Order of Council - Preparation and Authentication of Documents [1878-02-22]

RULES, DATED FEBRUARY 22, 1878, MADE BY THE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL IN PURSUANCE OF THE FIFTH SECTION OF THE CROWN OFFICE ACT, 1877.

Whereas, by an Act passed in the 41st year of Her Majesty's reign, intituled "An Act for making provision with respect "to the preparation and authentication of Commissions and "other Documents issued from the Office of the Clerk of the "Crown in Chancery, and for other purposes," it is enacted as follows:—

A Committee of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, consisting of the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain for the time being, the Lord Privy Seal for the time being, and one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State (in the said Act referred to as the Committee of Council), acting in case of difference according to the opinion of any two of them, may from time to time direct impressions with the same device as the Great Seal and of the Privy Seal to be taken in such manner and of such size or sizes as they may from time to time prescribe, on embossed paper, wax, wafer, or any other material; and any such impressions (in the said Act respectively called a "Wafer Great Seal" and a "Wafer Privy Seal") shall be in the same custody as the seals of which they are impressions, and when attached to or embossed on any document required to be or usually authenticated by or passed under the Great Seal or Privy Seal, shall confer on that document the same validity in all respects as if the document itself had been authenticated by or passed under the Great Seal or Privy Seal;

The Committee of Council aforesaid, acting in case of difference according to the opinion of any two of them, may by order make and (when made) from time to time revoke, add to, or alter rules:—

(1.) Providing for a record to be kept at the Crown Office of all justices of the peace appointed in pursuance of any commission of the peace issued by Her Majesty, and for the rectification of such record from time to time; and

(2.) Prescribing the documents to which the Wafer Great Seal and the Wafer Privy Seal respectively are to be attached; and

(3.) Prescribing the mode in which documents to which this Act applies are to be prepared, whether printed or written, or partly printed and partly written, and whether to be printed or written on paper, parchment, or any other fitting material: Provided that—

(a.) It shall not be necessary to the validity of any document to or on which a Wafer Great Seal or a Wafer Privy Seal is attached or embossed, to prove that the attachment or embossing of such wafer seals respectively was authorised, and no evidence to the contrary shall be received; and

(b.) Engrossing may in all cases be dispensed with, and, so far as seems to the Committee of Council convenient, printing shall be adopted in place of writing.

Any rule purporting to be made in pursuance of this section shall be laid before both Houses of Parliament within one month after it is made, if Parliament be then sitting, or if not then sitting, within one month after the commencement of the then next Session of Parliament, and shall be judicially noticed, and shall be of the same validity as if it had been enacted by Parliament.

Now, therefore, in pursuance of the said Act, We, the undersigned, the Right Honourable Hugh McCulmont, Lord Cairns, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain; the Most Noble Algernon Percy, Duke of Northumberland, Lord Privy Seal; and the Right Honourable Richard Assheton Cross, one of Her Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, as a Committee of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, under the said Act, do hereby make the Rules following, for the purposes aforesaid:—

Rule 1.

The following documents shall have the Wafer Great Seal attached to or embossed on them, viz.:—

Royal Proclamations.
Royal Assent Commissions.
Writs of Summons to peers.
Writs of Attendance to Judges and Her Majesty's Attorney and Solicitor-General.
Writs for the election of Members to serve in Parliament.
Writs of Convocation.
Commissions of the Peace; and
Letters patent for inventions.

Provided always, that if any particular case or cases it shall be found more convenient to pass any of such documents under the Great Seal in the manner hitherto accustomed, the Lord Chancellor may direct the same to be done accordingly.

Rule 2.

All commissions of the peace shall be printed on parchment, with blanks to be filled up in writing:—

The names of the justices shall be placed in a schedule, with space for the names of justices appointed after the issue of such commission. Clerks of the peace and town clerks are required to send to the Crown Office, in the month of January every year a statement of magistrates who have qualified, and (so far as they know) of magistrates who have died during the preceding year.

Rule 3.

A record shall be kept at the Crown Office of all justices of the peace appointed under any commission of the peace hereafter issued by Her Majesty; and all keepers of the rolls of counties, and chief officers of liberties, and of corporations having a commission of the peace, shall be requested to send in their present commissions of the peace, in order that new commissions in the more simple and convenient form may be issued.

Rule 4.

The Royal Assent commissions shall be printed on parchment or paper. The titles or short titles of the Acts shall be written in round hand in a schedule.

Rule 5.

Letters patent for inventions;

Writs of Summons to peers;

Writs of Attendance to Judges; and

Writs for the election of Members of Parliament;

shall be printed on parchment, with blanks to be filled up in writing.