Order of Council - Preparation and Authentication of Documents [1878-08-08]

RULE, DATED AUGUST 8, 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 forty-first 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 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 prescribing the documents to which the Wafer Great Seal and the Wafer Privy Seal respectively are to be attached.

Now, therefore, in pursuance of the said Act, we, the undersigned, the Right Honourable Hugh McCalmont, Lord Cairns, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain; the Most Noble Algernon George, 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 Rule following, in addition to Rule 1, made under the provisions of the said Act, on the twenty-second day of February now last past.

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

Commissions to open Parliament.
Commissions to prorogue Parliament
Commissions of Assize, both Criminal and Civil.
Special Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and Gaol Delivery. Special Commissions of Escheat.
Commissions of Sewers.
Grants of Quarter Sessions.
Letters Patent appointing Commissioners for the Inland Revenue.
Letters Patent appointing Commissioners for the Customs. Letters Patent and Writs of Restitution in Temporalities.
Conge d'elire to the Dean and Chapter of a Cathedral Church. Commissions appointing Colonial Governors.
Commissions constituting the Office of Governor of a Colony. Royal Charters.
Letters Patent appointing Colonial and Indian Bishops.
Letters Patent appointing Indian Judges.
Writs for electing Irish Representative Peers.
Writs of Mittimus to the Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Grants of Pension to Judges.
Licenses in Mortmain.
Licenses to Theatres.
Commissions appointing Readers of Civil Law at the Universities.
Exemplifications of Decrees of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice.
Writs of Supersedeas.
Presentations to Crown Livings.
Confirmations of Degrees of Bachelors in Divinity.

Provided always, that if in 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.

Cairns, C.
Northumberland.
Richd. Assheton Cross.

8th August, 1878.