods, commodities, or chattels in such information alleged to have been forfeited, or, in default of such appearance and pleading, upon proof of the service of such summons of such person or persons, to proceed to the examination of the fact or facts in such information alleged, and to give judgment as well for any such penalty or penalties which upon the due examination of one or more credible witness or witnesses upon oath, or upon the voluntary confession of the party accused, shall be found to have been incurred, as for the condemnation of any goods, commodities, or chattels seized as aforesaid, which upon such examination or confession shall be found to be forfeited, or respectively as the case may require; and such . . . justices shall and they are hereby authorized and required thereupon to award and grant a warrant or warrants under their hands for the due execution of and carrying into effect, as herein-after mentioned, such judgment: Provided always, that where any such information as aforesaid shall be exhibited before any justice or justices of any county or shire in England, Scotland, or Ireland respectively, in which there are severed and distinct commissions of the peace, no information thereupon exhibited before any such justice or justices, nor any judgment thereupon given by such justices, nor any warrant or warrants thereupon granted for the due execution thereof, shall be subject or liable to any objection whatsoever by reason of any offence alleged in such information having been committed, or the person or persons committing the same having been found, or the goods, commodities, or chattels having been seized as aforesaid, in any division, city, town, or place of such county or shire having local jurisdiction, whether such city, town, or place be or be not a county in or of itself; anything in this Act, or any other Act or Acts of Parliament, to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
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