cuniary penalty of £5(1). To prevent the spurious substitution of one article for another, a loaf made of the meal of any other grain than wheat, is required to be marked with a large Roman M, under a penalty of £20 (2). Justices, and peace officers under their warrants, may enter in the day-time into the premises of any miller, mealman, or baker, and take to their assistance other master millers or bakers, and search for adulterous articles; and if adjudged to be such, they may be disposed of as the magistrates think fit (3). The offender is also liable to a £20 penalty, or six months' imprisonment, and to have his name published in a newspaper, with the offence of which he has been guilty (4). Obstructing such search or seizure exposes the offender to a £10 penalty; and if a baker make it appear that an offence, for which he has paid the penalty, has been occasioned by the wilful default of a servant, the magistrate may order the servant to pay a sum of money by way of recompence, and, on default, commit him for six months. (5) Bread made for sale, of whatever quality, is required to be of 3. Weight. the following weight, avoirdupois, viz.: the peck loaf, 17 lbs. 6 oz.; the half-peck, 8 lbs. 11 oz.; the quarter, 4 lbs. 5 oz.; the half-quarter, 2 lbs. 23 oz. ; the pound loaf, 16 cz. Every seller of bread is required to have fixed, in some convenient place in his shop, a beam and scales, with proper weights; and a person purchasing, may, if he think proper, require it to be weighed in his presence (6). A baker neglecting to fix such beam and scales in some convenient part of his shop, or to provide and keep for use proper weights, or keeping deficient weights, or refusing to weigh bread purchased in his shop, in the presence of the parties requiring it, is liable to a penalty of 40s. (7) The offence of selling bread deficient in weight exposes the offender to a penalty of 10s. for every ounce deficient, and so in proportion for a less quantity; but the seller is not liable for this deficiency, unless the bread be weighed and the fault discovered within twenty-four hours after it has been baked. And French or fancy bread or rolls are not under any restriction. (8) (1) 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 5. c. 99. s. 6. c. 99. s. 6. (5) 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 8. BREAD. 4. Time and Mode of Sale. 5. Penalties and Indemnities. No person employed in the business of a baker, within these limits, is at liberty, on the Lord's day, to make bread, rolls, or cakes of any kind; nor to expose them to sale on any part of the day, except between nine in the forenoon and two in the afternoon; nor to bake or deliver meat or victuals (except a master or mistress baker residing within these limits, who is allowed to deliver to customers, on the Lord's day, any bakings until half-past two in the afternoon); nor to be engaged in the business in any other manner, except so far as may be necessary in setting and superintending the sponge, to prepare the bread or dough for the next day's baking: a person offending against these regulations, and being convicted on the view of a justice, on confession or proof, is liable to pay, for the first offence, 10s.; for the second, 20s.; and for the third, 40s.; with the costs of the prosecution: such costs, together with such part of the penalty as the justice may think proper, to be allowed to the prosecutor for loss of time, at the rate of 3s. a-day; and the residue of the penalty to be paid to the justice, and, within seven days after his receipt, to be transmitted to the churchwardens or overseers of the poor;-if not paid within fourteen days, to be levied by distress, or, in default, the offender to be imprisoned (1). It has been determined, that an offender cannot be convicted in more than one penalty on the same day, under the stat. 29 Car. 2. c. 7., for exercising his ordinary calling on a Sunday (2). No person concerned in the business of a mealman or baker can act as a justice of the peace, under the 55 Geo. 3. c. 99.; the penalty for so doing is £50, to be recovered by action of debt (3). To provide for the easy prosecution of persons offending against the provisions of the statute, it is declared, that it shall be lawful for the lord mayor, or an alderman, or any other magistrate within his jurisdiction, to hear and determine offences in a summary way; to summon the accused; and if he do not appear, or excuse himself, to issue a warrant, after oath made by a credible witness: and, in case of appearance, or default after notice, or non-apprehension on the warrant, the magistrate (1) 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 12. See the decision on the old acts, 2 Burr. 785. 1125. 5 T. R. 449. 3 Burr. 1859., and see 59 Geo. 3. c. 36. s. 11. post. (2) Crepps v. Durden, 2 Cowp. 640. (3) 55 Geo.3. c. 99. loc. & pers. s. 13. will proceed with the case; for want of distress to levy penalty, the offender may be imprisoned for one calendar month (1). A form of conviction is given by the act, which is not removable by certiorari; an appeal lies to the sessions, and costs may be given against the failing party (2). No conviction can take place for an offence under the act, unless the information be exhibited within fourteen days, except in cases of perjury; and no person convicted under the act is liable to be prosecuted under any other law (3). Where an action is brought against a magistrate or peace officer, for any thing done under the act, it must be commenced within six months, and brought in the proper county, and the provisions of the 24 Geo. 2. c. 44. must be complied with (4); there must be seven days' notice of action; the defendant may tender amends, and having judgment in his favour, or being discharged by a nonsuit, &c., is entitled to costs; if the verdict be the other way, the plaintiff is entitled to damages and costs (5). The general issue may be pleaded, and treble costs recovered, if the suit end favourably to the defendant (6). The act declares, that it shall not prejudice or affect the rights or privileges of the city of London, or of the company of bakers of that city, or of the wardmote inquests of that city; or of the city or liberties of Westminster, or borough of Southwark; or any right or custom of leets, or the rights of any clerk of the market, exercisable by virtue of any charters, prescriptions, grants, or acts of parliament, (except so far as relates to the assize of bread, and the regulations of the price and weight thereof) (7). In the construction of a grant, by letters patent, from the crown to the masters and wardens of the corporation of bakers (there being four wardens), of full power, by themselves or their deputies, to overlook and correct the trade of baking, it was held, that the master and one warden could. not justify entering the house of a baker to overlook bread; for if they acted as principals, they did not amount to a majority of the persons to whom the power was entrusted; and if they acted (1) 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 14. (2) 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 19. (3) 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 24. (4) The reason why the 24Geo.2. is particularly mentioned in these acts seems to be that some aldermen and other persons, who may not be justices of the peace, are empowered to act under 55 Geo. 3. (5) 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 21, BREAD. BREAD. Bread, in Parts without the Bills of Mortality. Where Assize is set. as deputies, it should have appeared that they were appointed by the majority. (1) The assize has not been abolished in parts of the kingdom without the bills of mortality. The general provisions are therefore twofold; some respecting places where an assize is set, and others where there is no assize. The statute 31 Geo. 2. c. 29. repealed all the former laws relating to the assize of bread, and re-enacted the same with additions and amendments (2). Of this statute it is observed in Burn's Justice, that it is "throughout the whole a very regular and judicious act; so that the author had nothing more to do (says the book) than to abridge the same in the order in which it stands, — not being able in point of method to alter it for the better (2)." The provisions of this statute, however, (which, in s. 2. empowers the setting of the assize, in s. 5. directs that it shall be in avoirdupois weight; in s. 7. and 8. directs how the prices of grain shall be certified as well in cities and towns corporate, as within counties at large; in s. 9. directs that bakers shall inspect the returns made and entered; and in s. 10. prohibits any fee from being taken from bakers,) in respect of the assize, have been much altered by subsequent acts of Parliament, in particular by the 53 Geo. 3. c. 116. (3), which appoints a new mode of setting the assize, by the 38 Geo. 3. c. 62. s. 1., which required an addition to be made on account of a new duty on salt; and by the 13 Geo. 3. c. 62. s. 19., which directs that one or two bailiffs, in whom the chief magistracy of a corporation is vested, may act in the assize in the absence of the other. It is enacted, that where an assize is thought proper to be set, no person shall make or expose for sale any sort of bread except wheaten and household (otherwise brown) bread, and such other sorts of bread as shall be allowed in the assize; but where it has been usual to make, or the persons setting the assize shall allow the making of bread with the meal or flour of rye, barley, oats, beans, or pease, or of any such different sorts of grain mixed (1) Cook v. Loveland, 2 Bos. & Pul. 31. Let. Pat. 26. May 11. 2 Eliz. (2) See Burn, J. Bread, s. 1 & 2, where all the provisions upon this subject, except those that relate exclusively to London, &c. are very fully detailed. See 51 Hen. 3. st. 6. 8 Ann. c. 18. s. 1. the old stat. as to the assize. (3) With mode of making returns and penalty for false returns, &c. together, the same may be there made and sold accordingly; and if any person shall offend in the premises, and be convicted thereof by confession or oath of one witness before any magistrate or justice within the limits of their jurisdiction, he shall forfeit not exceeding 40s. nor less than 20s. (1) BREAD. Bread is not allowed to be sold at any greater price than the Assize. assize price; nor can a baker refuse to sell bread of any of the sorts allowed or ordered by the act to be made, to any person who tenders ready money in payment when he has any loaf in his possession to be sold more than shall be requisite for the immediate necessary use of his family or his customers, the proof of which, if required, lies upon him, on pain of forfeiting not more than 40s. nor less than 10s. (2). Bread of an inferior quality to wheaten is not allowed to be sold at a higher than the assize price for household, penalty 20s. (3). And by an old statute of Edw. 6., a baker conspiring not to sell bread, except at certain prices, is liable to forfeit £10 for the first offence, and if not paid in six days, twenty days' imprisonment, and bread and water; for the second offence £20, or the pillory; and for the third offence £40, or the pillory, the loss of an ear, and perpetual infamy. (4) The statute 31 Geo. 2. c. 29. requires, that the several sorts Ingredients. of bread for sale shall be always well made in their several degrees according to the goodness of the several sorts of meal or flour of which they ought to be made; and no alum or other mixture except only the genuine meal or flour which ought to be put in it, and common salt, pure water, eggs, milk, yeast, and barm, or such leaven as shall be allowed to be put by those who have set the assize; and where no assize is set (5), then such leaven as any justice within his jurisdiction shall allow to be used in making dough or bread, or as or for leaven to ferment dough, or on any other account, in the trade of making bread, under any pretence whatever, on pain that every person (other than a servant or journeyman), who shall knowingly offend in the premises, and shall be convicted thereof by confession or oath of one witness before any such magistrate, shall forfeit not more than (1) 31 Geo. 2. c. 29. s. 3. (5) See now where no assize is set, 59 Geo. 3. c. 36. s. 7, 8. £5 penalty, infra, and in London, 55 Geo. 3. c. 99. s. 3. ante. |