Chapter XXVIII: Section II: , s.s. 1. Where a mercantile agent is, with the consent of (2)

_French Fairs._--In France fairs and markets are held under the authority of the prefects, new fairs and markets being established by order of the prefects at the instance of the commune interested. Before the Revolution fairs and markets could only be established by _seigneurs justiciers_, but only two small markets have survived the law of 1790 abolishing private ownership of market rights, namely, the _Marche Ste Catherine_ and the _Marche des enfants rouges_, both in Paris. Under the present system markets and fairs are held in most of the towns and villages in France; and at all such gatherings entertainments form an important feature. The great fair of Beaucaire instituted in 1168 has steadily declined since the opening of railway communication, and now ranks with the fairs of ordinary provincial towns. Situated at the junction of the Rhone and the Canal du Midi, and less than 40 m. from the sea, it at one time attracted merchants from Spain, from Switzerland and Germany, and from the Levant and Mediterranean ports, and formed one of the greatest temporary centres of commerce on the continent. One trade firm alone, it is said, rarely did less than 1,000,000 francs worth of business during the fortnight that the fair lasted.

_German Fairs._--In Germany the police authorities are considered the market authorities, and to them in most cases is assigned the duty of establishing new fairs and markets, subject to magisterial decision. The three great fairs of Germany are those of Frankfort-on-Main, Frankfort-on-Oder and Leipzig, but, like all the large fairs of Europe, they have declined rapidly in importance. Those of Frankfort-on-Main begin on Easter Tuesday and on the nearest Monday to September 8 respectively, and their legal duration is three weeks, though the limit is regularly extended. The fairs of the second-named city are _Reminiscere_, February or March; _St Margaret_, July; _St Martin_, November. Ordinarily they last fifteen days, which is double the legal term. The greatest of the German fairs are those of Leipzig, whose display of books is famous all over the world. Its three fairs are dated January 1, Easter, Michaelmas. The Easter one is the book fair, which is attended by all the principal booksellers of Germany, and by many more from the adjoining countries. Most German publishers have agents at Leipzig. As many as 5000 new publications have been entered in a single Leipzig catalogue. As in the other instances given, the Leipzig fairs last for three weeks, or nearly thrice their allotted duration. Here no days of grace are allowed, and the holder of a bill must demand payment when due, and protest, if necessary, on the same day, otherwise he cannot proceed against either drawer or endorser.

_Russian Fairs._--In Russia fairs are held by local authorities. Landed proprietors may also hold fairs on their estates subject to the sanction of the local authorities; but no private tolls may be levied on commodities brought to such fairs. In Siberia and the east of Russia, where more primitive conditions foster such centres of trade, fairs are still of considerable importance. Throughout Russia generally they are very numerous. The most important, that of Nijni Novgorod, held annually in July and August at the confluence of the rivers Volga and Kama, was instituted in the 17th century by the tsar Michael Fedorovitch. In 1881 it was calculated that trade to the value of 246,000,000 roubles was carried on within the limits of the fair. It still continues to be of great commercial importance, and is usually attended by upwards of 100,000 persons from all parts of Asia and eastern Europe. Other fairs of consequence are those of Irbit in Perm, Kharkoff (January and August), Poltava (August and February), Koreunais in Koursk, Ourloupinsknia in the Don Cossack country, Krolevetz in Tchernigoff, and a third fair held at Poltava on the feast of the Ascension.

_Indian Fairs._--The largest of these, and perhaps the largest in Asia, is that of Hurdwar, on the upper course of the Ganges. The visitors to this holy fair number from 200,000 to 300,000; but every twelfth year there occurs a special pilgrimage to the sacred river, when the numbers may amount to a million or upwards. Those who go solely for the purposes of trade are Nepalese, Mongolians, Tibetans, central Asiatics and Mahommedan pedlars from the Punjab, Sind and the border states. Persian shawls and carpets, Indian silks, Kashmir shawls, cottons (Indian and English), preserved fruits, spices, drugs, &c., together with immense numbers of cattle, horses, sheep and camels, are brought to this famous fair.

_American Fairs._--The word "fair," as now used in the United States, appears to have completely lost its Old World meaning. It seems to be exclusively applied to industrial exhibitions and to what in England are called fancy bazaars. Thus, during the Civil War, large sums were collected at the "sanitary fairs," for the benefit of the sick and wounded. To the first-named class belong the state and county fairs, as they are called. Among the first and best-known of these was the "New York World's Fair," opened in 1853 by a company formed in 1851. (See EXHIBITION.)

_Law of Fairs._--As no market or fair can be held in England without a
royal charter, or right of prescription, so any person establishing a
fair without such sanction is liable to be sued under a writ of _Quo
warranto_, by any one to whose property the said market may be
injurious. Nor can a fair or market be legally held beyond the time
specified in the grant; and by 5 Edward III. c. 5 (1331) a merchant
selling goods after the legal expiry of the fair forfeited double
their value. To be valid, a sale must take place in "market-overt"
(open market); "it will not be binding if it carries with it a
presumption of fraudulence." These regulations satisfied, the sale
"transfers a complete property in the thing sold to the vendee; so
that however injurious or illegal the title of the vendor may be, yet
the vendee's is good against all men except the king." (In Scottish
law, the claims of the real owner would still remain valid.) However,
by 21 Henry VIII. c. 2 (1529) it was enacted that, "if any felon rob
or take away money, goods, or chattels, and be indicted and found
guilty, or otherwise attainted upon evidence given by the owner or
party robbed, or by any other by their procurement, the owner or party
robbed shall be restored to his money, goods or chattels," but only
those goods were restored which were specified in the indictment, now
could the owner recover from a _bona fide_ purchaser in market-overt
who had sold the goods before conviction. For obvious reasons the
rules of market-overt were made particularly stringent in the case of
horses. Thus, by 2 Philip & Mary c. 7 (1555) and 31 Eliz. c. 12 (1589)
no sale of a horse was legal which had not satisfied the following
conditions;--Public exposure of the animal for at least an hour
between sunrise and sunset; identification of the vendor by the market
officer, or guarantee for his honesty by "one sufficient and credible
person"; entry of these particulars, together with a description of
the animal, and a statement of the price paid for it, in the market
officer's book. Even if his rights should have been violated in spite
of all these precautions, the lawful owner could recover, if he
claimed within six months, produced witnesses, and tendered the price
paid to the vendor. Tolls were not a "necessary incident" of a
fair--i.e. they were illegal unless specially granted in the patent,
or recognized by custom. As a rule, they were paid only by the vendee,
and to the market clerk, whose record of the payment was an
attestation to the genuineness of the purchase. By 2 & 3 Philip & Mary
c. 7 every lord of a fair entitled to exact tolls was bound to appoint
a clerk to collect and enter them. It was also this functionary's
business to test measures and weights. Tolls, again, are sometimes
held to include "stallage" and "picage," which mean respectively the
price for permission to erect stalls and to dig holes for posts in the
market grounds. But toll proper belongs to the lord of the market,
whereas the other two are usually regarded as the property of the lord
of the soil. The law also provided that stallage might be levied on
any house situated in the vicinity of a market, and kept open for
business during the legal term of the said market. Among modern
statutes, one of the chief is the Markets and Fairs Clauses Act 1847,
the chief purpose of which was to consolidate previous measures. By
the act no proprietors of a new market were permitted to let
stallages, take tolls, or in any way open their ground for business,
until two justices of the peace certified to the completion of the
fair or market. After the opening of the place for public use, no
person other than a licensed hawker may sell anywhere within the
borough, his own house or shop excepted, any articles in respect of
which tolls are legally exigible in the market. A breach of this
provision entails a penalty of forty shillings. Vendors of unwholesome
meat are liable to a penalty of L5 for each offence; and the
"inspectors of provisions" have full liberty to seize the goods and
institute proceedings against the owners. They may also enter "at all
times of the day, with or without assistance," the slaughter-house
which the undertaker of the market may, by the special act, have been
empowered to construct. For general sanitary reasons, persons are
prohibited from killing animals anywhere except in these
slaughter-houses. Again, by the Fairs Act 1873, times of holding fairs
are determined by the secretary of state; while the Fairs Act 1871
empowers him to abolish any fair on the representation of the
magistrate and with the consent of the owner. The preamble of the act
states that many fairs held in England and Wales are both unnecessary
and productive of "grievous immorality."

_The Fair Courts._--The piepowder courts, the lowest but most
expeditious courts of justice in the kingdom, as Chitty calls them,
were very ancient. The Conqueror's law _De Emporiis_ shows their
pre-existence in Normandy. Their name was derived from _pied
poudreux_, i.e. "dusty-foot."[1] The lord of the fair or his
representative was the presiding judge, and usually he was assisted by
a jury of traders chosen on the spot. Their jurisdiction was limited
by the legal time and precincts of the fair, and to disputes about
contracts, "slander of wares," attestations, the preservation of
order, &c.

_Authorities._--See Herbert Spencer's _Descriptive Sociology_ (1873),
especially the columns and paragraphs on "Distribution"; Prescott's
_History of Mexico_, for descriptions of fairs under the Aztecs; Giles
Jacob's _Law Dictionary_ (London, 1809); Joseph Chitty's _Treatise on
the Law of Commerce and Manufactures_, vol. ii. chap. 9 (London,
1824); Holinshed's and Grafton's _Chronicles_, for lists, &c., of
English fairs; Meyer's _Das grosse Conversations-Lexicon_ (1852),
under "Messen"; article "Foire" in Larousse's _Dictionnaire
universelle du XIX^e siecle_ (Paris, 1866-1874), and its references to
past authorities; and especially, the second volume, commercial
series, of the _Encyclopedie methodique_ (Paris, 1783); M'Culloch's
_Dictionary of Commerce_ (1869-1871); Wharton's _History of English
Poetry_, pp. 185, 186 of edition of 1870 (London, Murray & Son), for a
description of the Winchester Fair, &c.; a note by Professor Henry
Morley in p. 498, vol. vii. _Notes and Queries_, second series; the
same author's unique _History of the Fair of St Bartholomew_ (London,
1859); Wharton's _Law Lexicon_ (Will's edition, London, 1876); P.
Huvelin's _Essai historique sur le droit des marches et des foires_
(Paris, 1897); _Report of the Royal Commission on Market Rights and
Tolls_, vols. i. (1889), xiv. (1891); _Final Report_ (1891); Walford's
_Fairs, Past and Present_ (1883); _The Law relating to Markets and
Fairs_, by Pease and Chitty (London, 1899). (J. Ma.; Ev. C.*)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] In Med. Lat. _pede-pulverosus_ meant an itinerant merchant or
pedlar. In Scots borough law "marchand travelland" and "dusty fute"
are identical.

FAIRBAIRN, ANDREW MARTIN (1838- ), British Nonconformist divine, was born near Edinburgh on the 4th of November 1838. He was educated at the universities of Edinburgh and Berlin, and at the Evangelical Union Theological Academy in Glasgow. He entered the Congregational ministry and held pastorates at Bathgate, West Lothian and at Aberdeen. From 1877 to 1886 he was principal of Airedale College, Bradford, a post which he gave up to become the first principal of Mansfield College, Oxford. In the transference to Oxford under that name of Spring Hill College, Birmingham, he took a considerable part, and he has exercised influence not only over generations of his own students, but also over a large number of undergraduates in the university generally. He was granted the degree of M.A. by a decree of Convocation, and in 1903 received the honorary degree of doctor of literature. He was also given the degrees of doctor of divinity of Edinburgh and Yale, and doctor of laws of Aberdeen. His activities were not limited to his college work. He delivered the Muir lectures at Edinburgh University (1878-1882), the Gifford lectures at Aberdeen (1892-1894), the Lyman Beecher lectures at Yale (1891-1892), and the Haskell lectures in India (1898-1899). He was a member of the Royal Commission of Secondary Education in 1894-1895, and of the Royal Commission on the Endowments of the Welsh Church in 1906. In 1883 he was chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. He is a prolific writer on theological subjects. He resigned his position at Mansfield College in the spring of 1909.

Among his works are:--_Studies in the Philosophy of Religion and
History_ (1876); _Studies in the Life of Christ_ (1881); _Religion in
History and in Modern Life_ (1884; rev. 1893); _Christ in Modern
Theology_ (1893); _Christ in the Centuries_ (1893); _Catholicism Roman
and Anglican_ (1899); _Philosophy of the Christian Religion_ (1902);
_Studies in Religion and Theology_ (1909).

FAIRBAIRN, SIR WILLIAM, Bart. (1789-1874), Scottish engineer, was born on the 19th of February 1789 at Kelso, Roxburghshire, where his father was a farm-bailiff. In 1803 he obtained work at three shillings a week as a mason's labourer on the bridge then being built by John Rennie at Kelso; but within a few days he was incapacitated by an accident. Later in the same year, his father having been appointed steward on a farm connected with Percy Main Colliery near North Shields, he obtained employment as a carter in connexion with the colliery. In March 1804 he was bound an apprentice to a millwright at Percy Main, and then found time to supplement the deficiencies of his early education by systematic private study. It was at Percy Main that he made the acquaintance of George Stephenson, who then had charge of an engine at a neighbouring colliery. For some years subsequent to the expiry of his apprenticeship in 1811, he lived a somewhat roving life, seldom remaining long in one place and often reduced to very hard straits before he got employment. But in 1817 he entered into partnership with a shopmate, James Lillie, with whose aid he hired an old shed in High Street, Manchester, where he set up a lathe and began business. The firm quickly secured a good reputation, and the improvements in mill-work and water-wheels introduced by Fairbairn caused its fame to extend beyond Manchester to Scotland and even the continent of Europe. The partnership was dissolved in 1832.

In 1830 Fairbairn had been employed by the Forth and Clyde Canal Company to make experiments with the view of determining whether it were possible to construct steamers capable of traversing the canal at a speed which would compete successfully with that of the railway; and the results of his investigation were published by him in 1831, under the title _Remarks on Canal Navigation_. His plan of using iron boats proved inadequate to overcome the difficulties of this problem, but in the development of the use of this material both in the case of merchant vessels and men-of-war he took a leading part. In this way also he was led to pursue extensive experiments in regard to the strength of iron. In 1835 he established, in connexion with his Manchester business, a shipbuilding yard at Millwall, London, where he constructed several hundred vessels, including many for the royal navy; but he ultimately found that other engagements prevented him from paying adequate attention to the management, and at the end of fourteen years he disposed of the concern at a great loss. In 1837 he was consulted by the sultan of Turkey in regard to machinery for the government workshops at Constantinople. In 1845 he was employed, in conjunction with Robert Stephenson, in constructing the tubular railway bridges across the Conway and Menai Straits. The share he had in the undertaking has been the subject of some dispute; his own version is contained in a volume he published in 1849, _An Account of the Construction of the Britannia and Conway Tubular Bridges_. In 1849 he was invited by the king of Prussia to submit designs for the construction of a bridge across the Rhine, but after various negotiations, another design, by a Prussian engineer, which was a modification of Fairbairn's, was adopted. Another matter which engaged much of Fairbairn's attention was steam boilers, in the construction of which he effected many improvements. Amid all the cares of business he found time for varied scientific investigation. In 1851 his fertility and readiness of invention greatly aided an inquiry carried out at his Manchester works by Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) and J.P. Joule, at the instigation of William Hopkins, to determine the melting points of substances under great pressure; and from 1861 to 1865 he was employed to guide the experiments of the government committee appointed to inquire into the "application of iron to defensive purposes." He died at Moor Park, Surrey, on the 18th of August 1874. Fairbairn was a member of many learned societies, both British and foreign, and in 1861 served as president of the British Association. He declined a knighthood, in 1861, but accepted a baronetcy in 1869.

His youngest brother, SIR PETER FAIRBAIRN (1799-1861), founded a large machine manufacturing business in Leeds. Starting on a small scale with flax-spinning machinery, he subsequently extended his operations to the manufacture of textile machinery in general, and finally to that of engineering tools. He was knighted in 1858.

See _The Life of Sir William Fairbairn_, partly written by himself and
edited and completed by Dr William Pole (1877).

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