Petitions.

76. No affidavit shall be taken against affidavit, as far as the masters of the chancery can have knowledge; and if any such be taken, the latter affidavit shall not be used nor read in

court.

77. In case of contempts grounded upon force or ill words upon serving of process, or upon words of scandal of the court, proved by affidavit, the party is forthwith to stand committed; but for other contempts against the orders or decrees of the court, an attachment goes forth, first, upon an affidavit made, and then the party is to be examined upon interrogatories, and his examination referred; and if upon his examination he confess matter of contempt, he is to be committed; if not, the adverse party may examine witnesses to prove the contempt: and thereupon' if the contempt appear, the party is to be committed; but if not, or if the party that pursues the contempt do fail in putting in interrogatories, or other prosecution, or fail in the proof of the contempt, then the party charged with the contempt is to be discharged with good costs.

78. They that are in contempt, specially so far as proclamation of rebellion, are not to be heard, neither in that suit, nor any other, except the court of special grace suspend the contempt.

79. Imprisonment upon contempt for matters past may be discharged of grace, after sufficient punishment, or otherwise dispensed with: but if the imprisonment be for not performance of any order of the court in force, they ought not to be discharged except they first obey, but the contempt may be suspended for a time.

80. Injunctions, sequestrations, dismissions, retainers upon dismissions, or final orders, are not to be granted upon petitions. 81. No former order made in court is to be altered, crossed, or explained upon any petition; but such orders may be stayed upon petition for a small stay, until the matter may be moved in court.

82. No commission for examination of witnesses shall be discharged, nor no examinations or depositions shall be suppressed upon petition, except it be upon point of course of the court first referred to the clerks, and certificate thereupon.

1 I have substituted this for "therefore."

83. No demurrer shall be overruled upon petition.

84. No scire facias shall be awarded upon recognisances not enrolled, nor upon recognisances enrolled, unless it be upon examination of the record with the writ; nor no recognisance shall be enrolled after the year, except it be upon special order from the lord chancellor.

85. No writ of ne exeat regnum, prohibition, consultation, statute of Northampton, certiorari special, or procedendo special, or certiorari or procedendo general more than one in the same cause, habeas corpus, or corpus cum causa, vi laica removendď, or restitution thereupon, de coronatore et viridario eligendo in case of amoving, de homine replegiando, assize on1 special patent, de ballivo amovend', certiorari super præsentationibus fact. coram commissariis sewar', or ad quod dampnum, shall pass without warrant under the lord chancellor's hand, and signed by him, save such writs ad quod dampnum as shall be signed by master attorney.

86. Writs of privilege are to be reduced to a better rule, both for the number of persons that shall be privileged, and for the case of the privilege: and as for the number, it shall be set down by schedule: for the case, it is to be understood that besides persons privileged as attendants upon the court, suitors and witnesses are only to have privilege eundo, redeundo, et morando, for their necessary attendance, and not otherwise; and that such writ of privilege dischargeth only an arrest upon the first process; but yet, where at such times of necessary attendance the party is taken in execution, it is a contempt to the court, and accordingly to be punished.

87. No supplicavit for the good behaviour shall be granted, but upon articles grounded upon the oath of two at the least, or certificate of any one justice of assize, or two justices of the peace, with affidavit that it is their hands, or by order of the star-chamber, or chancery, or other of the king's courts.

88. No recognisance of the good behaviour, or the peace, taken in the country, and certified into the petty-bag, shall be filed in the year without warrant from the lord chancellor.

89. Writs of ne exeat regnum are properly to be granted according to the suggestion of the writ, in respect of attempts

I have substituted "on" for "or." The thing meant seems to be a special patent to justices not being justices of assize for the county. See Fitz. N.B. 177. J. K.

prejudicial to the king and state, in which case the lord chancellor will grant them upon prayer of any the principal secretaries without cause shewing, or upon such information as his lordship shall think of weight: but otherwise also they may be granted, according to the practice of long time used, in case of interlopers in trade, great bankrupts in whose estate many subjects are interested, or other cases that concern multitudes of the king's subjects, also in case of duels, and divers others.

90. All writs, certificates, and whatsoever other process returnable coram Rege in Canc. shall be brought into the chapel of the rolls, within convenient time after the return thereof, and shall be there filed upon their proper files and bundles as they ought to be; except the depositions of witnesses, which may remain with any of the six clerks by the space of one year next after the cause shall be determined by decree or otherwise be dismissed.

91. All injunctions shall be enrolled, or the transcript filed; to the end that if occasion be, the court may take order to award writs of scire facias thereupon, as in ancient time hath been used.

92. All days given by the court to sheriffs to return their writs, or bring in their prisoners upon writs of privilege, or otherwise between party and party, shall be filed, either in the register's office, or in the petty-bag respectively; and all recognisances taken to the king's use, or unto the court, shall be duly inrolled in convenient time with the clerks of the inrollment, and calendars made of them, and the calendars every Michaelmas term to be presented to the lord chancellor.

93. In case of suits upon the commission for charitable uses, to avoid charge, there shall need no bill, but only exceptions to the decree, and answer forthwith to be made thereunto; and thereupon, and upon sight of the inquisition, and the decree brought unto the lord chancellor by the clerk of the petty-bag, his lordship, upon perusal thereof, will give order under his hand for an absolute decree to be drawn up.

94. Upon suit for the commission of sewers, the names of those that are desired to be commissioners are to be presented to the lord chancellor in writing; then his lordship will send the names of some privy counsellor, lieutenant of the shire, or justices of assize, being resident in the parts for which the commission is prayed, to consider of them, that they be not

put in for private respects; and upon the return of such opinion, his lordship will give farther order for the commission to pass.

95. No new commission of sewers shall be granted while the first is in force, except it be upon discovery of abuse or fault in the first commissioners, or otherwise upon some great and weighty ground.

96. No commission of bankrupt shall be granted but upon petition first exhibited to the lord chancellor, together with names presented, of which his lordship will take consideration, and always mingle some learned in the law with the rest; yet so as care be taken that the same parties be not too often used in commissions; and likewise care is to be taken that bond with good surety be entered into, in 2007. at least, to prove him a bankrupt.

97. No commission of delegates in any cause of weight shall be awarded, but upon petition preferred to the lord chancellor, who will name the commissioners himself, to the end they may be persons of convenient quality, having regard to the weight of the cause, and the dignity of the court from whence the appeal is.

98. Any man shall be admitted to defend in forma pauperis upon oath; but for plaintiffs, they are ordinarily to be referred to the court of requests, or to the provincial councils, if the case arise in those jurisdictions, or to some gentlemen in the country, except it be in some special cases of commiseration, or potency of the adverse party.

99. Licences to collect for losses by fire or water are not to be granted, but upon good certificate; and not for decays by suretyship or debt, or any other casualties whatsoever; and they are rarely to be renewed; and they are to be directed ever unto the county where the loss did arise, if it were by fire, and the counties that abut upon it, as the case shall require; and if it were by sea, then unto the county where the port is from whence the ship went, and to some sea-counties adjoining.

100. No exemplifications shall be made of letters patents, inter alia, with omission of the general words; nor of records made void or cancelled; nor of the decrees of this court not inrolled; nor of depositions by parcel and fractions, omitting the residue of the depositions; nor of depositions in court, to which the hand of the examiner is not subscribed; nor of

records of the court not being inrolled or filed; nor of records of any other court, before the same be duly certified to this court, and orderly filed here; nor of any records upon the sight and examination of any copy in paper, but upon sight and examination of the original.

101. And because time and experience may discover some of these rules to be inconvenient, and some other to be fit to be added; therefore his lordship intendeth in any such case from time to time to publish any such revocations or additions.