When any person shall have been convicted before any justice of any offence against the Customs Acts for which such person is liable to be committed to hard labour, and it shall at any time during the imprisonment of such person be made to appear to the said or any other justice that such person had before been convicted of a similar offence, it shall be lawful for either of such justices, and he is hereby required, to commit such offender to some house of correction to be kept to hard labour for not less than nine nor more than twelve months in the whole from the date of the first commitment, and to amend the warrant of commitment accordingly, and without including in such amendment any reference to the former conviction ; and any gaoler in whose custody such person shall be is hereby required, upon a written order signed by any justice, to produce such person before such last-mentioned or any other justice having jurisdiction therein; and any married woman convicted of any offence against the Customs Acts may, in default of payment of any penalty incurred by her, be committed to prison.