Special Rules may, with the sanction of the authorities, be made by the owners of works for the guidance of their workmen, and fines may be annexed thereto, not exceeding which may be recovered beform the magistrates. A printed copy thereof must be given to each workman affected thereby. • Procedure.—In calculating the proportion of acid to the cubic foot of air smoke or gases, such air smoke or gases shall be calculated at the temperatures of 60° Fahr., and at a barometer pressure of thirty inches. Actions for fines must be brought within three months after the commission of the offence, as a debt due to the inspector, in the local County Court. Appeal is to the Court of Appeal, by way of special case, agreed by both parties. If such agreement is impossible, the special case is to be settled by the judge of the County Court. In Scotland, the Court of the sheriff or sheriff-substitute takes the place of the County Court. A person is not subject to a fine for more than one offence in respect of the same works or place in respect of any one day. Not less than twenty-one clays before the day of trial, in cases of failing to secure the condensation of any gas to the satisfaction of the chief inspector, an inspector must serve on the owner a notice in writing, stating, as the case may require, either the facts on which such chief inspector founds his opinion, or the means the owner failed to use, and those which in the chief inspector's opinion would suffice. It would be a defence to such proceedings that the owner had used due diligence to comply with and enforce the requirements of the Act, and that the offence had been committed by some agent, servant, or H orkman, specifically named, without the ow ner's knowledge, consent, or connivance. 1Vhere a nuisance arises from a noxious gas, a holly or partially caused by the acts or defaults of several persons, the person injured may proceed against any one or more of such persons. Damages may be recovered from each person in proportion to the extent of his contribution to the nuisance, even though the act or default of such person would not separately have caused the nuisance. This rule does not apply to any defendant who can produce a certificate from the chief inspector that in the works of such defendant the requirements of the Act had been complied with and were complied with when the nuisance arose. This Act does not, however, legalise any act or default that would, otherwise, be a nuisance or contrary to law. Nor do they deprive auy person of any remedy by action, indictment, or otherwise, to which he would have been entitled if the Act had not been passed.
ALLOTMENTS.—From Anglo-Saxon times to the Tudor, nearly the entire population of England subsisted directly land. The lord obtained his subsistence from his demesne, a hich was cultivated by [medial slaves and by manorial tenants. The former had no land of their ow n, whilst the latter merely occupied small plots of land attached to their ,tvellings, with certain rights of common. The number of these small
holdings was comparatively very great. For example, in what became in the seventeenth century one farm of 160 acres, there were up to the fifteenth century at lea§t twenty-one several holdings. In the sixteenth century the number had decreased to six. This example is a typical instance of the increasing con solidation which culminated in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. And during this period, money wages became increasingly common and small land holding scarcer. Legislative efforts were made to stay the process. By a statute of Elizabeth, for example, penalties were enacted against building any cottages " without laying four acres of land thereto "; and to this day the word cottage in its legal significance presumes an attachment of laud. But such legislation was of no avail, for a series of common-enclosing legislative Acts was for ever increasing the lands of the landowners. From the reign of George I. to that of George III. about four thousand enclosure bills were passed, thereby depriving many labourers of their land. The Select Vestry Act of 1819 and several Acts of William IV. endeavoured to remedy the evil. Ultimately the Inclosure Act of 1845 empowered the Board of Agriculture to vest land in the churchwardens and overseers of a parish to be let in allotments to industrious inhabitants. Up to 1868, however, but little use had been made of the facilities granted by the legislature.
In 1882 the Allotments Extension Act was passed. Then, in 1887 and 1890, further Acts were passed on this subject. The combined effect of these two Acts and the Local Government Act, 1894, was to empower a District Council, on the petition of six ratepayers, to purchase land for allotments not to exceed one acre each. Now the law has been finally amended and con solidated by the Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1908, and a Small Holdings Act of 1910 which provides compensation to tenants on whom notice to quit is served with a view to the use of the land for the provision of small holdings. Rules under the chief Act were issued by the Board of Agriculture in March 1910. Borough, Urban, District, and Parish Councils have power to purchase land and let it in allotments to the labouring classes within their area. Should such a Council make default in the exercise of these powers the County Council may act. No single person can hold more than five acres as an allotment or allotments, and the rent fixed by the Council must be an amount not less than such as may reasonably be expected to ensure the Council from loss. An allotment cannot be sub-let. A register must be kept by the Council showing the let and unlet allotments, and this should be open to the inspection of every ratepayer in the parish.