no 
English MarJceis and Fairs. 
the week, but tolls are — or were in 1888 — taken every day. In 
Ireland the Royal Commission report that in many cases the 
market charges are “wholly unauthorised,” and they observe 
that it would be somewhat hazardous, in the face of the enormous 
number of grants, to say with regard to any town of importance 
that a market had not been sanctioned for every day of the 
week except Sunday. In some cases two or three different 
charges appear to be imposed on the same commodity. Thus, 
at Carlisle, butter purchased in the market by a trader whose 
shop was in the subm-bs paid four tolls, viz. : (1) the in-gate toll, 
(2) the market toll, (3) a packing toll, and (4) the out-gate toll. 
At Dorchester an instance was given, at a public inquiry held 
there, in which five separate tolls, amounting to 2s. 2d., had 
been paid on one load of fish. Naturally, these reiterated 
charges give rise to much complaint — not always because 
their gross amount is excessive, but because of the annoyance 
and trouble which they occasion. A good many markets exist, 
no doubt, where, with a cheerful indifference to any Act of Par- 
liament, the authorities have not published a list of tolls, and in 
some cases, indeed, have not even fixed them, the collector being 
allowed practically to follow the pi’inciple laid down by railway 
managers, and to “ charge what the traffic will bear.” The 
visits of the Assistant Commissioner, no doubt, did much to call 
the attention of market authorities to their liabilities and duties. 
Thus, at Oxford, an outward and visible sign of his visit was seen 
in the freshly-painted list of tolls which immediately afterwards 
appeared in the cattle market, and no doubt such effects were 
common. A characteristic incident is reported from Ireland. 
For many years, at a place called Gart, no toll board had been 
exposed on market and fair days, “ because it was lost.” On 
the very day on which the Assistant Commissioner held his 
public inquiry in that town, the missing board was found and 
produced before him. 
In some market towns the inhabitants, the freemen, the 
burgesses, or some other privileged class are allowed certain 
advantages in I'egard to the market charges. In many instances 
auctioneers are charged an extra toll on all animals sold by 
them. At Leicester, Northampton, and Cambridge, for instance, 
they pay a triple toll. At Leeds they are still more discouraged, 
for no auctioneers are allowed to sell cattle either within or 
outride of the cattle market. 
Among other anomalies the exemption from toll of certain 
commodities in some markets is curious. Thus, at Blackpool, 
butter, eggs, fresh fish and shell fish are specially excepted by 
statute. At Hastings, fish landed on the beach is toll free, while 
that brought by land pays toll — a very intelligible distinction. 
