N° XV.

An Extract from the Act for Briefs, con cerning that Part of it which concerns the Minifter.

FRom and after the five and twentieth Day of March, which fhall be in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand feven hundred and fix, upon the Iffuing forth of Letters Patents for Collecting of Charity Money, commonly call'd Briefs, Copies thereof to the Number required by the Petitioners for fuch Briefs or their Agents, and no more, fhall be printed by the Printer of Her Majefty, Her Heirs or Succeffors only, at the ufual Rates for Printing; and by fuch Prin ter the whole Number of fuch Copies fhall be delivered to fuch Perfon or Perfons only, as fhall, by and with the Confent of the Petitioners for fuch Brief, or the Major Part of them, undertake the laying or difpofing fuch printed Copies, in order to the Collection of the Monies to be received thereon, or to fome or one of them, who, or one or more of them, fhall give a Receipt for the fame, expreffing the Number thereof in fuch Receipt, which Receipt, or an attefted Copy thereof, fuch Printer fhall forthwith deliver to the Regifter of the Court of Chancery to be filed in the Regifter's Office, and thereupon the Perfon or Perfons fo undertaking fuch Collection, or fome or one of them, fhall caufe all the faid Printed Copies to be endorfed

or marked in fome convenient Part of fuch Printed Copy, with the Name of one or more of the Truftees or Commiffioners named in fuch Letters Patents, written with his or their own Hand, and the time of figning the faine, and alfo caufe the faid Printed Copies to be ftamped in the manner hereafter more particularly mentioned: And the faid whole Number being fo figned, fhall be, with all convenient speed by the faid Undertaker, or Undertakers, fent and delivered to the refpective Church-Wardens, and Chapel-Wardens of the refpective Churches and Chapels, and to the refpective Teachers and Preachers of every feparate Congregation, and to any Perfon who hath Taught or Preached in any Meeting of the People called Quakers, in the Counties and Places to be comprifed in fuch Letters-Patents, to be read and publifhed, and the Charity thereón to be collected in the feveral Churches, Chapels, or Places of Meeting to which they belong, who fhall fo receive the fame; and that the faid Church-Wardens, Chapel-Wardens, Preachers, Teachers, and Qua kers having Taught, as aforefaid, immediately after fuch Receipt, fhall endorfe the time of his or their receiving the fame, and fet his or their Names thereto; and the faid Church-Wardens and Chapel-Wardens fhall forthwith deliver over the faid Printed Briefs by them received, to the feveral Minifters and Curates of the faid Churches or Chapels, who fhall receive the fame; and the faid refpective Minifters and Curates fhall, on Receipt thereof, endorfe the time they refpectively received the fame, and fet their respective Names thereto; and the faid refpe

respective Minifters and Curates, Teachers, Preachers and Perfons call'd Quakers, qualified as aforefaid, fhall, on fome Sunday, within two Months after Receipt of fuch Copies, immedi ately before the Sermon, Preaching or Teaching fhall begin, openly read or caufe to be read fuch printed Briefs in their refpective Churches, Chapels, and Places of Meeting, to the Congregation there affembled: and the refpective Church-Wardeus, Chapel-Wardens, and Teachers of every fuch feparate Congregation, and fuch Perfons call'd Quakers, to whom the Briefs fhall have been fo delivered, as aforefaid, fhall collect the Sums of Money that fhall be freely thereon given, either in the faid refpective Affemblies, or by going from Houfe to Houfe of the Members of their refpective Congregations, as the Briefs fhall require in that behalf; and on every fuch Collection made, the Sum that fhall be collected, with the Place where, and time when the fame was collected, fhall be endorfed, fairly written in Words at length, on fuch refpective printed Briefs, and figned by the Minifter or Curate, and the Church-Wardens in Churches and Chapels, and by the Teacher and two Elders, or two other fubftantial Perfons of every feparate Congregation; and that thereupon the faid refpective Church-Wardens and Chapel-Wardens, and the refpective Teachers or Preachers, or other Perfons required to make the Collection, as aforefaid, on requeft of fuch Per fon or Perfons as fhall undertake to place and difperfe the Briefs, as aforefaid, or of any Perfon by them or any of them lawfully authori zed, fhall deliver to fuch Perfon or Perfons,

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making fuch Requeft, the refpective Printed Briefs fo endorfed, as aforefaid, and the Monies thereon collected, taking a Receipt for the fame, from the Perfon fo receiving fuch Monies, in fome Book to be kept for that Purpose, on pain that every the faid Minifters, Curates, Teachers, Preachers,Church-Wardens, Chapel-Wardens and Quakers qualified and required, as aforefaid, who fhall refufe or neglect to do any of the Matters or Things before refpectively required of them, fhall forfeit the Sum of Twenty Pounds, to be recovered and applied as herein after is directed; and the faid Perfon or Perfons who fhall fo undertake to place, and difperfe the faid Briefs, as aforefaid, fhall within fix Months next after the refpective placing or delivering fuch Copies in the refpective Parishes, as afore faid, by themselves or fome or one of them, or by fome Perfon or Perfons by them, or the major Part of them to be appointed, as aforefaid, “demand from the refpective Church-Wardens, and Chapel-Wardens of Churches and Chapels, and from the Preacher and Teacher of feparate Congregations, or from fuch Teaching Quaker to whom the faid printed Briefs, fhall have been refpectively delivered, as aforefaid, the printed Briefs fo left with him or them refpectively, and the Monies refpectively by them received there on; and on Delivery and Payment made, fhall give to them refpectively, as aforefaid, a Receipt for the fame, on pain to forfeit the Sum of twenty Pounds, to be recovered and difpo fed of, as herein after is directed.

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In each Parish, or Chapelry, and feparate Congregation, a Regifter fhall be kept by the Minifter or Teacher there, or by fome Teaching Quaker, of all Monies collected by Virtue of fuch Briefs, therein alfo inferting the Occafion of the Brief, and time when the fame was collected, to which all Perfons at all times may refort without Fee.

And for the better endorfing what Money is collected on the back of the printed Briefs, and for the more regular Examination thereof, and for the preventing the Counterfeiting printed Copies of the Briefs, by which great Frauds have been put in Practice; be it enacted by the Authority aforefaid, that on the back of every printed Copy of fuch Brief, there fhall be print ed the Form of Indorfment with the neceffary Blanks for Time, Place, and Sum of Money, to be filled up by the refpective Perfons aforefaid; and each printed Copy of fuch a Brief, fhall, before it be carried to the refpective Parishes wherein the Collection is to be made, be ftamped or marked with a proper Stamp to be made for that Purpose, and kept by the Regifter of the Court of Chancery, who is to fee that no greater Number of printed Copies be ftampt, or marked therewith, than is in the Receipts given to the Printer, and left with the Regifter as aforefaid, fpecified and declared; and if any Perfon or Perfons fhall forge or counterfeit fuch Stamp, fuch Perfon being thereof lawfully convicted, fhall be publickly fet on the Pillory, for the space of one whole Hour.

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