STATUTE LAW (REPEALS) BILL - Law Commission

challenging validity of a rate, and for remitting rates on the grounds of
“poverty or distress”; 57
(b) to provide for transfer of all moneys obtained under the 1827 Act
powers from the justices’ treasurer to the borough treasurer “in aid of
the borough fund”; 58
(c) to recite, for the avoidance of doubt, the vesting in the borough
justices of the statutory “powers of regulation” relating to the gaol
(which was now designated the “gaol of the said borough of
Cambridge” rather than simply the town gaol) 59 , and to require the
justices of “assize, oyer and terminer, and gaol delivery” for the county
to commit convicted offenders from the borough to the borough gaol to
serve out their sentences of imprisonment or to await transportation or
death; 60
(d) to convert the security for the three debts and outstanding interest
(incurred to facilitate building of the gaol) from mortgage on the gaol
rates to bond under seal of the borough council; 61 and
(e) to make certain mechanistic changes relating to costs and to rating. 62
57 The 1839 Act, s.2. This section was not specific about parts or sections of the 1827 Act which were to
be treated as repealed. In all probability, and in broad terms, the sections directly affected were sections
23 to 29 of that Act.
58 The 1839 Act, s.3.
59 The 1839 Act, s.4. The section was designed to eradicate doubts which had arisen in Cambridge as
to whether the borough justices had properly acquired the same powers relating to gaol governance as
were vested in the general or quarter sessions for the county. Hitherto it had been assumed that the
powers vested in county quarter sessions extended also, as a result of the Municipal Corporations
(England) Acts 1835 and 1837 [5 & 6 Will.4 c.76 (1835) and 1 & 2 Vict. c.78 (1837), both later repealed]
to borough justices.The 1837 Act, ss.37, 38 had sought to provide that every borough council named in
the schedules to the 1835 Act (which included Cambridge) should have the same powers relating to
gaol building and regulation as justices in quarter sessions.These 1837 Act provisions had the effect of
amending provisions in the 1835 Act, s.116. The 1839 Act, s.4 empowered the borough justices to hold
their own quarter sessions for the purpose of regulating the gaol, subject to the proviso that any order
involving expenditure had first to be confirmed and validated by the borough council.
60 The 1839 Act, s.10. Under the 1835 Act, s.114, in boroughs where borough quarter sessions were
held, the relevant borough council was obliged to reimburse the county treasurer the costs of
prosecution, punishment and conveyance of all offenders committed from the borough for trial at assize.
Cambridge held its own quarter sessions and it “tend[ed] very much to the advantage and relief of the
inhabitants of the said borough” that borough offenders be committed on conviction instead to the
borough gaol: the 1839 Act, s.10.
61 The 1839 Act, s.6. Although the secured debts were for £1,000, £1,500 and £1,000 respectively (in
favour of three named creditors), each new bond was only to provide security for up to £500 plus
interest “and no more”: ibid. The bonds were to be repaid from the borough fund, with interest, at the
rate of one per year (the sequence of discharge to be determined from the outset by lot): ibid., s.7.
62 The 1839 Act, s.5 repealed provisions in the 1827 Act (part of section 55) which allowed for the award
of treble costs in certain legal actions under the 1827 Act. The 1839 Act, s.8 provided that the costs of
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