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ROBERT EDEN, Esq; Governor.
of Calvert county; Thomas Barnes, of Baltimore county;
Edward Davis, Isaac Green, Charles Fullerton,
George Taylor, of Somerset county; James Barranee, William
Graham, John Thomas, Unicy
Williams, James Underwood, of Dorchester county; John
Field, Rhodes Clark, Moses Guttry, of Worcester
county; John Bryan, Abner Jones, Thomas Sparks, James
Crann, of Queen-Anne's county;
John Smallwood, Thomas Coffer, Joseph Hagar, Alexander
McPherson, Matthew Coffer, Benjamin Gardiner,
of Charles county; John Burkett, of Cæcil county. |
1774.
CHAP.
XXII. |
CHAP. XIII.
An ACT for regulating the gauging of casks in the town of Baltimore. |
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WHEREAS great abuses are daily committed in the
buying and selling
of wine, rum, and other liquid merchandises, in disproportionable
casks, in Baltimore-town, which have been usually gauged by the diagonal,
which is known not to be an exact rule to find the contents of a disproportionable
cask, and the persons selling such commodities commonly refusing to
submit to any other method or rule of gauging, the purchaser is thereby
imposed
upon, and often suffers great loss in want of just measure,; for the
redress of
which abuse for the future in the town aforesaid, |
Preamble. |
II. Be it enacted,
by
the right honourable the lord proprietary, by and with
the advice and consent of his governor, and the upper and lower
houses of assembly,
and the authority of the same, That if any merchant or other
person whatsoever,
shall sell, or put to sale, any butt, tun, pipe, hogshead, barrel,
or other cask of
rum, wine, molasses, or other liquid merchandise, imported, brought
into, or made,
in the said town, before the gauger hereafter mentioned, or his deputy,
shall have
plainly and truly set down or marked upon the head of such vessel,
the capacity
and full contents of the same, according to the standard and excise
of wine measure,
by the gallon, each person or persons shall forfeit, for the uses directed
in
this act, the sum of eight pounds current money for every cask so sold
or put
to sale. |
Persons not to
sell any cask
of rum, &c.
before the
same be
gauged, &c. |
III. And be
it enacted, That if any merchant or other person shall sell, or
put
to sale, any such rum, wine, molasses, or other liquid merchandises, as
aforesaid, in
the said town of Baltimore, in any cask or vessel having the number of
gallons set
down and marked on the head of such vessel, and the same shall be found
to lack
of the contents marked on the said vessel, such person shall forfeit and
pay, to the
uses directed in this act, the sum of eight shillings current money for
every gallon
marked or numbered on the said cask more than it will truly contain. |
Penalty on
persons selling,
when the
cask shall be
found to lack
of the contents
marked. |
IV. And,
to the end that all persons dealing in such merchandise may the
more easily and readily be informed and assisted in discovering the true
quantity
of such liquid merchandise, so imported, brought into, or made in the said
town,
Be it further enacted, That the person
who shall be appointed gauger of wine,
rum, molasses, and other liquid merchandises, in the town aforesaid, by
the commissioners
of Baltimore-town aforesaid, for the time being, or the major part of
them, which commissioners, or the major part of them, are hereby empowered
to appoint such gauger, and him remove and another in his stead appoint,
the
said gauger (before he enters upon his said office, having taken an oath,
or affirmation
if a quaker, well and truly to execute the office of gauger in the said
town,
between buyer and seller,) is hereby empowered by himself, or his proper
deputy
or assistant, to gauge all such rum, wine, molasses, or other liquid merchandise,
imported, brought, or put in any butt, tun, pipe, hogshead, barrel, or
other cask,
in the said town, when he the said gauger, or his deputy, shall be thereunto
required;
and that they shall mark and set down the true number of gallons, according
to the English standard and excise of wine measure, which each cask or
vessel will truly contain, with their own mark; all which casks, with their
true
marks and numbers, and owners names, shall be entered in a book or books
to
be kept for that purpose by the said gauger, or his proper deputy, to which
recourse
may be had as occasion may require; for a copy of which entry they shall
receive three-pence common money, and for each cask so by them gauged and
marked, they shall receive the sum of four-pence common money, and no more;
and if any cask or other vessel, gauged and marked by the said gauger,
or his |
Gauger to be
appointed,
&c. |
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