And, in order to deter and hinder ill-minded persons from wilfully setting their house or houses, or other buildings, on fire, with a view of gaining to themselves the insurance money, whereby the lives and fortunes of many families may be lost or endangered; be it further enacted by the Authority aforesaid, that it shall and may be lawful to and for the respective Governors or Directors of the several insurance offices for insuring houses or other buildings against loss by fire, and they are hereby authorised and required, upon the request of any person or persons interested in or intitled unto any house or houses, or other buildings which may hereafter be burnt down, demolished, or damaged by fire, or upon any grounds of suspicion that the owner or owners, occupier or occupiers, or other person or persons who shall have insured such house or houses, or other buildings, have been guilty of fraud, or of wilfully setting their house or houses, or other buildings, on fire, to cause the insurance money to be laid out and expended, as far as the same will go, towards rebuilding, reinstating, or repairing, such house or houses, or other buildings, so burnt down, demolished, or damaged by fire; unless the party or parties claiming such insurance money shall, within sixty days next after his, her, or their claim is adjusted, give a sufficient security to the Governors or Directors of the insurance office where such house or houses, or other buildings, are insured, that the same insurance money shall be laid out and expended as aforesaid; or unless the said insurance money shall be, in that time, settled and disposed of to and amongst all the contending parties, to the satisfaction and approbation of such Governors or Directors of such insurance office respectively.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that no action, suit, or process whatever, shall be had, maintained, or prosecuted, against any person in whose house, chamber, stable, barn, or other building, or on whose estate any fire shall, after the said twenty-fourth day of June, accidentally begin, nor shall any recompence be made by such person for any damage suffered thereby; any law, usage, or custom, to the contrary notwithstanding; and in such case, if any action be brought, the defendant may plead the general issue, and give this Act, and the special matter in evidence, at any trial thereupon to be had; and in case the plaintiff become nonsuited, or discontinue his action or suit, or if a verdict pass against him, the defendant shall recover treble costs; provided that no contract or agreement made between landlord and tenant shall be hereby defeated, or made void.