SILLY STATUTES

On a more light-hearted note, I thought I would mention a few laws that have been on the statute book for a while which have perhaps outlived their original purpose. One such is the Servants Character Act 1792 , still alive and kicking. The preamble to the Act says it all: Whereas many false and counterfeit characters of servants have either been given personally or in writing by evil disposed persons pretending to be the master....of such servants. And whereas the evil herein complained of is not only difficult to be guarded against, but is also of great magnitude and continually increasing, and no sufficient remedy has hitherto been applied..'. The Act made it an offence to impersonate a master presumably because there were a lot of bad servants out there. Today we are more likely to be exercised by the bad quality of the master/employer than that of the servant/employee but nonetheless this quaint anachronistic law remains. Another one in a similar vein is the Disorderly Houses Act 1751 which addresses 'many subtle and crafty contrivances of persons keeping bawdy-houses' , in particular the mischief of not being able to tell who the true owner or keeper of such establishments might be so as to hold them responsible. This Act therefore provides that anyone who seems to have some control is liable (thus presumably encouraging further disorderly behaviour as no one would want to be seen to be in control). Coming more up to date there is section 85 of the Public Health Act 1936 which deals with 'cleansing of verminous persons and their clothing' and provides that a local authority may remove a 'verminous person' to a 'cleansing station' and detain him and effectively strip him of his clothing without his consent if a court deems it necessary that 'he or his clothing should be cleansed'. Finally in this category is the Hypnotism Act 1952 which provides for licence conditions for the conduct of public hypnotism, brought into play long before TV hypnotists became the rage. Perhaps this statute has more relevance today than the others and may not be such a silly statute although it certainly doesn't prevent us seeing a lot of silly (hypnotised) behaviour on the telly.