Subject_1 DECISIONS of the LORDS OF COUNCIL AND SESSION, reported by SIR JOHN LAUDER OF FOUNTAINHALL. Subject_2 This week I sat in the Outer-House, and so the observes are the fewer.
The Town of Aberdeen v. The Aberdeen Brewers
Date: 21 December 1698
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The Town of Aberdeen having obtained an Act of Parliament in their favours, imposing two pennies on the pint of all ale brewed and vended within their bounds; and the Brewers being convened and decerned thereon, they raised suspension and reduction on thir reasons, 1mo. That sundry of the burgesses entered their protestations against the procuring any such oppressive Act; and their Commissioner to the Parliament ought not to have acted contrary to the known inclinations of the Town, his constituents. 2do. The Magistrates, in respect of the scarcity, discharged brewing, and took the bear, which was to have been malted, and grinded it into meal; by which, having taken away the mean of our livelihood, our brewing, you are liable to refund our damage, and we must have retention of the Excise.
Answered to the first,—Whatever was the manner of procuring the Act, the same cannot be disclaimed now, having all the formality of such Acts. And for the second, Necessity has no law: it was better to convert the bear into meal, than many poor Christians to starve; and they can crave no abatement, because their brewing is less than formerly, for then they pay less excise conform to their brewing; and if they had damage, it is not liquidated, and so cannot meet this charge.
The Lords repelled the reasons; but reserved their action for damages, as accords.
