Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/880

Rh 844 F A C F A C certificate, warrant or order for the delivery of goods, shall be deemed and taken to be the true owner of the goods, so far as to give validity to sales made by them to buyers,&quot; without notice of the fact that they are not the real owners. When a factor pledges goods deposited with him as security for an antecedent debt, the pledger shall acquire no further in terest in the goods than was possessed by the factor himself. By section 4, contracts made with agents for the purchase of goods consigned to them shall be held binding upon the owners notwithstanding that the purchaser had notice that the vendors were only agents : provided such contracts be made in the usual course of business, and that the purchaser had not notice that the agent had no authority to sell. By the Amendment Act, 5 and 6 Viet, c. 39 (which re cites that much litigation had arisen on the construction of the former statute, and that it is necessary to explain and ex tend the provisions thereof), it is enacted &quot; that any agent who shall thereafter be entrusted with the possession of goods, or of the documents of title to goods, shall be deemed and taken to be owner of such goods and documents, so far as to give validity to any contract or agreement by way of pledge, lien, or security bonafide made to any person with such agent, as well for any original loan, advance, or payment, made on the security of such goods or documents, as also for any further or continuing advance.&quot; And such contracts shall be binding on the owner notwithstanding notice of the agency. Bona fide deposits in exchange are protected, i.e., where an agent pledges goods consigned to him in ex change for other goods on which the person delivering them up had at the time a valid lien. In all cases the transac tion must be bonafide, and without notice that the agent is acting beyond his authority or in bad faith as regards his principal. &quot; These Acts,&quot; says Mr Benjamin in his treatise on The Sale of Personal Property, &quot; apply solely to persons en trusted as factors or commission merchants, not to persons to whose employment a power of sale is not ordinarily added, as a wharfinger, who receives goods usually without a power to sell. The statute is limited in its scope to mercantile trans actions, to dealings in goods and merchandise, and does not embrace sales of furniture or goods in possession of a tenant or bailee for him. &quot; And the courts of law have un fortunately felt themselves constrained to put a very narrow interpretation on the scope of the Acts. The most remark able case was that of Fuentes v. Montes (Law Reports, 3 Common Pleas, 268). Here the plaintiffs, wine merchants in Spain, had consigned some casks of sherry to a London factor for sale, but afterwards revoked his authority. He, while in possession of the wine, but after the revocation, pledged it as security for advances made by the defend ant, who acted in good faith, and in entire ignorance of the revocation, The court held that the words &quot; entrusted with and in possession of &quot; referred to the time of the pledge only, and that the factor was not so entrusted at the time of the pledge. This decision, which unsettled the confidence of merchants in dealing with apparent owners of goods, and a general uncertainty as to the true construction of the enactments, led to the passing of the last Factors Act (40 and 41 Viet. c. 39). The second, section overrules the de cision in Fuentes v. Montes, by providing that a revocation of authority shall not affect the right of persons purchasing from factors without notice of such revocation. Then the Act goes on to provide for other cases of apparent owner ship in which the same hardships had arisen which the Factors Acts were intended to meet. Thus, where goods have been sold, and the vendor has been permitted to retain possession of the documents of title, any sale by him or his agent will be as valid and effectual as if he or his agent were a, person entrusted with, or in possession of, the goods under the Factors Acts. A case recently decided (Johnson v. the Credit Lyonnais Company) will illustrate the purpose of this enactment. A, a tobacco broker, had 50 hogsheads of tobacco lying in dock for which warrants were issued to him. He sold it to B, who paid for it, but left the warrants in A s hands, and took no steps to have any change made in the books of the dock company as to the ownership. In the meantime A obtained advances on the tobacco from C and D, handing over to them the dock warrants. It was held that these transactions were not protected as against B ; under the new Act such transactions are pro tected. The fourth section deals with cases in which goods have been sold, and the vendee has got possession of the documents of title, although some lien or other right remains to the vendor. Dealings with the vendee in respect of the goods, and in ignorance of the vendor s right, are protected. The fifth section protects bonafide transfers of documents of title for a previous vendor s lien or right of stoppage in transitu. (E. n.) FACTORY ACTS. The long series of Factory Acts, cul minating in the home secretary s bill of the present session (1878), constitutes one of the most important chapters in the history of modern English legislation. The Acts assert the right of the state to control the industrial organizations which depend upon the labour of women and children. As yet the freedom of the adult male labourer has been held sacred from the interference of the legislature, but it is necessarily involved, to some extent, in the protection exercised over persons whose co-operation is necessary to his work. The gradual rise of the important principle that, in the interests of the moral and physical well-being of the community, the labour of women and children should be restricted by law within reasonable limits may be seen by a glance at the Factory Bills introduced in parliament since the beginning of the century. In 1802 an Act was passed &quot; for the Preservation of the Health and Morals of Apprentices and others employed in Cotton and other Mills, and Cotton and other Factories.&quot; The immediate cause of passing this bill w r as the fearful spread throughout the factory district of Manchester of epidemic disease, which made dreadful havoc among the youthful labouring population on account of their scanty mode of living and peculiar way of working. 1 Pauper children from the agricultural districts of the south were sent to the northern counties to work in the factories which sprang up there in consequence of their superior supply of water-power. Their long hours of labour, the wretched accommodation provided for them, and the over-crowding of workmen in mills and factories, caused the alarming epidemic fevers of those times and districts. The Act of 1802 subjected all mills employing three or more apprentices, or twenty other persons, to the rules and regulations of the Act. The walls were to be washed with quicklime and water ; a sufficient number of windows was to be provided ; the apprentices were always to have two suits of clothing, one to be new every year. The most important regulation, however, was that which fixed the hours of work at twelve per clay, and prohibited work altogether from 9 o clock at night to 6 in the morning. This Act, being intended to meet the evils of the apprentice system, did not extend to factories where children residing in the neighbourhood were employed. The use of steam-power had meanwhile caused the growth of factories in populous town districts. In 1819 an Act was passed for the regulation of cotton mills: children were not to be admitted before the age of nine, and between that age and sixteen were restricted to twelve hours a day, exclusive of an hour and a half for rneal-time. 1 Von Plener, Factory Legislation, p. 1.