§ MR. T. CHAMBERSasked the First Commissioner of Works if he had taken the opinion of the law officers of the Crown, as to whether the sale of refreshments on Sunday in the booths about to be erected in the public parks would expose the vendors to the penalties imposed by the Act 29 Car. II. c. 7? He would remind the right hon. Baronet the First Commissioner of Works that the sale of refreshments on the Sunday was forbidden, not only by the Act of Charles II., but also by the Act of the 3 Geo. IV. c. 106, s. 16.
§ SIR BENJAMIN HALLsaid, he had to state, in reply to the question of the hon. and learned Gentleman, that he had not thought it necessary to take the opinion of the law officers of the Crown in that case, and for this simple reason, that the present practice in Kensington Gardens and Victoria Park was merely an extension of the practice which had before prevailed in those places, and more particularly in Victoria Park. But if the hon. and learned Gentleman should be of opinion that that was a case which came under the provisions of the statute of Charles II., he must be well aware, from his legal knowledge, that any person could proceed against parties infringing it. The Act was a very stringent one, and if it were strictly enforced, every confectioner's shop should be closed on the Sunday, every railway company should shut up its refreshment rooms and every steam-boat should cease running on the same day.