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Persons interested in any Slaves manumitted by this Act may prefer Claims before the Commissioners, who are to make Rules for the Conduct of all Proceedings under the Commission.
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LV. And be it further enacted, That any Person having or claiming to have had any Right, Title, or Interest in or to, or any Mortgage, Judgment, Charge, Incumbrance, or other Lien upon, any Slave or Slaves so to be manumitted as aforesaid, at the Time of such their Manumission, shall and may prefer such Claims before the said Commissioners; and for ensuring Method, Regularity, and Dispatch in the Mode of preferring and of proceeding upon such Claims, the said Commissioners shall and are hereby authorized by general Rules, to be framed and published, confirmed, allowed, and inrolled as aforesaid, to prescribe the Form and Manner of Proceeding to be observed by any Claimant or Claimants preferring any such Claims, and to authorize the Assistant Commissioners so to be appointed in the said several Colonies to receive and report upon the same or any of them in such Manner and Form and under such Regulations as to the Commissioners so to be appointed by His Majesty as aforesaid shall seem meet, and to prescribe the Manner, the Time or Times, the Place or Places, and the Form or Forms in which Notices of such Claims shall be published for general Information, or especially communicated to or served upon any Person or Persons interested therein or affected thereby, and to prescribe the Form and Manner of Proceeding to be observed upon the Prosecution of such Claims, or in making any Opposition to the same, and to make all such Regulations as to them may seem best adapted for promoting Method, Economy, and Dispatch in the Investigation of such Claims, and respecting the Evidence to be taken and admitted for or against the same, and respecting the Manner and Form of adjudicating thereupon, and otherwise however respecting the Method, Form, and Manner of Proceeding to be observed either by them the said Assistant Commissioners, or by the Parties to any Proceedings before them, their Agents or Witnesses, and which Rules shall from Time to Time be liable to be amended, altered, varied, or renewed as Occasion may require, in such Manner as is herein-before directed.
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