The 53rd clause is of great importance in reference to the sanitary condition of the poor. It provides that from and after July 1, 1846, it shall not be lawful to let separately to hire as a dwelling any room or cellar not constructed according to the rules specified in schedule K, nor to occupy or suffer it to be occupied as such, nor to let, hire, occupy, or suffer to be occupied any such room or cellar, built under ground for any purpose, except for a warehouse or storeroom. The official referees and the registrar of metropolitan buildings soon after the passing of the act issued forms to the overseers of the poor within their district, in order to assist the parochial authorities in making a return, which must be ready by January 1, 1845, of all rooms which under the act are deemed unfit for dwellings, but which are now occupied as such. The building regulations contained in schedule K are as follows:-"With regard to back yards or open spaces attached to dwelling-houses, every house hereafter built or rebuilt must have an enclosed back yard or open space of at the least one square [a square is defined by the act to be 100 square feet, exclusive of any building thereon, unless all the rooms of such house can be lighted and ventilated from the street, or from an area of the extent of at the least three-quarters of a square above the level of the second story, into which the owner of the house to be rebuilt is entitled to open windows for every room adjoining thereto. And if any house already built be hereafter rebuilt, then, unless all the rooms of such house can be lighted and ventilated from the street, or from an area of the extent of at the least threequarters of a square, into which the owner of the house to be rebuilt is entitled to open windows for every room adjoining thereto, there must be above the level of the floor of the third story an open space of at the least three-quarters of a square. And to every building of the first class must be built some roadway, either to it or to the enclosure about it, of such width as will admit to one of its fronts of the access of a scavenger's cart. With regard to the lowermost rooms of houses, being rooms of which the surface of the floor

is more than three feet below the surface of the footway, and to cellars of buildings hereafter to be built or rebuilt, if any such room or cellar be used as a separate dwelling, then the floor thereof must not be below the surface or level of the ground immediately adjoining thereto, unless it have an area, fireplace, and window, and unless it be properly drained. And to every such lowermost room or cellar there must be an area not less than three feet wide in every part, from six inches below the floor of such room or cellar to the surface or level of the ground adjoining to the front, back, or external side thereof, and extending the full length of such side; such area, to the extent of at least five feet long and two feet six inches wide, must be in front of the window, and must be open, or covered only with open iron gratings And for every such room or cellar there must be an open fireplace, with proper flue therefrom, with a window-opening of at the least nine superficial feet in area, which window-opening must be fitted with glazed sashes, of which at the least four and a half superficial feet must be made to open for ventilation. With regard to rooms in the roof of any building hereafter built or rebuilt, there must not be more than one floor of such rooms, and such rooms must not be of a less height than seven feet, except the sloping part, if any, of such roof, which sloping part must not begin at less than three feet six inches above the floor, nor extend more than three feet six inches on the ceiling of such room. With regard to rooms in other parts of the building, every room used as a separate dwelling must be of at the least the height of seven feet from the floor to the ceiling.

§§ 54 and 55 provide for the restraint and eventual removal from populous neighbourhoods of trades which are dangerous, noxious, or offensive. Businesses dangerous as to fire must not be nearer than fifty feet to other buildings; and new businesses of this character must be forty feet from public ways. Persons are not in future to establish or newly carry on any such businesses within fifty feet of other buildings or forty feet from public ways; and all such businesses now

carried on within the distances limited by the act must be given up twenty years after the passing of the act. A penalty of 50%. is incurred for erecting buildings in the neighbourhood of any such businesses, and 50l. per day for carrying on businesses of a dangerous kind contrary to the act. The persons offending may be imprisoned for six months if the penalty be not paid. The businesses of a blood-boiler, bone-boiler, fellmonger, slaughterer of cattle, sheep, or horses, soap-boiler, tallow-melter, tripe-boiler, and any other business offensive or noxious, are to be subject to similar regulations as those deemed dangerous as to fire, and are to be discontinued at the end of thirty years after the passing of the act. Trades deemed nuisances may be removed by purchase at the public cost on memorial by two-thirds of the inhabitants, and on the issue of an order in council. Public gas-works, distilleries, and other works under the survey of the Excise are exempted from the operation of the provisions contained in §§ 54 and 55.

The whole number of clauses in the act is 118; and there are schedules of great length. They involve matters of technical detail, which it would be useless to give our object is only to exhibit the general character of this important legislative measure.

BULLETIN, a French word which has been adopted by the English to signify a short authentic account of some passing event, intended for the information of the public. Bulletin is derived from "bulla," a sealed dispatch. (Ducange, Glossarium.) When kings and other persons of high rank are dangerously ill, daily bulletins are issued by the physicians, relative to the state of the patient. In times of war, and after a great battle, bulletins are sometimes issued from the head-quarters of the victorious army, and are sent off to the capital to inform the people of the success. This practice became common with the French grand army under the immediate command of the Emperor Napoleon from the time of the campaign of Austerlitz in 1805 till the abdication in 1814.

BULLION, a term which is strictly

applicable only to uncoined gold and silver, but which is frequently used in discussions relating to subjects of public economy to denote those metals both in a coined and an uncoined state. In the Bank of England Charter Act (7 & 8 Vict. c. 22) the circulation of notes by the Issue department of the Bank is fixed at a cer tain amount, and any addition to the circulation must be based on bullion only. The proportion of silver bullion to be retained in the Issue department must not exceed one-fourth part of the gold coin and bullion. All persons may demand of the Issue department notes in exchange for gold bullion at the rate of 31. 17s. 9d. per ounce of standard gold, to be melted and assayed by persons appointed by the Bank, at the expense of the persons who tender the bullion. [BANK.] For an account of the sources of supply, &c., of gold and silver see PRECIOUS METALS.

BULLS, PAPAL. Letters issued from the papal chancery, and so named from the bulla or leaden seal which is appended to them. The difference between bulls, briefs, and other apostolical rescripts, is noticed under the word BRIEF. Bulls are written on parchment. If they regard matters of justice, the seal is affixed by a hempen cord; if of grace, by a silken thread. The seal bears on the obverse heads of St. Peter and St. Paul; on the reverse, the name of the pope, and the date of the year of his pontificate. In France, in Spain, and in most other kingdoms professing the Roman Catholic faith, bulls are not admitted without previous examination. In England, to procure, to publish, or to use them, is declared high treason by 13 Eliz. c. 2. The name bull has also been applied to certain constitutions issued by the emperors. In affairs of the greatest importance bullæ of gold were employed, whence they were called Golden Bulls.

Eleven folio volumes, published at Luxemburg, between 1747 and 1758, contain the bulls issued from the pontificate of Leo the Great to that of Benedict XIV., from A.D. 461 to A.D. 1757. The two most celebrated among them are, that In Cœnâ Domini, which is read every year, as these words imply, on the day of

The most remarkable Imperial Bull is that approved by the Diet of the Germanic empire in 1356, in which Charles IV. enumerated all the functions, privileges, and prerogatives of the electors, and all the formalities observed in the election of an emperor, which were considered as fundamental laws till the dissolution of the Germanic body in 1806. We believe that the Latin original is still preserved at Frankfort with the golden seal or bulla, from which it derives its name, appendant to it.

BURGAGE TENURE denotes the particular feudal service or tenure of houses or tenements in ancient cities or boroughs. It is considered to be a species of socage, as the tenements are holden of the king or other lord, either by a certain annual pecuniary rent, or by some services relating to trade or handicraft, such as repairing the lord's buildings, providing the lord's gloves or spurs, &c., but no way smelling of the plough or tillage" (Somner On Gavelkind, 142-148), and having no relation to military service. (Spelman's Glossary, ad verbum.) The incidents of this tenure, which prevailed in Normandy as well as in England, vary according to the particular customs of each borough, in consequence of the maxim that, in improper feuds (to which class this tenure belongs), the lex et consuetudo loci are always to be observed. (Wright's Tenures, p. 205.)

Burgage tenure is supposed by Littleton and other writers to have been the origin of the rights of voting for members of parliament in cities and boroughs; and the great variety of those rights is in some measure accounted for by supposing them to be founded upon varying local customs. It is, however, impossible to trace the gradual steps by which the irre

BURGESS. [MUNICIPAL CORPORA TIONS; COMMONS, HOUSE OF.]

BURGOMASTER, BURGERMEISTER, is the title of the chief magistrate of a municipal town, answering to the English mayor. In the German free towns the bürgermeister is the president of the executive council of the republic. This is also the case at Zürich, Basel, Schaffhausen, and some other Swiss cantons; while at Bern, Freyburg, and Luzern the corresponding magistrate is called schultheiss (in French "avoyer"}, and in the rest of the cantons landamman; which last is not a German, but a Swiss term.

BURIAL. [INTERMENT.]

BURNEL, ACTON, STÁTUTE OF. This statute was passed at Acton Burnel, in Shropshire, at a parliament held by Edward I. in the eleventh year of his reign, on his return from Wales. Acton Burnel was never even a market-town, and Leland says (Itin. vii. 19) that the parliament was held in a great barn. The date of the statute is October 12, 1283. It is remarkable as a proof of the importance which the mercantile class had acquired, and its object was to recover more quickly debts due to mer chants and traders. Hence it is called the Statute of Merchants (Statutum Mercatorum).

The preamble recites, that "Foras much as merchants which heretofore have lent their goods to divers persons be greatly impoverished because there is no speedy law provided for them to have recovery of their debts at the day of payment assigned; and by reason hereof many merchants have withdrawn to come into this realm with their merchandises, to the damage as well of the merchants as of the whole realm;" and therefore "the king by himself and his council ordain and establish" certain remedies for the evils complained of. (Stat. of Realm, i. 53.)

The merchant was to bring his debtor

before the mayor of London, York, or Bris-, tol, or before the mayor and a clerk who was appointed by the king, to acknowledge the debt, and fix a time for payment. The clerk entered the recognizance, and also made a writing obligatory, to which the debtor affixed his seal. The king's seal, provided for the purpose, and kept by the mayor, was likewise appended to the instrument. If the debtor neglected to pay his debt at the time appointed, the mayor ordered his chattels and devisable burgages to be sold, to the amount of the debt, by the appraisement of honest men. The moveables were to be delivered to the creditor if no buyer came forward. In case the debtor's moveables were out of the mayor's jurisdiction, the chancellor was to direct a writ to the sheriff of the county, who was to act with the same authority as the mayor. The statute contains several provisions relating to the sale. To guard against the appraisers' favouring the debtor by fixing too high a price on his goods, they might themselves be forced to take them at their own unfair valuation; and in that case they became answerable to the creditor for the debt. The statute inferred, on the other hand, that if the goods sold below their value, it was the debtor's fault. If the debtor had no effects, he was to be imprisoned until he or his friends had come to some agreement with the creditor; and the creditor was bound to provide him with bread and water, if he were so poor as to be unable to support himself: but the cost of his maintenance added to the original debt, and was required to be repaid before the debtor could obtain his release. The creditor might accept sureties or mainpernors, who by this act placed themselves precisely in the same situation as the debtor; but they were not liable till the goods of the principal had been sold and found insufficient.

The statute of Acton Burnel was further explained and new provisions added by 13 Edw. I. stat. 3, passed in 1285. The first statute appears to have been misinterpreted by the sheriffs, and its execution delayed on malicious and false pretences. The king, therefore, in a parliament held in his thirteenth year, caused the statute of Acton Burnel to be

rehearsed, and another Statutum Mercatorum (13 Edw. I. stat. 3) was passed, which extended and gave additional facilities for enforcing the statute of Acton Burnel. Recognizances might be taken before the mayor of London, or before some chief warden of a city or of another good town which the king should appoint, or before the mayor and chief warden or other sufficient men chosen or sworn thereto, when the mayor or chief warden could not attend, and before one of the clerks appointed by the king. If the debtor failed to make good his payment at the time promised in his recognizance, he was, if a layman, to be placed at once in prison. If he could not be found, the merchant might have writs to all the sheriffs in whose jurisdiction the debtor had lands; and as a last resource the merchant might have a writ directed to any sheriff that he pleased to take the debtor's body. The keeper of the prison became answerable for the debt if he refused to take custody of the debtor. Within a quarter of a year the chattels and lands were to be delivered to the creditor for sale in payment of his debt. If within the second quarter he did not make terms, all his goods and lands were to be delivered, the latter as if a gift of freehold, to the creditor, to hold until the debt was paid; the debtor being maintained on bread and water by the merchant. Precautions were taken against the debtor fraudulently making over his property. Lands given away by feoffment subsequently to the recognizance were to return to the feoffer. The death of the debtor did not bar the debt; for though the body of the heir could not be taken, his lands were answerable as much as during the lifetime of the debtor. The Jews were excluded from the benefits of the statute. (Stat. of Realm, i. 98.)

Reeves (Hist. of the English Law, ii. 162) observes that the above statute may be "considered as contributing to extend the power of alienating land." Any common creditor by judgment was empowered in the same session to take half the debtor's land in execution, “but a merchant who had resorted to this security might have the whole." He adds that "a recognizance acknowledged with