1868, there was a great difference of opinion as to the equivalent flash-point to be adopted for the close-test. The controversy on this point was so prolonged that though the Bill passed the Lords, the period of the Session was too late for the matter to be adjusted. Consequently the close-test was dropped, and the Bill was passed with the open-test as specified in the Act of 1868.

The Act of 1871 was passed for one year only, with Act of 1871. the intention of legislating further in the ensuing Session. It was, however, renewed annually until 1879, when it was made permanent, and is still in force, though the test has been modified. The details of this Act will be dealt with in the succeeding chapter.

In 1872 a Bill was introduced into the Lords to Bill of 1872. substitute the close-test, it being by this time generally acknowledged that the open-test specified in the Acts of 1868 and 1871 was a very uncertain one.

A flash-point of 85° F. was first adopted as the equivalent of 100° F. by the open test. The Bill was referred to a Select Committee of the House of Lords Select Committee

with a view to determining whether this equivalent of 1872. was correct. This Committee collected a great deal of valuable evidence, and the question of flash-point was keenly fought before them.

On July 5 they finally agreed on their report, which was to the effect that the close-test, with an alteration in detail, was much superior to the open-test. They considered that a flash-point of 100° F. by the opentest was sufficiently high to guarantee the safety of the public, and that the equivalent by the close-test should be 82°, not 85° as prescribed. The Bill, however, was not brought down from the Lords until July 26, and it was then too late to make any further progress with it.

Test revised by Sir F. Abel.

Act of 1879.

Hawking.

The subject of petroleum legislation was, shortly after this, taken up by the late Sir Vivian Majendie, who collected much information as to the working of the Act of 1871.

In 1875 Sir F. Abel was asked to propose an improved method of testing, and on August 26, 1876, he made a report in which the Abel close-test was first brought forward. A full description of this apparatus will be found in Appendix II. A vast number of comparisons between the new apparatus and the old open-test were made by different persons and with different samples of oil, with the result that the mean difference was found to be 27° F., that is to say, that an oil which would flash at 100° F. in the apparatus specified by the Act of 1871 would give 73° F. in the Abel test.

A flash-point of 73° F. was therefore fixed for the Abel apparatus; but it must be distinctly understood that this does not imply that the standard was in any way lowered.

It was not until 1879 that the new test was at length adopted and made legal by an Act, which is still in force, being substituted for the test prescribed by the Act of 1871. The Act of 1879, beyond substituting the new test and making the previous Act a permanent one, went no further in amending the law, although by this time it was seen that several amendments might with advantage be made. These, however, were reserved for future legislation.

One of the most important defects in the law was the absence of regulation in the case of hawkers. Some years before this (July 26, 1875), the Law Officers had given an opinion to the effect that the Act of 1871 would not prevent the hawking of petroleum in any district without licence, if the petroleum was not kept in the same district; but on November 8, 1879, the Court of Queen's Bench decided in the case of Coleman

v. Goldsmith that petroleum could not be kept in a hawker's cart without licence, or, in other words, that a hawker's cart must be regarded as a place within the meaning of the Act. The previous decision had imposed a hardship on those who, having a fixed place of business, were obliged to take out a licence, while the peripatetic hawker was under no restriction, and might therefore undersell the licensed vendor. The reversal of this decision, however, introduced fresh difficulties. A hawker might ply his trade in half a dozen districts : to whom was he to apply for a licence, and what was he to do when the restrictions imposed in the different districts were not the same? It became necessary, therefore, to impose statutory rules to be complied with by all hawkers throughout the Kingdom, and at the same time to exempt their vehicles from the necessity of licence. In 1881 an Act was passed for Act of 1881. this purpose, and this Act being still in force will be dealt with in detail in the next chapter.

The Act of 1881 dealt only with the hawker difficulty, and it was not till 1883 that an attempt was made to remedy the other admitted defects of the existing legislation. In that year a comprehensive Bill was Bill of 1883. introduced into the House of Lords, which repealed all previous Acts and introduced a new system of dealing with the whole subject.

This Bill being a very long one, and containing no less than fifty-seven clauses, it is impossible to do more than glance at its more salient features. These were as follows:-The Bill was made to apply to all petroleum defined as before, whatever its flash-point; but two classes were recognised and designated "high-test petroleum" and "low-test petroleum," the dividing line being fixed at a flash-point of 73° F. (Abel). Excepting for private use petroleum was to be kept only on premises registered with the local authority.

Select Committee of 1883.

Statutory rules were laid down to be observed on such registered premises, these rules being, of course, much more stringent in the case of low-test petroleum.

The place where the petroleum was kept was to be termed a "depôt," and the quantities which might be kept were to be regulated by the distance at which the depôt was situated from dwelling-houses, &c., the amount to be allowed in a dwelling-house being only 50 gallons. In every case the amount of low-test petroleum was to be only one quarter of the total amount allowed.

The Bill dealt with the conveyance of petroleum, and provided for the making of by-laws, not only by harbour authorities, but also by railway and canal companies. The hawking of petroleum was dealt with, and the powers and duties of local authorities were amplified and extended.

There was also a clause providing for inquiry on behalf of the Secretary of State into causes of accidents, together with a number of miscellaneous clauses not contained in previous legislation.

The description of the testing apparatus, printed as a Schedule in the Bill, was copied from that contained in the Act of 1879; but another Schedule had been prepared in which the description differed in certain minor details, and this was considered to represent the actual apparatus somewhat more exactly.

The Bill was referred to a Select Committee of the House of Lords, who, having heard a great deal of evidence and a number of objections urged against the Bill, reported that they did not consider it expedient that it should be proceeded with, but that the evidence they had taken would enable a fresh Bill to be prepared for the ensuing Session. The Bill was accordingly dropped.

Shortly after this, the late Sir Vivian Majendie, in

company with one of the authors, then Secretary of the Petroleum Association, commenced a tour of inspection and inquiry in the United Kingdom and on the Continent, in the course of which a large number of places were visited.

In 1884 a draft Bill was in course of preparation, but did not reach the stage of being introduced into Parliament. In that year numerous conferences were held between the late Sir Vivian Majendie and the

trade.

In 1886 the tour of inspection was extended to Canada and the United States, and towards the end of the following year the preparation of another Bill was in progress.

In the early part of 1888 more conferences were held, a large and influential committee, representing all branches of the trade, having been called together by the Petroleum Association. No opportunity for introducing the new Bill occurred in the two succeeding years, and it was not until February 9, 1891, that the Bill of 1891. measure was read for the first time in the House of Commons. An extensive memorandum on this Bill was prepared by the Home Office, and issued to both Houses of Parliament. Thereupon the Petroleum Defence Committee issued a report criticising the statements in this memorandum, evidently with a view to showing that such legislation was unnecessary.

The Bill of 1891, like so many of its predecessors, died a natural death. It did not, in fact, reach a second reading. In general it fo'lowed the lines of the Bill of 1883, but it was made to apply not only to petroleum, as previously defined, but to liquid mixtures of petroleum with other substances, and to bisulphide of carbon also.

It was termed the Inflammable Liquids Bill. Such inflammable liquids as have a specific gravity exceeding 1000, and a flash-point over 150° F. (Abel), were