Section 23 Provision as to past factories informally settled or desperate.C1

In regard to all factories constituted before the passing of this Act, any settlement made of any such factory, though informal, shall be held as a prima facie discharge to the factor, and the accountant shall not report the same as a subsisting factory, or require further proceedings therein, but reserving the right of all parties interested in the estate to show cause to the accountant or the court why such settlement should not be held as a discharge to the factor, in which case, if the cause shown shall be satisfactory to the accountant or the court, the factory shall be held as subsisting and be proceeded with; and in any such factory in which, though there has been no settlement, it shall appear that no benefit is likely to be derived by the parties interested in the estate from farther proceedings therein, and no party interested shall make appearance and require such proceedings, the accountant shall place amongst the papers connected with the estate a memorandum of the circumstances, and shall state in his report that further proceedings are for the present unadvisable.