The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-03 00:00:00

first acts—those initiating a series—usually are.
With all their shortcomings the acts in question did
good service, They dealt a heavy blow at a certain
stolid fatalism to which we English were practically
addicted, however strenuously we might have denied
it in theory. Henceforth the laws of causation—of
antecedents and their consequents—were destined
to be applied to the conditions of public health. By
a consolidation and emendatory act, passed in 1855,
Parliament made a still farther advance in the path
of hygienic legislation, section the 26th being parti-
cularly conspicuous for the powers with which it
invested sanitary inspectors in their mode of dealing
with diseased food. These officers are empowered
" at all reasonable times to inspect and examine any
carcase, meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit,
vegetables, corn bread or flour exposed for sale, or
in the course of, or in the way to slaughtering,
dressing, or preparation for sale or use, or landed
from any ship or vessel in any port in England."
We will come to the penalty by and by, pausing in
the career of recital to intimate by way of necessary
parenthesis that a connection by no means occult
might once have been traced and established be-
t ween fall of barometric mercury and fall in the
prime cost of certain English-made sausages. A
period of stormy sea travelling is not conducive to
the longevity of such pigs and calves as may be
subjected to that ordeal. Travellers by steamer
may be confidently appealed to for their experience
in this matter ; and further they may, in the in-
terests of truth, be questioned as to whether they
severally ever witnessed the ceremonial of commit-
ting to the deep one solitary porcine or bovine
victim. As for the rest, imagination can fill the gap ;
suffice it to say, that the Consolidation Act of 1555
enacted, "That the person to whom such carcase,
meat, poultry, game, flesh, fish, fruit, vegetables,
corn bread, or flour belonged, or in whose custody
the same might be found, should be liable to a
penalty not exceeding £lO for every carcase,
fish, or piece of meat, flesh, or fish, or any poultry
or game, &c., so found." Apparently, the section
just quoted is adequate both in stringency and
perspicuity to secure all necessary practical ends.
Experience, however, having demonstrated the
reverse, the Amendment of Removal of Nuisances
Act was brought in and passed last E ession . The
preamble to this act states that the provisions of
the Consolidation Act of 1855 are defective " with
regard to the inspection and seizure of diseased and
unwholesome meat." The gist of amendment fur-
nished by the new act consists in making the proof
that inculpated articles were not exposed or de-
posited for sale, or intended for the food of man, rest
with the party charged, and in a considerable in-
crease of penalty. At present the person in whose
pessession, or on whose premises, the objectionable
articles are found is rendered liable to a penalty
not exceeding £2O for every animal carcase, &c.,
so found ; or, at the discretion of the justice, with-
out infliction of a fine, to imprisonment in the com-
mon gaol, or house of correction, for a term of not
more than three calendar months.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

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NEWARK.—WEDNESDAY.
A moderate supply of wheat at our market, and prices 6d
to is per qr higher. Malting barley a lair show, at former
rates. Oats 6d lower. Beans a ready sale.
White wheat new, 43s to 488 Barley, grinding 29s to 32s
Red do. ' 43s to 45s Oats, old, .. 2ss to 30s
Old white 44s to 49s New do 22s to 27s
Red do. ....... ....41s to 44s Beans.. 40s to 44s
Barley, malting....3ss to 40s Beans, new.. —s to -8