Section 2 enacts power to appeal against conviction.

Section 3 enacts that no certiorari shall lie.

Section 4 enacts that summary proceedings may be taken under 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, except in London and the Metropolitan police district. Section 5 enacts that the Act shall extend to England only.

Section 6. This Act shall commence and take effect from the 1st day of September, 1863.

CHAPTER III.

SERVANTS' CHARACTERS.

32 GEORGE III. c. 56 (1792).

An Act for preventing the counterfeiting of certificates of the characters of servants (a).

WHEREAS many false and counterfeit characters of servants have either been given personally, or in writing, by evil disposed persons being, or pretending to be, the master, mistress, retainer or superintendent of such servants, or by persons who have actually retained such servants in their respective service, contrary to truth and justice, and to the peace and security of his Majesty's subjects: And whereas the evil herein complained of is not only difficult to be guarded against, but is also of great magnitude, and continually increasing, and no sufficient remedy has hitherto been applied. Be it therefore enacted by the King's most excellent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that from and after the first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-two, if any person or persons shall falsely personate any master or mistress, or the executor, administrator, wife, relation, housekeeper, steward, agent, or servant of any such master or mistress, and shall, either personally or in writing, give any false, forged or counterfeited character to any person offering him or herself to be hired as a servant into the service of any person or persons, then, and in such case, every such person or persons so offending shall forfeit and undergo the penalty or punishment hereinafter mentioned and in that behalf provided.

2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said first day of July, one thousand seven hundred and ninetytwo, if any person or persons shall knowingly and wilfully pretend, or falsely assert in writing, that any servant has been hired or retained for any period of time whatsoever, or in any station or capacity whatsoever, other than that for which or in which he, she, or they shall have hired or retained such servant in his, her, or their service or employment, or

(a) See as to servants' characters, Part I., Chapter XVIII.

for the service of any other person or persons, that then, and in either of the said cases, such person or persons so offending as aforesaid shall forfeit and undergo the penalty or punishment hereinafter mentioned and in that behalf provided.

3. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said first day of July one thousand seven hundred and ninetytwo, if any person or persons shall knowingly and wilfully pretend or falsely assert in writing, that any servant was discharged or left his, her, or their service at any other time than that at which he or she was discharged or actually left such service, or that any such servant had not been hired or employed in any previous service, contrary to truth, that chen, and in either of the said cases, such person or persons shall forfeit and undergo the penalty or punishment hereinafter mentioned and in that behalf provided.

4. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from an d after the said first day of July one thousand seven hundred and ninetytwo, if any person shall offer himself or herself as a servant, asserting or pretending that he or she hath served in any service in which such servant shall not actually have served, or with a false, forged, or counterfeit certificate of his or her character, or shall in anywise add to or alter, efface, or erase any word, date, matter, or thing contained in or referred to in any certificate given to him or her by his or her last or former actual master or mistress, or by any other person or persons duly authorised by such master or mistress to give the same, that then, and in either of the said cases, such person or persons shall forfeit and undergo the penalty or punishment hereinafter mentioned and in that behalf provided.

5. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said first day of July one thousand seven hundred and ninetytwo, if any person or persons, having before been in service, shall, when offering to hire himself, herself, or themselves as a servant or servants in any service whatsoever, falsely and wilfully pretend not to have been hired or retained in any previous service as a servant, that then and in such case such person or persons shall forfeit and undergo the penalty or punishment hereinafter mentioned and in that behalf provided.

6. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that from and after the said first day of July one thousand seven hundred and ninetytwo, if any person or persons shall be convicted of any or either of the offence or offences aforesaid, by his, her, or their confession, or by the oath of one or more credible witness or witnesses, before two or more justices of the peace for the county, riding, division, city, liberty, town, or place, where the offence or offences shall have been committed (which oath such justices are hereby empowered and required to administer), every such offender or offenders shall forfeit the sum of twenty pounds, one moiety whereof shall be paid to the person or persons on whose information the party or parties offending shall have been convicted,

and the other moiety thereof shall go and be applied for the use of the poor of the parish wherein the offence shall have been committed; and if the party who shall have been so convicted shall not immediately pay the said sum of twenty pounds so forfeited, together with the sum of ten shillings for the costs and charges attending such conviction, or shall not give notice of appeal, and enter into recognizance in the manner hereinafter mentioned and in that behalf provided, such justices shall and may commit every such offender to the house of correction or some other prison of the county, riding, division, city, liberty, town, or place, in which he or she shall have been convicted, there to remain and be kept to hard labour, without bail or mainprize, for any time not exceeding three months, nor less than one month, or until he or she pay the said sum so forfeited, together with such costs and charges as aforesaid. 7. [Repealed by Statute Law Revision Act, 1871.]

8. Provided always, and be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that if any servant or servants, who shall have been guilty of any of the offences aforesaid, shall, before any information has been given or lodged against him, her, or them, for such offence, discover and inform against any person or persons concerned with him, her, or them in any offence against this Act, so as such offender or offenders be convicted of such offence in manner aforesaid, every such servant or servants so discovering and informing, shall thereupon be discharged and indemnified of, from, and against all penalties and punishments to which, at the time of such information given, he, she, or they might be liable by this Act, for or by reason of such his, her, or their own offence or offences.

9. [Form of conviction, see 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, s. 17, and schedule.] 10. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that if any person shall think himself or herself aggrieved by anything done in pursuance of this Act, such person may appeal to the justices of the peace at the next general or quarter sessions of the peace to be held for the county or place wherein the cause of complaint shall have arisen, such appellant entering into recognizance with two sufficient sureties, in the sum of twenty pounds each, conditioned to try such appeal, and abide the order of, and to pay such costs as shall be awarded by, such justices at such general or quarter sessions, upon due proof of such notice being given as aforesaid, and of the entering into such recognizance; which said justices shall hear and finally determine the causes and matters of such appeal in a summary way, and award such costs to the parties appealing or appealed against as they the said justices shall think proper, and the determination of such general or quarter sessions shall be final, binding, and conclusive to all intents and purposes; and no conviction or order made concerning any matters aforesaid, or any other proceedings to be had, touching the conviction or convictions of any offender or offenders against this Act, shall be quashed for want of form, or be removed by certiorari or any other writ or process whatsoever into any of his Majesty's courts of record at Westminster.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRUCK ACT.

ENACTMENTS intended to stop frauds and abuses arising out of the practice of paying workmen and labourers in goods of a poor quality, or of making unreasonable and excessive deductions from wages, are very ancient. As long ago as 1464 Parliament interfered (4 Ed. IV. c. 1, repealed by 1 & 2 Will. III. c. 36) with a view to protect labourers against being compelled to take a great part of their wages in "pins, girdles, and other unprofitable wares." Parliament declared that masters" shall pay to the carders, spinners, and all such others labourers, in any part of the said trade, lawful money for all their lawful wages, and payments of the same."

In 1565 the 8 Eliz. c. 7, s. 6 was passed for the benefit of the "sheermen, frizers, and cottoners" of Shrewsbury, to prohibit payment in wares. The 1 Anne, c. 18 (made per

petual by 9 Anne, c. 30; see also 10 Anne, c. 16, s. 6) was also passed in order to prevent " the oppression of the labourers and workmen employed in the woollen, linen, fustian, cotton, and iron manufacture." It declared that payments should be by lawful coin, and not by cloth, victuals, or commodities. As the manufactures of England extended, the evils of the truck system spread; and the Legislature interfered from time to time, now in one trade and now in another, with a view to ensure payment of wages in cash.

Acts dealing with this subject were passed in 1714 (1 Geo. I. s. 2, c. 15), in 1725 (12 Geo. I. c. 34, ss. 3, 4, & 8), in 1740 (13 Geo. II. c. 8, s. 6), in 1756 (29 Geo. II. c. 33), in