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XXI. And be it further enacted, That if any Action or Suit be sued or prosecuted against any Sheriff, Justice, Minister, Curate, Churchwarden, Constable, Collector, or other Person or Persons, for or by reason of any Act, Matter or Thing done in pursuance or execution of this present Act, or of the said recited Acts, or any of them, or of any Act or Acts of Parliament for the Recovery of Church Rates or Parochial Cesses, the same shall be commenced within Three Calendar Months next after the alleged Cause or Causes of Action or Suit shall have arisen; and that every such Justice, Minister, Curate, Sheriff, Churchwarden, Constable, Collector, or other Person or Persons, may, in his, her or their Justification and Defence plead the General Issue, and give this Act or the said recited Acts respectively, and the special Matter in Evidence, without specially pleading the same; and if any Replevin shall be brought for any Cattle, Goods or Chattels seized or taken by virtue or in pursuance of this present Act, or of the said Acts or any of them (in Cases where Replevin is permitted,) it shall and may be lawful and sufficient to and for any such Justice or Minister, Curate, Sheriff, Churchwarden, Constable, Collector or other Person, who shall be Defendant or Defendants, or Avowant or Avowants, in any such Replevin, to avow, plead or make Cognizance generally, that he or they took the same Cattle, Goods or Chattels, as a Distress, by reason of the Nonpayment of Church Rates, Parish Cesses or Instalments payable to the Trustees and Commissioners of the First Fruits of Ecclesiastical Benefices, as the Case may be, by Force of the Statute in that Case made and provided, and by virtue of a Warrant in that Behalf duly made, in Cases where a Warrant shall have been granted, without setting forth more particularly the Cause of making or detaining the said Distress or Distresses, or more particularly describing the Act or Acts of Parliament, or Warrant in that Behalf made, or making any other more special Plea, Avowry or Cognizance; any thing hereinbefore contained to the contrary notwithstanding.
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