18 ELIZ. CAP. 5, COMMON INFORMERS. 547

STATUTES

Made at WESTMINSTER, Anno decimo octavo Reginae ELIZA-
BETHS and A. D. 1576.

CAP. V.

An Act to redress Disorders in common Informers.

For redressing of divers Disorders in common Informers, and
for better Execution of penal Laws, (2) Be it enacted, That
every Informer upon any penal Statute sliall exhibit his Suit
in proper Person, and pursue the same only by himself, or by
his Attorney in Court; (3) and that none shall be admitted or
received to pursue against any Person or Persons upon any
penal Statute, but by way of Information, or Original Action,
and not otherwise; (4) nor shall have ne use any Deputy or
Deputies at all; (5) and that upon every such Information
which shall be exhibited, a special Note be made of the very
Day, Mon th and Year of the Exhibiting thereof into any Office,
or to any Officer, which lawfully may receive the same, without
any manner of Antedate thereof to be made, and that the same
Information be accounted and taken to be of Record from that
Time forward, and not before. (6) And be it likewise enacted
*for the Consideration aforesaid, That no Process be sued 407
out upon such Information, until the Information be exhibited
in Form aforesaid; (7) and that upon every such Process shall
be indorsed as well the Party's Name that pursueth the same
Process, as also the Statute upon which the Information in that
Behalf made, is grounded: (8) And that every Clerk making
out Process contrary to the Tenor and Provision of this Act,
shall forfeit and lose forty Shillings for every such Offence, the
one Half to be to the Queen's Majesty, her Heirs and Successors,
and the other Half to the Party against whom any such defec-

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