The penalty against unlawfully pawning goods the property of others is between 20s. and 51., besides the full value of the goods pledged ; and in default of payment, the offending party may be committed for three months' imprisonment and hard labour. Persona forgifig or counterfeiting duplicates, or not being able to glve a good account of themselves on offering to pawn goods, are liable to imprisonment for any period not exceeding three months. Pawnbrokers or other persons buying or taking in pledge unfinished goods, linen, or apparel entrusted to others to wash or mend, are to forfeit double the sum advanced and to restore the goods. The Act empowers police-officers to search pawnbrokers houses or warehouses when suspected to contain unfinished goods unlawfully pledged, and goods unlawfully pawned must be restored to the owner by the pawnbroker. Goods that have been stolen and pawned may be ordered by the judge or magistrate before whom the thief is convicted to be restored to the real owner ; and without proceedings against the thief they may be recovereg by the owner in an action at law against the pawnbroker.
All pawned goods are deemed forfeited at the end of one year. If redeemed, the pawnbroker must endorse on his duplicate the charge for interest, and keep it in his possession for one year. Articles on which sums have been advanced of Ns. and not exceeding UN., if not redeemed, must be sold by auction, after being exposed to public view and at least two days' notice having been given of the sale. The catalogue of sale must contain the name and abode of the pawnbroker, the month the goods were received, and their number as entered in the books and on the duplicate. Pictures, prints, books, bronzes, statues, busts, carvings in ivory and marble, cameos, intaglios, musical, mathematical, and philosophical instruments, and china, must bo sold separate from other goods, on the first Monday in January, April, July, and October in every year. On notice not to sell given in writing, or in the presence of one witness, from persons having goods in pledge, three months further arc allowed beyond the year for redemption ; and if the owner tender principal and interest and demand delivery of the goods any time before sale, the pawnbroker is not afterwards entitled to sell them. But in the fact of selling unre deemed pledges there is no further warranty implied by law on the part of the pawnbroker than that the goods are unredeemed pledges, and that he is not cognisant of any defect of title attaching to them. An account of sales of pledges above 10s. must be entered in a book kept by the pawnbroker, and If articles are sold for more than the sum for which they were pledged, with Interest thereon, the owner is entitled to the surplus, if demanded within three years after;the sale.
Pawnbroker,' rale-books aro open to inspection on payment of a fee of one penny. The penalty on jewnbrokers' selling goods before the proper time, or injuring or losing them, and not making compensation to the owner, according to the award of a magistrate, is let They are rewired to produce their book, on the order of a magistrate in any dispute concerning pledges, and are not to purchase goads which are in their custody. The Act extends to the executors of pawn brokers.
The Act prohibits pledges being taken from persona intoxicated or muter twelve years of age. (By the ' Metropolitan' Police Act (2 & 3 Viet , c. 47), a fine of 5L is inflicted upon pawnbrokers taking pledges from persons under the age of sixteen.) Pawnbrokers are prohibited from buying goods between the hours of 8 A.M. and 7 r.u.; and by the 9 k 10 Vkt., e. 93 from receiving pledges between Michaelmas-day and Lady-day before 8 A.M. or after 7 r.u.; and for the remainder of the year, before 7 A.M. or after 8 P.m., excepting on Saturdays and the evenings preceding Good Friday and Christmas Day, or any public fast or thanksgiving day appointed by the Crown, when the hour for dosing is extended to 11 rat. They are required to place a table of profits and charges in a conspicuous part of their places of bnsiness.
Pawnbrokers are required to take out an annual licence from the Stamp-Office; and, to enable them to take in pledge articles of gold and silver, a second licence is necessary, which costs 51. 15s. Those who carry on business within the limits of the old Twopenny Post pay 151. a-year for their licence, and in other parts of Great Britain 71. 10s. The licence expires on the 31st July, and a penalty of 50/. is incurred if it is not renewed ten days before. No licence is required in Ireland, but those who carry on the business of a pawnbroker must be registered. Any one who enters into secret partnership with a pawn broker for the purpose of carrying on that busioess, even although the agreement stipulates only for a right to inspect the books and to receive a per centage on the business done, renders himself liable to penalties under the statute. But to repress the practice of laying frivolous and unfounded informations against this class of tradesmen, the 2 & 3 Viet. c. 71, as. 32-35, giving power to magistrates to award amends in such cases, to inflict penalties on common informers who compound informations, to diminish the amount of the portion awarded of the penalty to any informer, and further to diminish the term of imprisonment fixed in the case of offenders, is extended by the 22 & 23 Viet. c. 14 to the 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 99, and to all parts of England, and to all magistrates, justices, or justices of the peace.