OLDHAM COUNTY COURT. 
491 
His Honour .— I will tell you what I will do in this case. It is a very serious thing 
if it is to be carried out in this way; and, considering what is due to the public, I think 
I am justified in saying I cannot hear this case until either you produce me the authority 
of the Attorney-General, or you make some application and lay the case before him, and 
get his opinion, and then I will bow to that opinion when it is here. 
Mr. Flux. _Do you mean upon the question of jurisdiction, or the merits of the 
case ? . 
His Honour. —I have nothing to do with the merits of the case at present. My im¬ 
pression is that you have no right to sue. If you produce the opinion of the Attorney- 
General that the plaintiff in this case has a right to sue, I will believe that to be the 
case. I can either communicate with the Attorney-General myself, or you can do so 
and produce me his authority. It can be of no consequence whether it is decided this 
day or this day six months. 
Mr. Flux.— There is this. This Act was passed for the protection of the public in 
the sale of poisons. If this gentleman is right, if he may call himself a chemist and 
druggist, then it comes before the public that he is licensed as one,—under statute autho¬ 
rity, licensed to compound and sell poisons. 
His Honour.— Will you let the case stand over till you apply to the Attorney-General 
and take his opinion, on the part of the Pharmaceutical Society, whether they have a 
right to bring this case into this Court, and I will be bound by it F 
Mr. Flux— I venture to submit that a very long course of the— 
His Honour. —I will not hear it. I put you to the trouble of getting an order. 
Mr. Flux. —I have the proceedings ten years ago, under the Pharmacy Act— 
His Honour. —No. This Act only passed last session. It has only just been passed, 
and I am of opinion that 1 ought not to entertain this case. There is no special pro¬ 
vision under the Act of Parliament, as I read it, naming anybody to recover the penalty, 
and my opinion is that where there is no direction for an informer as an individual to 
put himself in the position of plaintiff, it can only be brought into Court by her 
Majesty’s Attorney-General. That is my opinion. 
Mr. Flux. _Will your Honour do me the favour of deciding upon the point, so that I* 
can at once brmg judicial opinion to bear on the subject ? 
His Honour.— No. If you compel me to hear it now, I shall very likely adjourn 
further argument to the next Coui’t, and I will not decide it until I have sent the case 
to the Attorney-General, and you are bound to do that. I am placed in the situation 
of having the first case under a newly-passed Act of Parliament brought before me. 
There is^no instance of such a charge ever being instituted before, and my opinion is 
that you should have the sanction of the Attorney-General (in what way you will get 
it I don’t know) ; but my opinion is that you require the sanction of her Majesty’s Go¬ 
vernment in proceeding under this statute. I adjourn it. 
J/r. Flux. —Will you hear the evidence? I have got witnesses here to-day. 
His Honour. _You have chosen to travel from London to Oldham. You had the 
Courts at hand there. „ , , 
Mr. Flux.— I have done so because the proper Court to appeal to is that having juris¬ 
diction in the district where the defendant resides. 
His Honour. _I declare my judgment in this case to be that you cannot proceed for 
the recovery of the penalty on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Society without the au¬ 
thority of her Majesty’s Government, and the case must stand over on my calling upon 
you to produce that authority. . , , M , 
Mr. Flux. _Does your Honour say I am required to produce the fiat of her Majesty’s 
Attorney-General distinctly authorizing this action ? 
His Honour. —If you will show me the authority of the Attorney-General, I will be 
bound by it at once. So far as I can see, you must produce that authority, because, 
according to my opinion of law, nobody can sue for a penalty wheie there is no autho¬ 
rity given to anybody to act as an informer without the permission of the Attorney- 
General You can ask him if he gives his consent for my hearing the case, which he 
can do if he likes ; or if he thinks it ought to be done in any particular way. I will do 
all I can to help you; but I cannot entertain it now, because my decision either one 
way or the other might be of no consequence in the world. Besides that, it is only the 
common courtesy which I think every Court is entitled to when a general question of 
law has to be tried that has nothing to do with any particular locality, but which will 
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