.As to advowsons, the 8 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27, a. 30, enacts that no Quare impedit or other action is to be brought after the expiration of the period during which three clerks in succession shall have held the same, all of whom obtained possession adversely to the right of the person chiming, or of the person through whom he claims, if the times of such incumbencies together shall amount to sixty years, and if not, then after such further period as with the times of such Incumbencies shall make up the period of sixty years.
Limitations as to other incorporeal rights are now mainly regulated by 2 & 8 Will. IV. c. 71. [Pitssenirrtox.] The limitation in actions of assault and battery, is, by 21 Jac. L c. 16,s. 3, four years after the cause of action arises.
Actions of slander must, by the same statute, be commenced within two years next after the words spoken.
The limitation applicable to actions arising upon simple contract, and actions founded in wrong, is, by 21 Jae. I. e. 16, s. 3,..six years next after the cause of action arises.
Formerly there wan no limitation applicable to a suit for a legacy, though in some cases presumption of payment was admitted. The 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27, a. 40, is applicable to all legacies, whether charged on real estate or not.
The limitation on actions arising upon specialty is, & 4 Will. IV. c. 42, twenty years.
Actions of debt for rent upon an indenture of demise, actions of covenant or debt upon bond or other specialty, and actions of debt or scire Judas upon recognisance must therefore be commenced and sued within twenty years after the cause of such actions or suits arises. But if any acknowledgment has been made, either by writing signed by the party liable, by part payment, or part satisfaction, on account of any principal or interest then due thereon, the person entitled may bring his action for the money remaining unpaid, and so acknowledged to be due, within twenty years after such acknowledgment or part payment, and in case of the plaintiff being under disability, within twenty years of the removal of such disability.
The limitations of actions on penal statutes is, by 81 Eliz. c. 5, s. 5 (which act repeals a previous ono, the 7 Hen. VIII. c. 3, upon the same subject), two years after the commission of the offence, if the suit be by the crown ; and one year after the commission of the offence if by a private prosecutor.
A prosecution by the party grieved was not within the statute • but now, by the 8 & 4 Will IV. c. 42, a. 3, all actions for damages, or sums of money given to the party grieved by any statute now or hereafter to be in forco must be brought within two years after the cause of such actions or suits.
By the 24 Geo. II. c. 44, s. 1, actions against justices of the peace and constables or others acting in obedience to their warrants are limited to six calendar months.
There is no time limited by any statute for indictments for felonies and other misdemeanors when there is no forfeiture to the queen or to the prosecutor.
A charity is never considered in equity as absolutely barred by the statutes, or by any rule of limitation analogous to them; but the court takes notice of a long adverse possession in considering the effect and construction of instruments under which claims are set up on its behalf.
The statutes of limitation must in general be pleaded positively by the defendant in any action at law, who wishes to take advantage of them, and it has been held in equity that unless the defendant claims the benefit of the statutes by plea or answer, he cannot insist upon them in bar of the plaiotiff's demand.