112 
Ejiglish Marhets and Fairs. 
Without attempting to present anything like what may be 
termed the “ case ” against the market owners, we have touched 
upon a few of the points which had engendered a certain amount 
of discontent in various parts of the country. With the view 
of inquiring into the reasons of that discontent a Royal Com- 
mission on Market Rights and Tolls was issued in July 1887 to 
inquire into the whole subject, and to report as to the alterations 
which might be desirable in the existing law relating to markets, 
having due regard to the interests of those concerned. The 
Commissioners were the Earl of Derby — who was chairman — 
Lord Balfour of Burleigh, the Right Hon. H. C. Childers, M.P., 
Sir J. P. Corry, Bart., M.P., Sir J. Martineau, Mr. Elton, M.P., 
Q.C., J\Ir. E. AV. Maclean, M.P., Mr. Broadhurst, M.P., Mr. 
Spencer Charrington, M.P., Mr. (now Sir John) Harwood, Mr. 
AV. C. Little, and Mr. McCarthy, M.P. Subsequently Mr. Broad- 
liurst and Mr. McCarthy resigned, and Mr. Picton, M.P., and 
Mr. Pierce Mahony, M.P., were appointed in their stead. The 
Commissioners carried out the task entrusted to them with the 
most minute care ; they appointed four Assistant Commissioners, 
who held 171 public inquiries in various towns in England and 
Ireland. The Commission itself held 50 inquiries and examined 
195 witnesses. Altogether 3,2G1 witnesses were examined, and, 
in addition to this, a series of questions calculated to cover the 
whole field of inquir}^ was addressed to eveiy owner of market 
rights in England and Wales, and to the owners of certain 
selected markets in Scotland and Ireland. The amount of the 
evidence collected on the subject may, perhaps, be indicated by 
the fact that it extends to fifteen substantial Blue-books. 
The conclusions at which the Royal Commission arrived, and 
the recommendations which it made, have already been summarised 
by one of the Assistant Commissioners in the pages of this 
Journal.* AVe need not, therefore, here refer to them and to the 
several important political and social questions which they raise. 
But, with a promptness which eminently calls for recognition, 
two of the recommendations of the Commission have already, at 
the instigation of the Board of Agriculture, been passed into law, 
and it is fitting, therefore, that in these pages some special men- 
tion should be made of them. 
The first of these recommendations (which was the twenty- 
fourth made by the Commission) ran as follows : 
That it is desirable that markets wliich are now required to be provided 
with machines for weighing cattle should be furnished with sufficient and 
suitable accommodation for the same ; the question of sufficiency and suit- 
ability to be determined by the Board of Agriculture, after inspection. 
' R.A.S.E. Journal, Vol. II., 3rd Series (1891), p. 179. 
