918 APPENDIX TO BRITISH CASE. 



his hirer or employer, or shall wilfully neglect or refuse to work 

 according to the true intent and meaning of such Contract or 

 547 Agreement, he shall, for every day he shall so absent himself, 

 or neglect or refuse to work as aforesaid, forfeit two days' pa} 7 

 to such hirer or employer; and if any such seaman c<r fisherman shall 

 wilfully absent himself from his said duty or employ for the space 

 of five days, without such leave as aforesaid, he shall be deemed a 

 deserter, and shall forfeit to such hirer or employer all such wages 

 as shall at the time of such desertion be due to him, (except so much 

 as is herein before directed to be reserved and retained for the pur- 

 pose of paying his passage home) ; and it shall and may be lawful 

 to and for the Governor of Newfoundland, or his surrogates, or the 

 Commissary of the Vice Admiralty Court for the time being, or for 

 any Justice of the Peace in Newfoundland, to issue his or their war- 

 rant or warrants to apprehend every such deserter, and on the path 

 of one or more credible witness or witnesses to commit him to prison, 

 there to remain until the next Court of Session which shall be holden 

 in pursuance of the Commission of the said Governor for the time 

 being; and, if found guilty of the said offence at such Session, it 

 shall and may be lawful to and for the said Court of Session to 

 order such deserter to be publicly whipped as a vagrant, and after- 

 wards to be put on board a passage ship, in order to his being con- 

 veyed back to the country whereto he belongs. 



XVIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That 

 all disputes which shall arise concerning the wages of every or any 

 such seaman or fisherman, and all offences which shall be committed 

 by every hirer or employer of such seaman or fisherman, against this 

 Act, shall and may be enquired into, heard, and determined, and the 

 penalties and forfeitures thereby incurred shall and may be recovered 

 in the Court of Session herein before mentioned, or in the 

 Court of Vice Admiralty having Jurisdiction in the said Island of 

 Newfoundland. 



" XIX. And whereas by an Act of Parliament, passed in the sixth 

 year of the reign of Her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled, An Act 

 for the encouragement of the trade to America, it is amongst other 

 things, enacted, that no mariner or other person who shall serve on 

 board, or be retained to serve on board, any privateer, or trading 

 ship or vessel, that shall be employed in any part of America, nor 

 any mariner or other person being on shore in any part thereof, 

 shall be liable to be impressed or taken away by any officer or offcers 

 of or belonging to any of Her Majesty's ships of war, impowered 

 by the Lord High Admiral, or any other person whatsoever, unless 

 such mariner shall have before deserted from such ship of war: And 

 whereas the said privilege or exemption so given by the said Act to 

 mariners serving on board ships or vessels employed in any of the 

 seas or ports of the Continent of America, or residing on shore there, 

 is prejudicial to the fisheries carried on by His Majesty's subjects 

 of Great Britain and Ireland, and others His Majesty's Dominions 

 in Europe, and has proved an encouragement to mariners belonging 

 thereto to desert in time of war, or at the appearance of a war, to 

 the British Plantations on the said continent of America;" be it 

 therefore enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said Clause, 

 so far as it relates to the exempting of mariners or other persons 

 serving, or retained to serve, in any ship or vessel in the seas or ports 



