yards of road not to apply to locomotives used for ploughing purposes. Power given to local authorities to make order of passage of locomotive through towns. Penalty on violating such order, £10 or less.

VI. SHIPS PASSENGER ACT OF 1855.

This act, the 18 & 19 V. c. 119, repeals the act of 1852, but not that of 1853. It embodies the chief provisions of the former act, but allows rather more space for passengers, provides more boats for large ships, and makes better provision for enforcing contracts. It does not extend to cabin passengers, but cabin passengers are only such as mess with the master, and pay at least 30s. weekly during the voyage. Extends to every passenger ship on any voyage from Britain, Ireland, or the Channel Islands, to any place out of Europe, not within the Mediterranean Sea; except ships of war, transports, or mail steamers. Commissioners of Emigration to carry act into execution.

Facilities to be given by master to the proper officers to inspect any ship, whether a passenger ship or not, intended for the carriage of passengers. Any person found on board fraudulently attempting to obtain a passage, or persons aiding such attempt, liable to a penalty of £5, or imprisonment; and no passenger ship to clear out without a certificate of having complied with the provisions of the act. No ship to carry passengers on more than two decks, nor be allowed to clear out with a greater number of persons on board than in the proportion of one person to every two tons of the registered tonnage. Penalty for a greater number of either persons or passengers, for each not less than £5, or above £20. Two children under twelve years of age to be reckoned as one person or passenger, but children not above one year old not computed.

For light and air, the passengers at all times (weather permitting) to have free access to and from between decks by the hatchway appropriated for their use. Penalty on owner for failure, not above £50 nor less than £20. Two boats to be provided for every ship of less than 200 tons; three boats, if 200 tons and upwards; four boats, if of 400 tons. One boat to be a long boat, and one a life-boat, with life buoys, &c. Each ship to be manned with a proper complement of seamen. Gunpowder, vitriol, guano, green hides, or any other article likely to endanger life, or health, prohibited as cargo, and no part of the cargo to be on deck.

Dietary scale for each passenger (exclusive of any providings by the passengers themselves), of water at least three quarts daily; of provisions after the rate per week of three-and-a-half pounds of bread or biscuit, not inferior in quality to navy biscuit; one pound of wheaten flour, one-and-a-half pound of oatmeal, two ounces of tea, one pound of sugar, and two ounces of salt. The water to be pure, and the provisions sweet and wholesome. Such issue of provisions to be made daily before two o'clock in the afternoon, as

T

near as possible in the proportion of one-seventh part of the weekly allowance; first issue to be made on the day of embarkation to all passengers on board, and articles to be in a cooked state. Other articles of diet may be substituted by the master, in a fixed proportion, provided the substituted articles be set forth in the contract tickets of the passengers, s. 35. Emigration Commissioners may substitute other articles of food after notice in the London Gazette, s. 37.

In every ship with above 100 passengers, a passenger-steward, approved by the emigration officer, to be appointed, to be employed, in messing and serving out provisions, and maintaining order and cleanliness. Also a cook and cooking apparatus. In foreign passenger ships interpreters to be provided, ss. 38, 40.

No passenger ship, having fifty persons on board, and the computed voyage exceeding eighty days by sailing vessels, or forty-five by steamers, or having 100 persons on board, whatever the length of the voyage, and not bound to North America, allowed to proceed on the voyage without a duly qualified medical practioner on board. Ships bound to North America, and allowing fourteen in lieu of twelve feet superficial space for each passenger, may clear without medical practitioner. But no vessel to clear without medical man, if passengers exceed 500, s. 42.

Deceased persons to be relanded and entitled to recover their passage money. If passages not provided by owners, according to contract, passage-money to be returned, with compensation. Subsistence money, at the rate of one shilling per day for each passenger, to be paid by the owners, in case the day fixed for sailing be deferred. In case of wreck, another vessel to be provided for the passage, or compensation may be recovered. Passengers to be maintained and lodged during the voyage, and for forty-eight hours after arrival; ships putting back, to replenish provisions, medical stores, &c.

Surgeon, or in his absence the master, may exact obedience to rules and regulations, and persons obstructing liable to a penalty. Abstracts of the act to be prepared by commissioners, and two copies posted between decks. Penalty on master for neglect not above 40s.; or on any person displacing or defacing the same a like penalty. Sale of spirits on board prohibited under penalty of £20, or not less than £5, s. 62.

No person to act as a passage-broker without a license; penalty not less than £20, nor above £50. Licenses obtained at petty sessions of the district where the applicant has his office. Fraudulently altering contract ticket, or inducing any one to part with it, penalty not less than £2, nor above £5.

Certain exceptions from the provisions of the act in respect of Colonial voyages, that is, voyages from one colony to another, and not exceeding three weeks in computed duration. Governors of British possessions abroad may adopt the act with certain exceptions.

The act of 1855 was amended in 1863 by 26 & 27 V. c. 51, which defines a passenger vessel to signify every description of sea-going vessel, British or foreign, carrying fifty passengers, or greater number than in the proportion of one adult to every thirty-three tons of registered tonnage, if propelled by sails, or than one adult to every twenty tons if propelled by steam. Mail steamers carrying other than cabin passengers subject to the act. Cabin passengers to be included in passenger list, s. 6. Penalty on fraudulent attempt to get a passage without consent, or aiding a person therein, extended from £5 to £20. Horses and cattle may be conveyed under specified conditions, s. 8. The issue of six ounces of lime-juice to be confined to the period within the tropics, or other periods of the voyage to be at the discretion of the medical practitioner. Soft bread to be baked on board for other bread-stuffs of the dietary scale. Passengers landed on account of sickness, passage-money recoverable on surrender of contract ticket; but only half passage-money recoverable by cabin passengers, s. 14. Forfeiture of ship if master proceeds to sea without certificate of clearance, and be dealt with according to customs law. In case of wreck or damage near United Kingdom, passengers to be provided with passage by some other vessel, and maintained in the meantime.

Passengers to Ireland.-The 4 G. 4, c. 88, regulates the carrying of passengers between Britain and Ireland. By this act no master of a vessel, under 200 tons, shall take more than twenty passengers, unless licensed by the collector of the customs at the port of sailing. Vessels licensed not to take, exclusive of the crew, more than five adult persons, or ten children under fourteen, or fifteen children under seven years, for every four tons' burden; and if such vessel be partly laden with goods or wares, not to take more than the above proportion of passengers for every four tons that remain unladen. Penalty for carrying more than twenty without license, £50; and if licensed for more than the above proportion for each four tons' burden, £5 each passenger. Merchant vessels of not more than 100 tons not to carry more than ten persons, or not more than 200 tons not more than twenty persons ; penalty, £5 each person.

Excisable Articles.-The 9 G. 4, c. 47, enacts that the master of any packet or vessel employed in carrying passengers from one part of the United Kingdom to another is to be licensed by the commissioners of excise, or (5 W. 4, c. 75) by any officer of excise authorized to grant licenses, to retail foreign wine, strong beer, cider, perry, spirituous liquors, and tobacco, such license to be in force till the 5th of July following; and the master obtaining the license to produce a certificate of his nomination by the owner of the vessel; the license is transferrable by endorsement; s. 1. Duty to be paid by the owners on obtaining such license. £1; s. 2. Penalty for selling wines, &c., without license, for every offence, £10; s. 3.

CHAPTER XXI.

Pawnbrokers.

PAWN is a pledge or security for a loan of money, and which becomes forfeited unless it be redeemed by the repayment of the money advanced, with interest, within a period fixed by law.

A pawn cannot be taken in an execution against a pawnbroker; nor can it be used without the consent, express or implied, of the owner, Lit. Rep. 332.

A pawnbroker refusing to deliver up goods pledged on tender of the money may be indicted; because, being secretly pledged, it may be impossible to prove a deposit for want of witnesses, if an action of trover be only brought for them, 3 Salk. 268.

In the metropolis, no sale, exchange, or pawn of any jewel, plate, household stuff, or other goods stolen or wrongly taken, deprives the real owner of his property therein, and any pawnbroker refusing to produce such articles to the owner shall forfeit double the value, 1 Jac. c. 21. By 2 & 3 V. c. 71, a police magistrate may compel the restoration to the owner, with or without compensation to the pawnbroker, of goods so obtained.

Pawnbrokers trading in gold or silver plate are to take out an excise license, and pay a duty of £5 15s. per annum; also, if within the bills of mortality or two-penny post, or within the cities of London and Westminster, an annual license duty of £15; elsewhere £7 10s. Licenses expire annually on the 31st of July, and a penalty of £50 is imposed for not renewing them ten days before the time.

Every pawnbroker must cause his name, and the word "Pawnbroker," to be put up in large legible characters, above the door of his shop, on pain of forfeiting £10 per week.

The rate of interest on pledges, and other matters relative to pawnbrokers, are chiefly regulated by 39 & 40 G. 3, c. 99, by which the following rates are allowed :

For every pledge not exceeding 2s. 6d., one halfpenny for any term not exceeding one calender month it shall remain in pawn, and the same for every month afterwards, including the current month in which such pledge is redeemed, though such month is not expired.

So on in proportion for any sum not exceeding 40s.

d.

14

21

3

If exceeding

40s. and not exceeding 42s., eightpence; if exceeding 42s. and not exceeding £10, after the rate of threepence for every 20s. by the calendar month, and so in proportion for every fractional sum.

For any intermediate pledge between 2s. 6d. and 40s. the pawnbroker may take after the rate of 4d. for the loan of 20s. per month. Where the fraction of the sum to be paid is a farthing, the pawnbroker is bound to give a farthing in change for a halfpenny. Parties may redeem within seven days after the end of the first month without paying anything for the extra seven days, or within fourteen days on paying for one month and a half; but parties redeeming after the expiration of the fourteen days must pay the second month; and the like regulations are observable in every subsequent month, when the parties apply to redeem.

Pawns must be entered in a book, with a description of the goods, the money lent, the date, name, and abode of the person pawning; and a duplicate of this entry, with the name and abode of the pawnbroker, shall be given on a note to the pawner.

The duplicate is given gratis if the sum lent is under 5s., but if the money is above 5s. and under 10s. the pawnbroker may take a halfpenny; for 10s. and under 20s, one penny; 20s. and under £5, twopence; £5 or more, fourpence. Upon the production of the duplicate, the pawnbroker delivers up the goods pawned.

Every pawnbroker must exhibit in his shop, in large legible characters, the rate of profit, charges on duplicates, &c. Persons pawning goods without the authority of the owner, shall forfeit not less than 20s. or more than £5, with the full value of the goods; and, on default of payment, may be committed to the house of correction to hard labour for three months, and whipped. Persons forging or counterfeiting duplicates, or not giving an account of themselves on offering to pawn or redeem goods, may be seized and carried before a justice, who, on conviction, may send the offenders to the house of correction for any period not exceeding three months.

Persons buying, or taking in pledge, unfinished goods, or linen or apparel entrusted to others to wash or mend, shall forfeit double the sum lent, and restore the goods. Peace officers, under a warrant, may search for such goods, and, if found, restore them to the owner.

Persons producing the duplicates shall be deemed the owners; and where duplicates or memorandums are lost, the pawnbroker shall deliver a copy, with the form of an affidavit, receiving for the same, where the goods pawned do not exceed 5s., a halfpenny; exceeding 5s. and not 10s., one penny; if above 10s., according to the rates payable for the original duplicate; the affidavit being sworn before a justice of peace, the goods may be redeemed.

All pawned goods are forfeited and may be sold at the end of ONE YEAR. Where the sum lent is above 10s. and not exceeding £10, they must be sold by public auction, notice of such sale being