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 or transports.

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 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 eleanliness. 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 fortyfive 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 practitioner 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.

Passengers may be re-landed in case of sickness, and are in such case 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.

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. 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 issue 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 mean time.

In 1872, 35 & 36 V. c. 73, was passed to amend the Merchant Shipping acts. The duties of the commissioners of customs with respect to measurement of ships, and the powers of the Secretary of State, are transferred to the Board of Trade, and the duty of the commissioners of customs with respect to registry of ships are transferred to the registrar-general of seamen. Passenger steamers are to be surveyed once in every year. The owner of home-trade ships, or his agent, can enter into time agreements in forms to be sanctioned by the Board of Trade, with individual seamen to serve in any one or more ships belonging to him. Provided that a duplicate of such agreement be forwarded to the registrar-general of shipping within forty-eight hours after it has been entered into.

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 transferable 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 XXIII.

Pawnbrokers.

PAWN is a pledge or security for a loan of money, 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 1872 an act (35 & 36 V. c. 93) was passed for consolidating the acts relating to pawnbrokers in Great Britain, but it does not extend to Ireland. The act, after defining certain terms, extends its provisions to keepers of any shops for the purchase or sale of goods, with an understanding, either expressed or implied, that such goods may be afterwards redeemed or repurchased on any terms. This act extends to the executors or administrators of deceased pawnbrokers. The act applies to every loan by a pawnbroker of 40s. or under, to every loan by a pawnbroker of above 40s. and not above £10, except as in the act otherwise provided, in relation to cases where a special contract respecting the terms of the loan (as authorised by the act) is made between the pawner and the pawnbroker at the time of pawning. Nothing in the act shall apply to a loan by a pawnbroker of above £10, or to the pledge on which the loan is made, or to the pawnbroker or pawner in relation to the loan or pledge. And nothwithstanding anything in the act, a person is not to be deemed a pawnbroker by reason only of his paying, advancing, or lending on any terms, any sum or sums of above £10, s. 10. Nothing in the act is to apply to a loan made by a pawnbroker before the commencement of the act, or to the pledge on which the loan is made, or to the pawnbroker or pawner in relation to the loan or pledge, s. 11.

A pawnbroker is to keep such book and documents as are described in the third schedule to the act hereafter mentioned, and from time to time as occasion requires is to enter therein the particulars indicated in that schedule. If he fails to do so he is guilty of an offence against the act. He is always to keep exhibited in large characters over the outer door of his shop, his christian name and surname, with the word pawnbroker, and he is to keep placed in a conspicuous part of his shop (so as to be legible by every person pawning or redeeming pledges, standing in any box or place provided in the shop for persons pawning or redeeming pledges) the same information as is by the rules of the third schedule to the act required to be printed on pawn-tickets.

A pawnbroker, on taking a pledge in pawn, is to give to the pawner a pawn-ticket, and is not to take a pledge in pawn unless the pawner takes the pawn-ticket. A pawnbroker may take profit on a loan on a pledge at a rate not exceeding that specified in the fourth schedule to the act hereafter mentioned. A pawnbroker may demand the charges specified in the same schedule; he is not in respect of a loan on a pledge to take any profit, or demand or take any charge or sum whatever other than those specified in the same schedule; he is also, if required, at the time of redemption to give a receipt

for the amount of loan and profit paid to him. And such receipt is not to be liable to stamp duty unless the profit amounts to 408. or more. Every pledge is to be redeemable within twelve months from the day of pawning, exclusive of that day, and there are to be added to that year of redemption seven days of grace, within which every pledge (if not redeemed within the year of redemption) is to continue to be redeemable. A pledge pawned for 108. or under, if not redeemed within the year of redemption and days of grace, is at the end of the days of grace to become the pawnbroker's absolute property. A pledge pawned for above 108. is further to continue redeemable until it is disposed of as in the act provided, although the year of redemption and days of grace are expired. A pledge pawned for above 10s. is, when disposed of by the pawnbroker, to be disposed of by sale by public auction, and not otherwise, and the regulations in the fifth schedule to the act are to be observed with reference to the sale. A pawnbroker may bid for and purchase at a sale by auction made or purporting to be made under this act a pledge pawned with him. At any time within three years after the auction at which a pledge pawned for above 10s. is sold, the holder of the pawn-ticket may inspect the entry of the sale in the pawnbroker's book and in the filled-up catalogue of the auction (authenticated by the signature of the auctioneer). Where a pledge pawned for above 108. is sold, and appears from the pawnbroker's book to bave been sold for more than the amount of the loan and profit due at the time of sale, the pawnbroker is on demand to pay the surplus to the holder of the pawn-ticket, in case the demand is made within three years after the sale, the necessary costs and charges of the sale being first deducted. If on any such demand it appears from the pawnbroker's book that the sale of a pledge or pledges has resulted in a surplus, and that within twelve months before or after that sale the sale of another pledge or other pledges of the same person has resulted in a deficit, the pawnbrober may set off the deficit against the surplus, and is liable to pay the balance only after such set off.

A pawnbroker may, however, make a special contract with the pawner, in respect of a pledge on which the pawnbroker makes a loan of above 408., but the pawnbroker at the time of the pawning is to deliver to the pawner a special contract pawn-ticket signed by the pawnbroker. A duplicate of the special contract pawn-ticket is to be signed by the pawner.

The holder for the time being of a pawn-ticket is to be presumed to be the person entitled to redeem the pledge. A pawnbroker is not (except as in the act provided), bound to deliver back a pledge unless the pawn-ticket for it is delivered to him. Where a pledge is destroyed or damaged by or in consequence of fire, the pawnbroker is nevertheless liable, on application within the period