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WHEREAS in and by an act of Parliament made in the eleventh year of the reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled, An act for the more effectual preventing of frauds committed by tenants, it is enacted, That in all cases between “landlord and tenant from and after the twenty fifth day of March one thousand seven hundred and twelve, as often as it shall happen, that more than one half year's rent shall be in arrear, and the landlord or lessor, to whom the same is due, hath right by law to re-enter for the non-payment thereof, such landlord or lessor shall and may without any formal demand or re-entry serve a summons in ejectment for the recovery of the demised premisses; which summons in ejectment shall stand in the place and stead of a demand and re-entry; and in case of judgment against the casual ejector, or nonsuit for not confessing lease, entry, and ouster, it shall be made appear to the court, where the said suit is depending, by affidavit or be proved upon the tryal, in case the defendant appears, that more than half a years rent was due before the said summons was served, and that no sufficient distress was to be found on the demised premisses countervailing the arrears then due; and that the lessor or lessors in ejectment had power to re-enter, then and in every such case the lessor or lessors in ejectment shall recover judgment and execution in the same manner, as if the rent in arrear had been legally demanded, and a re-entry made: and whereas several artifices have been made use of to evade and elude the design and intent of the said act, and tenants have, by putting goods liable to distress on the lands demised to them, countervailing the rent and the arrears then due, deprived the landlords of the remedy intended them by the said act; and when the landlords have distrained the same, the tenants have caused the distress so taken to be rescued: and whereas such rescues have been usually committed by obscure and unknown persons, by means whereof many riots and other great disorders have happened: for remedy whereof 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 from and after the twenty fifth day of December in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventeen, where any distress shall be taken by landlord or lessor, having lawful authority to distrain, or by any person or persons by such landlord or lessor impowered or authorized; if such distress or any part thereof be rescued, every person so rescuing, being lawfully convict thereof, shall be committed in execution by the court, before whom such conviction shall be had, for such fine as the court shall think reasonable to impose on such offender or offenders; and in case the party so convicted shall not pay to the sheriff of the county such fine, as shall be imposed on him for such rescue, within one month after such commitment; the party so convicted, on default of such payment, shall be conveyed by the sheriff of the county to the house of correction, or some workhouse in the said county, and there detained and kept at hard labour for any time not less than three months, nor exceeding six months, according to the discretion of the judges or justices before whom such offender shall be convicted as aforesaid.
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