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Ofthe Offence

of buying
Offices,
Inft. 234 a.

3 Inft. 148. Cro. Ja. 269.

red, and judgment was given in favour of the city; but reversed by a special commiffion, and the reverfal affirmed by the House of Lords.

§ 77. By the ftatute 5 and 6 Edw. 6., it is enacted, that persons who fhall fell any office, fhall lofe and forfeit all their right, interest, and estate in fuch offices, and in the gift and nomination thereof; and that all perfons who shall purchase fuch offices, fhall be dif abled from occupying or enjoying fuch offices; and that all fuch bargains shall be void: provided that the act shall not extend to any offices whereof any person shall be seised of any eftate of inheritance, nor to any office of parkership, or of the keeping of any park, house, manor, garden, chase or foreft. Provided that all acts of perfons offending against this statute, done before they are removed from their offices, fhall be good and valid.

Provided that this act fhall not extend to any of the chief Juftices of the Courts of King's Bench or Common Pleas, or to any of the juftices of affize.

$ 78. Lord Coke fays, that the ftatute 5 Edw. 6. extends as well to ecclefiaftical, as temporal offices, which concern the administration and execution of juftice; and that it was refolved in the cafe of Dr. Trevor, chancellor of a bishop in Wales, that both the office of chancellor and register of a bishop, were within that statute; because they concern the administration of juftice. And Croke, in his report of this case, fays, it was held, that although thefe offices concern matters

principally

principally pro falute animarum; yet they alfo concern matters about matrimony, and legitimation, which touch the inheritance of the fubjects; and about matters of legacy, for chattels real and personal; and, in that respect, are courts of justice.

$ 79. The office of archdeacon's register is within the statute: and though the persons to whom the fale and grant was made die, yet the archdeacon is difabled by the ftatute from making any other grant thereof, and the king shall have the nomination.

§ 80. The office of cofferer of the king's household is within the ftatute, and if a perfon purchases this office, he becomes thereby difabled from enjoying it.

§ 81. Sir Robert Vernon knight being cofferer of the king's house fold the fame for a certain fum of money to Sir Arthur Ingram, and agreed to furrender it to the king, to the intent that a grant might be made of it to Sir Arthur. The furrender was accordingly made, and Sir Arthur was admitted. It was refolved by Lord Chancellor Egerton, the chief justice, and others to whom the king referred the fame, that this fale was void by the statute, and that Sir Arthur was difabled to hold the office, and that the king could not, by a non obftante, difpenfe with this act, fo as to enable Sir Arthur to enjoy the office at any time; even by a new grant, upon a subsequent vacancy.

§ 82. With refpect to thofe offices which are not within the ftatute 5 Edw. 6. offices of inheritance and

VOL. III.

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alfo offices of parkership are exprefsly excepted by a

And all under-leafes of fuch

provifo in the act.
offices are alfo excepted inclufively.

§ 83. The office of bailiff of a hundred is not within the ftatute; for it is not an office of trust, nor does it concern the administration of justice.

§ 84. There are feveral offices incident to the courts of law at Westminster, fuch as the clerk of the rules of the king's bench, the prothonotary, clerk of the warrants and inrolments in the common pleas, &c. which being in the gift of the chief justices are exprefsly excepted out of the act.

The offices of the fixty clerks in chancery are not within the ftatute.

§ 85. This ftatute does not extend to Commiffions in the army. And it was formerly held that the office of purfer of a fhip of war was not within it. But Lord Mansfield has faid that, if the lords of the admiralty were to take money for their warrant to appoint a perfon to be a purfer, it would be criminal in the corrupter, and corrupted.

§ 86. It was held in a modern cafe that a contract with the warden of the Fleet, (who held only for life under the crown), that for a fum of money he should furrender the office to the king; to the intent that he fhould procure from the king a grant of the office, to the purchaser, was void, by the ftatute 5 and 6 Edw. 6. c. 16. though that office had been and might be

granted

granted to a subject in fee. And that a bond given to secure the payment of fuch confideration money could not be enforced in a court of law.

§ 87. It was also held in the fame case that the exception in the statute 5 and 6 Edw. 6. c. 16. that the act should not extend to any office of which any perfon was feized of an eftate of inheritance, meant only offices of which fubjects were feifed of eftates of inheritance.

Paine,
Willes R.

$ 88. And in another cafe it was held that a bond Layng ▾. given by any of the officers mentioned in the ftatute 5 and 6 Edw. 6. c. 15. for fecuring all the profits of 571. the office to the perfon appointing, was void by that statute. So was a bond given.by fuch an officer to surrender whenever the perfon appointing chose.

a

S § 89. Where an agreement or bargain is made by deputy to pay his principal half the profits of an office, it is not within the statute; because it is not to pay him a fum in gross, but half the profits which must be fued for in the principal's name: for they belong to him, though a fhare is to be allowed out of them to the deputy for his trouble.

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Parfons v.

I H. Black.

§ 90. But an agreement to allow a person a certain proportion of the profits of an office, in confideration Thompfon of his having procured or been aiding in to the appointment of it, is void.

322.

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Where Equity relieves.

Treat. of Eq.

B. 1.c.4.54

Morris v. McCullock, Amb. 432.

Haneington
7. Du Chatel,

1 Erɔ. Rep.
124.

$91. As the provisions of the ftatute 5 Edw. 6. do not extend to all cafes, within the mischief which it was intended to prevent, courts of equity have frequently interpofed. For though it be true that penal laws are not to be extended as to penalties and punishments, yet if there be a public mischief, and a court of equity fees private contracts made to elude laws, enacted for the public good, it ought to interpofe.

§ 92. A perfon gave a fum of money to another for procuring him a commiffion in the marines. Lord Chancellor Henley decreed the bargain void, and said— "I lay down this rule, that if a man fells his interest, "to procure a permanent office of truft or fervice "under the government, it is a contract of turpitude: "it is acting against the conftitution, by which the government ought to be ferved by fit and able perfons, recommended by the proper officers of the crown, for their abilities, and with purity.

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§ 93. Lord Rochfort being groom of the ftole to his Majefty, and in confequence of that office recommending pages of the prefence, treated with the plaintiff's teftator to recommend him upon a vacancy on condition that he fhould grant two annuities to particular perfons. An action being brought on the bonds fecuring thefe annuities by the defendant's teftator, for the arrears of the annuity, the plaintiffs filed their bill for an injunction. The defendants had demurred, and the demurrer had been over-ruled. Upon a motion to continue the injunction, upon the merits, the answer being put in, it was argued upon the part

of

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