1799: 39 George 3 c. 45: An Act for making perpetual so much of an Act made in the nineteenth Year of the Reign of His present Majesty, Chapter Seventy-four, videlicet, on the twenty-sixth Day of November one thousand seven hundred and seventy-eight, intituled, An Act to explain and amend the Laws relating to the Transportation, Imprisonment, and other Punishment of certain Offenders, as relates to the Punishment of burning in the Hand of certain Persons convicted of Felony within the Benefit of Clergy.
[20th May 1799.]
[19 Geo. 3. c. 74. (Continued by 24 Geo. 3. st. 2. c. 56; 28 Geo. 3. c. 24; and 34. Geo. 3. c. 60.) recited;]
‘WHEREAS an Act was made in the nineteenth Year of the Reign of his present Majesty, intituled, An Act to explain and amend the Laws relating to the Transportation, Imprisonment, and other Punishment of certain Offenders: And whereas so much of the said Act as relates to the Punishment of burning in the Hand when any Person is convicted for Felony within the Benefit of Clergy, which was to continue in force until the first Day of June one thousand seven hundred and eighty-four, and from thence to the End of the then next Session of Parliament; and which was, by three Acts made in the twenty-fourth, twenty-eighth, and thirty-fourth Years of the Reign of his present Majesty, further continued until the first Day ot June one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine, and from thence to the End of the then next Session of Parliament, has been found useful and beneficial, and it is expedient that the same should be made perpetual;’
be it therefore enacted by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same,
[and so much thereof as relates to the Punishment of burning in the Hand made perpetual. [See cc 46, 52 of this Session.]]
That so much of the said Act as relates to the Punishment of burning in the Hand, when any Person is convicted of Felony within the Benefit of Clergy, shall and the same is hereby made perpetual.
Source: Ruffhead, Statutes At Large, vol. 18.
Further reading: Wikipedia.