door of the church or chapel of the town or parish where the defendant shall be dwelling immediately after divine service on a Sunday: And whereas by divers acts relative to the assessing and collecting of highway and poor rates and land tax, and other matters, it is directed or required that public notice shall be given with reference to certain proceedings relating thereto respectively in the parish churches or chapels during divine service: And whereas by ancient custom notice is usually given in churches during divine service of the times appointed for holding courts leet, courts baron, and customary courts: And whereas it is expedient that such mode of giving notices should be altered:" It is enacted as follows, sect. 1," So So much of much of the said first recited act as directs the publication the first reof such notices to be made in the parish church or chapel directs pubon some Sunday during or immediately after divine service lication of shall be and the same is hereby repealed; and that from notices reand after the first day of January next no proclamation pealed. or other public notice for a vestry meeting or any other to be given matter shall be made or given in any church or chapel in churches during or after divine service, or at the door of any church during divine service, &c. or chapel at the conclusion of divine service." cited act as Notices not the church Sect. 2. "All proclamations or notices which under or Notices hereby virtue of any law or statute, or by custom or otherwise, tofore usually have been heretofore made or given in churches or chapels or after divine given during during or after divine service, shall be reduced into writing, service, &c. to and copies thereof either in writing or in print, or partly be affixed to in writing and partly in print, shall previously to the com- doors. mencement of divine service on the several days on which such proclamations or notices have heretofore been made or given in the church or chapel of any parish or place, or at the door of any church or chapel, be affixed on or near to the doors of all the churches and chapels within such parish or place; and such notices when so affixed shall be in lieu of and as a substitution for the several proclamations and notices so heretofore given as aforesaid, and shall be good, valid, and effectual to all intents and purposes whatsoever." tries to be Sect. 3. "No such notice of holding a vestry shall be Notices for affixed on the principal door of such church or chapel holding vesunless the same shall previously have been signed by a signed as churchwarden of the church or chapel, or by the rector, herein divicar, or curate of such parish, or by an overseer of the rected. poor of such parish; but that every such notice so signed. shall be affixed on or near to the principal door of such church or chapel." Decrees, &c. Sect. 4. "No decree relating to a faculty, nor any other not to be read decree, citation, or proceeding whatsoever in any ecclesiastical court, shall be read or published in any church or chapel during or immediately after divine service." in churches. Act not to extend to notices purely ecclesiastical. Sect. 5. "Nothing in this act shall extend or be construed to extend to the publication of banns, nor to notice of the celebration of divine service or of sermons, nor to restrain the curate, in pursuance of the rules in the Book of Common Prayer, from declaring unto the people what holy-days or fasting days are in the week following to be observed, nor to restrain the minister from proclaiming or publishing what is prescribed by the rules of the Book of Common Prayer, or enjoined by the Queen or by the ordinary of the place." CHAPTER XII. SUNDAYS, HOLIDAYS AND FASTS. tion of the Lord's Day. By canon. By Can. 13 of 1603, "All manner of persons within the Due observaChurch of England shall celebrate and keep the Lord's Day, commonly called Sunday, according to God's holy will and pleasure and the orders of the Church of England prescribed in that behalf, that is, in hearing the word of God read and taught, in private and public prayers, in acknowledging their offences to God, and amendment of the same, in reconciling themselves charitably to their neighbours where displeasure hath been, in oftentimes receiving the communion of the body and blood of Christ, in visiting the poor and sick, using all godly and sober conversation." By 29 Car. 2, c. 7, all persons shall on every Lord's By statute Day apply themselves to the observation of the same, by 29 Car. 2, c. 7. exercising themselves thereon in the duties of piety and religion, publicly and privately; and no tradesman, artificer, workman, labourer, or other person whatsoever, shall do or exercise any worldly labour, business or work of their ordinary callings on the Lord's Day or on any part thereof (works of necessity and charity only excepted), and every person being of the age of fourteen years and upwards offending in the premises shall forfeit 5s. And no person shall publicly cry, show forth, or expose to sale, any wares, merchandizes, fruit, herbs, goods or chattels whatsoever, upon the Lord's Day or any part thereof, on pain of forfeiting the same. And no drover, horse-courser, waggoner, butcher, higgler or any of their servants, shall travel or come in to his or their inn or lodging upon the Lord's Day or any part thereof, on pain of 20s. And no person shall use, employ or travel upon the Lord's Day with any boat, wherry (a), lighter or barge (except it be upon extraordinary occasion to be allowed by a justice of the peace of the county, or head officer or some justice of (a) But see 7 & 8 Geo. 4, c. lxxv, ss. 1, 2, a local act for the River Thames. P. VOL. II. 3 x By statute 29 Cases on this act. peace of the city, borough or town corporate where the fact shall be committed), on pain of 5s. And if any person offending in any of the premises shall be thereof convicted before any justice of the peace of the county, or chief officer or justice of the peace of the city, borough or town corporate where the offence shall be committed, on view or confession or oath of one witness; the said justice or chief officer shall give warrant to the constables or churchwardens of the parish where the offence shall be committed, to seize the said goods cried, showed forth, or put to sale as aforesaid, and to sell the same, and to levy the said other forfeitures or penalties by distress and sale; and in default of such distress, or in case of insufficiency or inability of the said offender to pay the said forfeitures or penalties, that then the party offending be set publicly in the stocks by the space of two hours. And all the forfeitures or penalties aforesaid shall be employed and converted to the use of the poor of the parish where the offence shall be committed, save only that such justice, mayor or other head officer may reward the informer out of the same, not exceeding the third part. But this shall not extend to the prohibiting of dressing of meat in families, or dressing or selling of meat in inns, cookshops or victualling houses, for such as otherwise cannot be provided; nor to the crying or selling of milk before nine of the clock in the morning or after four of the clock in the afternoon. Prosecution for the said offences to be in ten days. On this act the following cases have occurred. Rex v. Cox was a motion for an information against a justice of the peace, for refusing to proceed upon an information against a baker, who baked puddings and pies, and other such things for dinner. The court were of opinion that this was not an offence within the act, it being a work of necessity and charity, and within the equity of the proviso relating to a cook's shop; for it is better that one baker and his men should stay at home, than many families and servants (b). Afterwards a baker was convicted, by four separate convictions, for selling hot loaves on the same Sunday. But the court said that there could be but one entire offence on the same day, and therefore only one penalty of 5s. (c). And in 34 Geo. 3, a baker being convicted on the statute for baking meat and pastry for his customers on a Sunday; per Lord Kenyon, Chief Justice:— (b) 2 Burr. 785. (c) Creps v. Durden, Cowp. 640. The laborious part of the community must be fed on that day; and many of them have not the means of dressing their dinners at home. The Sabbath will be better observed, if the construction put upon this law in Rex v. Cox be adopted, than by overruling that determination. And the conviction was quashed (d). In Rex v. Witnash (e), it was held that the stat. 29 Car. 2, c. 7, prohibits only the labour, business or work done in the course of a man's ordinary calling. It does not apply to a contract of hiring; therefore a contract for a year, made on a Sunday, between a farmer and a labourer, is valid, and service under such a contract confers a settlement. The real purport of the words "ordinary calling," is fully explained by Chief Justice Mansfield, in Drury v. Defontaine (f), which contains also a clear exposition of the common law on the observation of the Sabbath. "The bargaining for and selling horses on a Sunday is certainly a very indecent thing, and what no religious person would do. But we cannot discover that the law has gone so far as to say that every contract made on a Sunday shall be void, although under these penal statutes, if any man, in the exercise of his ordinary calling, should make a contract on the Sunday, that contract would be void. It appears that the horse was not sent to Hull for the purpose of private sale, but for the purpose of being sold by auction; for it may be gathered from the evidence that Hull keeps a repository for sale by auction. Therefore Hull did not sell this horse, properly speaking, as a horse dealer. It is said by Lord Coke, that the Christian religion is part of the common law, and such a sale certainly is directly contrary to the practice of those religious duties, which it was the purpose of the legislature to enforce, as expressed in the preamble of the statute 29 Car. 2, c. 7, that every 'person whatsoever shall on the Lord's Day apply them'selves to the observation of the same, by exercising them'selves thereon in the duties of piety and true religion 'publicly and privately;' which certainly is not likely to be done by those whose minds are engaged in making bargains and selling horses. Lord Coke (g) cites a Saxon law of King Ethelstan, the latter part of which is, Die autem dominica nemo mercaturam facito; id quod si quis egerit et ipsa merce, et triginta præterea solidis mulctator; upon which Lord Coke observes, Here note, by the way, 'that no merchandising shall be on the Lord's Day.' But it (d) Rex v. Younger, 5 T. Rep. 7 Barn, & Cr. 596. 449. (e) 1 Man. & Ry. 452; S. C., 6 (f) 1 Taunt. Rep. 135. |