TROY WEIGHT. 



TRUMPET. 



the principle that the pavrwion of one is, by ration of the joint pro- 

 perty of aU, bald to be the possession of all, and therefore no act of 

 conversion can be said to hare been committed. 



The answer* to this action are, a denial of the property of the plain- 

 tiff in the chattel ; or the statute of limitation*, namely, that six yean 

 bare elapsed since the act of conversion was committed ; or any cir- 

 cumstances showing that the defendant lias a right to detain the goods, 

 as from baring a lien upon them. Ac. 



The plaintiff must prove that the nature and value of the goods are 

 as stated in the declaration. If he succeed in obtaining a verdict, the 

 jury may give damages to the amount of the value of the goods, and 

 also such sum in addition as may cover the amount of interest during 

 the time subsequent to the conversion. This action differs from the 

 action of detinue as being brought to recover damages, while the 

 object of the action of detinue is to recover the actual goods in specie. 

 [Orrises.] 



TUOY WEIGHT. Neither the etymology nor the time of intro- 

 duction of this denomination is well known. The received opinion is 

 that it took its name from a weight used at the fair of Troyes : this is 

 likely enough, since we find more than one large town the weights of 

 which became standards: thus we have the pound of Cologne, of 

 Toulouse, and perhaps also of Troyes. 



That there was a very old English standard pound of twelve ounces 

 is a well determined fact ; and also that this pound existed long before 

 the name Troy was given to it, another. There were also the mer- 

 chants' pound of fifteen ounces, and the Tower pound, having twelve 

 ounces of its own, but leas than the Troy pound by three-quarters of 

 an ounce. Though the troy pound was mentioned as a known weight 

 in 2 Henry V., cap. 4 (1414), and 2 Henry VI., cap. 13 (1423), the term 

 troy was not applied to the legal standard pound till 12 Henry VII. 

 (1495). The merchants' pound seems to have been the origin of 

 AVOIRDUPOIS weight. 



The troy pound has continued to be the legal standard down to the 

 present time, though only actually used in weighing precious metals 

 and stones, and apothecaries' drugs. It had precisely the same limi- 

 tation of use in the time of Fleta, who is supposed to have lived in the 

 reign of Edward I. There is no doubt that it was originally the pound 

 of silver, the pound sterling, and there is evidence that this pound was 

 sometimes described as divided into twenty ports called shillings. The 

 famous statute of Henry I. (1266) makes a standard for it from the 

 weight of ears of wheat. 



The pound troy is now divided, for gold and silver, into twelve 

 ounces, each ounce into twenty pennyweights, and each pennyweight 

 into twenty-four grains. But for medicines, it is divided into twelve 

 ounces, each ounce into eight drams or drachms, each drachm into 

 three scruples, and each scruple into twenty grains. A cubic foot of 

 water weighs 757374 pounds troy. [WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.] 



TRUCK SYSTEM. TRUCK ACT. Truck, which means exchange 

 or barter, has come to be appropriated to signify the payment of wages 

 of labour in goods, and not in money. By the truck system is meant 

 this mode of paying wages, together with the mass of its tendencies 

 and results. The Truck Act, 1 & 2 Win. IV., cc. 36, 37, is an act 

 passed in 1831, which, repealing all the previous acts passed for the 

 same purpose, provided anew and more stringently for the prevention 

 of payment of wages in truck in the departments of industry therein 

 enumerated. The wages of agricultural labourers and domestic servants 

 are exempted frem the operation of the act. 



It is to be observed, in the outset, that the chief port of the evil of 

 what is called the truck system is incidental, and not essential to the 

 payment of wages in truck, and arises out of the power of the master 

 over the workman, which enables the former to use this mode of 

 paying wages to defraud and oppress the latter. A master may pay 

 the wages of his workmen wholly or in port in truck, in articles of 

 food, clothing, Ac., either by agreement or with the understood con- 

 sent of his workmen ; and if he supply these articles at prices no 

 higher than those at which they are to be procured elsewhere, and 

 study to meet the various wants of the workmen and their families, 

 the utmost harm that can result is the loss to the workmen of the 

 moral and economical lessons which the disbursement by themselves 

 of weekly money-wages is fitted to supply, and the interference with the 

 bonnes* and profits of neighbouring retail shopkeepers ; and there will 

 always in such cases be some advantage to set against these, so far as 

 they go, evil results. Where the truck system acts beneficially, it is 

 owing entirely to the justice and benevolence of the individual truck- 

 masters. On the character of the master everything depends. In the 

 hands of masters of opposite character, and under circumstances, 

 whether of scarcity of employment, of isolated situation, or of combi- 

 nation among masters in the same business, or through an extensive 

 district, which place the workman more or less at the mercy of his 

 employer, the payment of wages in truck may be, and continually has 

 been, and is still, extensively used for the defrauding and oppressing 

 of workmen. 



The following is a summary of the Truck Act, often known as Mr. 

 Littleton's Act, which was passed in 1831. It declares all contracts for 

 hiring of the artificers afterwards enumerated, by which wages'are 

 made payable wholly or in part otherwise than in the current coin of 

 the realm, or which contain regulations as to the cx[>ciidituro of wages, 

 to be illegal, null, and void. All payment of wages U to be in money 



entire ; and any payment of wages in goods is declared illegal Wages 

 which have been paid otherwise than in the current coin of the realm 

 are made recoverable ; and in an action brought for the recovery of 

 wages, no set-off is to be allowed for goods given in payment of wages, 

 or for goods sold at any shop in which the employer has an interest. 

 Employers are denied an action in return against artificer* for goods 

 which have been supplied in payment of wages. If workmen or 

 wives or children become chargeable to the parish, overseen may 

 recover from their employers wages which have been earned within 

 three months previous, and have not been paid in money. The penalty 

 on employers making the illegal contracts or illegal payments of wages 

 to be, for the first offence, a sum not greater than 1W. not less than 57. ; 

 for the second, a sum not greater that 20/. nor lee* than 1W. ; and the 

 third offence is declared a misdemeanor, and the employer who has 

 been convicted to be punishable by fine within the discretion of the 

 convicting magistrates, but not in a sum greater than 1001. Ti. 

 victing justices are empowered to award a portion of the penalty, which 

 shall never exceed 20/., to the informer. The penalties may be sued 

 for and recovered by any one before two justices of the peace i 

 jurisdiction in the county, riding, city, or place within which tho 

 offence has been committed. No justice of the peace being enga 

 any of the trades or manufactures enumerated in the act, or the : 

 son, or brother of such person, shall act as a justice of the peace 

 this act ; and provision is made for county magistrates taking the place 

 of borough magistrates thus disqualified. Justices are empowered to 

 compel attendance of witnesses. Power is given to levy the p. i 

 by distress. A member of a partnership is not liable personally for the 

 offence of his partner, but distress may be made on the partn< i.-ln]. 

 property. The 19th clause thus enumerates the artificers to whom thu 

 act relates : " Artificers employed in or about the making, ramting, 

 converting, or manufacturing of iron or steel, or any parts, branches, or 

 processes thereof; or in or about the working or getting of stone, Hilt, 

 or clay ; or in or about the making or preparing of salt, bricks, tiles, or 

 quarries ; or in or about the making or manufacturing of any k 

 noils, chains, rivets, anvils, vices, spades, shovels, screw.-. ; 

 bolts, hinges, or any other articles or hardwares made of iron IT 

 or of iron and steel combined, or of any plated articles of cutlery. 

 or of any goods or wares made of bran, tin, lead, pewter, or 

 metal; or of any japanned goods or wares whatsoever; or in or a) unit 

 the making, spinning, throwing, twisting, doubling, winding, weaving, 

 combing, knitting, bleaching, dyeing, printing, or otherwise preparing 

 of any woollen, worsted, yarn, stuff, jersey, linen, f tuition, cloth, serge, 

 cotton, leather, fur, hemp, flax, mohair, or silk manufactures ; or in or 

 about any manufactures whatsoever made of the said last-men i 

 materials, whether the same be or be not mixed one with .uiof i 

 in or about the making or otherwise preparing, ornamenting, or finish- 

 ing of any glass, porcelain, china, or earthenware whatsoever ; or any 

 parts, branches, or processes thereof; or any materials used iu any of 

 such last-mentioned trades or employments ; or in or about the making 

 or preparing of bone, thread, silk, or cotton Lice, or of lace made 

 mixed materials." Domestic servants and servants in husbandry ore 

 exempted from the act. The 23rd clause declared that nothing in the 

 act shall prevent the supplying to artificers of medicine or medical 

 attendance; or fuel, materials, tools, or implements to be used in his 

 trade or occupation, if a miner ; or of hay, corn, or other provender to 

 be consumed by any horse or beast of burden, or the letting ' 

 artificer the whole or port of any tenement, or the supplying of victuaLl 

 dressed under the roof of any employer and there cou.- 

 making deduction of wages on any of the above accounts, or on account 

 of money advanced, " provided always that such stoppage or de<li . 

 shall not exceed the real and true value of such fuel, materials, tools, 

 implements, hay, corn, and provender, and shall not be in any case 

 made from the wages of such artificer unless the agreement or contract 

 for such stoppage or deduction shall be in writing and signed by such 

 artificer." The interpretation clause (25th) gives a most extensive 

 meaning to the word contract : " Any agreement, understanding, 

 device, contrivance, conclusion, or arrangement whatsoever on the 

 subject of wages, whether written or oral, whether direct or indirect, 

 to which the employer and artificer are parties or are assenting, 

 which they ore mutually bound to each other, or where) >\ either..!' 

 them shall have endeavoured to impose an obligation on the otli 



Such are the provisions of the Truck Act. Well iulopted, as it w.mM 

 appear, for the purpose of protecting the workman against this ^ 

 of oppression by his master, it is yet extensively violated and evaded. 



TRUE. (Astronomy.) This word is used in a somewhat techiiii-.il 

 sense. The place which a star or planet appears to occupy in the 

 heavens is not colled its true place, but that which it would occupy if 

 the effects of refraction, parallax, &c., were removed, that is, if the 

 spectator sow from the centre of the earth, and without the light 

 passing through any refracting medium. 



TRUMPET, a musical instrument of the highest antiquity, which, 

 uniler different names and forms, has been known in all ages that h.v, : 

 left any records, and in all countries, however remote from civilisation. 

 Menage derives the word from <rrpAn&of, turbo, a shell, and thin etymo- 

 logy indicates the origin of the instrument, which still appears in w li it 

 probably was its | . ring many barbarous tribes in dif- 



p.-iltjt of the globe. [Jil'CCINA.] 



The trumpet is a single tube eight feet long, less in diameter than 



