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Power to search for and seize unwholesome Meat.
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LXXVII. ‘And whereas Meat, Fish, and other Provisions are frequently clandestinely kept, and sold to the Inhabitants of the said Borough for the Purpose of Human Food, at the Time such Meat is unfit to be eaten by Man, and there is great Difficulty in discovering the Person keeping and the Places in which such Meat is kept, and it is expedient to provide a Remedy for the same;’ Be it therefore enacted, That where it shall appear to any Justice by Information on Oath or Affirmation, that there is reasonable Ground to suspect that any such Meat is kept or concealed within the Limits of this Act, it shall be lawful for such Justice to issue his Warrant to any Constable, or to any Officer of the Council, authorizing him, with proper Assistants, to enter any Building or Place in which such Meat shall be suspected to be kept or concealed, and to search for the same, and to break open any Doors for that Purpose; and if upon any such Search any Meat shall be found which shall be reasonably suspected to be unfit to be eaten by Man, such Constable or other Officer shall cause such Meat to be produced before any Two Justices with all convenient Despatch; and if it shall appear to such Justices, either upon View thereof or other good Proof, that such Meat is unfit to be eaten by Man, it shall be lawful for the Justices to order such Meat to be destroyed or otherwise disposed of as such Justices shall think fit; and if the Person in whose Possession or Premises such bad or unwholesome Meat shall be found shall not give some satisfactory Account of the Manner in which such Meat came into the Possession or Premises of such Person, and that the same was provided by and possessed by him for some proper and lawful Purpose, it shall be lawful for such Justices (if they shall think fit) to adjudge that such Person shall pay any Sum not exceeding Five Pounds.
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