case any person's name shall be struck out, or any sum lowered, the court of quarter sessions shall order the money, which ought not to have been recovered, to be repaid, together with reasonable costs, charges, and expences occasioned by having been required to pay the same. ceeding overseer to reimburse his prede cessor. Where it may have happened that over- The sucseers have not been able to collect money sufficient to relieve and maintain the poor, but have actually advanced money for that purpose, the succeeding overseers may reimburse them by assessment. In case this provision is not complied with, within fourteen days after demand in writing has been made, such preceding overseers may apply to the next quarter sessions, giving due notice in writing to their successors of such application. The Court shall then hear and determine the same. must be The 17 Geo. 2. provides, that appeals Appeals against rates must be made at the next made at the general or quarter sessions. On this head next quarter it has been decided, that where both general and quarter sessions are held, the appeal sessions. must be entered for the quarter sessions. In a case tried before Lord Ellenborough, a motion was made for a mandamus, to enter continuances upon an appeal against a poor rate; and the question was, whether in London, where there are eight sessions every year, four general quarter sessions, and four general sessions, a party is bound to appeal to the general sessions, if they occur first after the rate; or whether he is entitled to pass over the general sessions, and appeal to the next general quarter sessions? The general quarter sessions were held on the day after the rate was published in the church, and as there was no interval, it could not be expected that the appeal should be made at those sessions. By the statute 43 Eliz. if any person shall find himself aggrieved, the justices of the peace, at their general quarter sessions, shall take such orders therein as to them shall be thought convenient. This statute, therefore, gave the appeal to the quarter sessions indefinitely, without even limiting it to the next which should occur. By the statute 17 Geo. 2. a person aggrieved may appeal to the next general or quarter sessions of the peace for the county, riding, division, corporation, or franchise, where the township, parish, or place for which the rate is made lies; but if it shall appear that reasonable notice was not given of the appeal, the justices shall adjourn it to the next quarter sessions, and then finally hear and determine it; and the said justices may award to the party, for whom the appeal shall be determined, reasonable costs. This statute, therefore, limits appeals (in terms) to the next general or quarter sessions; and the question is, whether the word "general” is used with a view to those places which have both general and quarter sessions; or whether it is not used as another word for quarter sessions, in contradistinction to a special sessions, every quarter sessions being a general sessions? The Lord Chief Justice further stated, that the bench were of opinion that the latter is the true construction; and that an appeal to the next quarter Appeals must be next quarter sessions. sessions, notwithstanding the intervention of a general sessions, is in time. Το By the 43 Eliz. an appeal might be made made at the against a rate at any quarter sessions after the rate was published. But this provision was found to admit of too much delay. The appeals were sometimes entered against rates which had been made and gathered so long before, that the overseers who had to defend the rate were out of office, and might be dead or out of the country. remedy this defect, it is enacted by the 17 Geo. 2. that the appeal shall be made to the next general or quarter sessions; by which is meant, not that which may take place in a few days, but that which allows a reasonable time for a notice to be given before their commencement. The time is not specified in any act relating to appeals; reasonable notice is required, and the justices at the sessions are to decide on its sufficiency in that respect, and their decision is, in some measure, guided by the practice of the court. "On a motion to quash two orders made by the justices of peace of Berkshire at their quarter sessions, on an appeal against the poor's rate, one objection was, that it appeared that notice of the appeal was not given till the day before the sessions began, whereas there should have been eight days' notice by the practice of the sessions; that the justices, with a view, perhaps, to supply the defect of notice, adjourned the appeal by the first of their orders to the next day, and directed the overseers to attend them then with the rate; that on the next day, accordingly, they went on to hear, and made the second order on the merits, whereas they ought, as was insisted, wherever there was not proper notice, to adjourn the appeal to the next sessions. Sir Richard Lloyd, in showing cause against the rule as to the first objection, observed, that the 17 Geo. 2. makes the justices sole judges of what notice is reasonable, and they had thought this so; besides, this notice was the best that could be given from the nature of the case, the rate being made on Saturday, and published on Sunday; notice of appeal was given on |