office of that church, does not allow such burials to take place on Sunday, Good Friday or Christmas Day if the parson of the church objects. Under the Metropolitan Police and Streets Acts, the Town Police Clauses Act 1841 and the Public Health Acts, street traffic may be regulated during the hours of divine service.
Constitutional.—Parliament has occasionally sat on Sunday in cases of great emergency, as on the demise of the Crown. Occasionally divisions in the House of Commons have taken place early on Sunday morning. The Ballot Act 1872 enacts that in reckoning time for election proceedings Sundays are to be excluded. A similar provision is contained in the Municipal Corporations Act 1882, as to proceedings under that act.
Judicial.—As a general rule Sunday for the purpose of judicial proceedings is a dies non juridicus on which courts of justice do not sit (9 Co. Rep. 66b). By s. 6 of the Sunday Observance Act 1677 legal process cannot be served or executed on Sunday, except in cases of treason, felony or breach of the peace. Proceedings which do not need the intervention of the court are good, e.g. service of a citation or notice to quit or claim to vote. By s. 4 of the Indictable Offences Act 1848 justice may issue a warrant of apprehension or a search warrant on Sunday. The rules of the Supreme Court provide that the offices of the Supreme Court shall be closed on Sundays, that Sunday is not to be reckoned in the computation of any limited time less than six days allowed for doing any act or taking any proceeding, and that, where the time for doing any act or taking any proceeding expires on Sunday, such act or proceeding is good if done or taken on the next day. In the divorce rules Sundays are excluded from compilation. In the county court rules they are excluded if the time limited is less than forty-eight hours, and the only county court process which can be executed on Sunday is a warrant of arrest in an Admiralty action. Where a time is fixed by statute, the Sundays are counted in. Where a term of imprisonment expires on Sunday, Christmas Day or Good Friday, the prisoner is entitled to discharge on the day next preceding (Prison Act 1898, s. 11).
Social.—Under this head may be grouped the enactments having for their object the regulation of Sunday travelling and amusements. The earliest example of non-ecclesiastical interference with recreation appears to be the Book of Sports issued by James I. in 1618. Royal authority was given to all but recusants to exercise themselves after evening service in dancing, archery, leaping, vaulting, May-games, Whitsun-ales, morris-dances and setting up of Maypoles; but bear and bull-baiting, interludes and bowling by the meaner sort were prohibited. The Sunday Observance Act 1625 (1 Car. I. c. 1), following the lines of the Book of Sports, inhibited meetings, assemblies or concourse of people out of their own parishes on the Lord's day for any sports and pastimes whatsoever, and any bear-baiting, bull-baiting, interludes, common plays or other unlawful exercises and pastimes used by any person or persons within their own parishes, under a penalty of 3s. 4d. for every offence. The right to enforce ecclesiastical censures is left untouched by the act. The act impliedly allows sports other than the excepted ones as long as only parishioners take part in them. In 1897 some lads were prosecuted at Streatley under this act for playing football in an adjoining parish, but the justices dismissed the charge, treating the act as obsolete. But in 1906 the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals instituted a prosecution under the act with the object of preventing extra-parochial rabbit-coursing on Sundays. The Game Act 1831 (1 & 2 Will. IV. c. 32, s. 3) makes it punishable to kill or take game, or to use a dog, net or other instrument (e.g. a snare), for that purpose on Sunday. The prohibition only applies to game proper and does not extend to rabbits.
There is no law in England against fishing on Sunday except as to salmon. Fishing for salmon on Sunday by any means other than a rod and line is prohibited by the Salmon Fishery Act 1861, and free passage for salmon through all cribs, &c., used for fishery is to be left during the whole of Sunday.
The Sunday Observance Act 1781 (21 Geo. III. c. 49), drawn by Dr Porteus, bishop of London, enacts that any place opened or used for public entertainment and amusement or for public debate upon any part of the Lord's day called Sunday, to which persons are admitted by payment of money or by tickets sold for money, is to be deemed a disorderly house. The keeper is to forfeit £200 for every day on which it is opened or used as aforesaid on the Lord's day, the manager or master of the ceremonies £100 and every doorkeeper or servant £50. The advertising or publishing any advertisement of such an entertainment is made subject to a penalty of £50. Proceedings under this act for penalties may be instituted by a common informer within six months of the offence. It was held in 1868 that a meeting the object of which was not pecuniary gain (though there was a charge for admission), but an honest intention to introduce religious worship, though not according to any established or usual form, was not within the act. The hall used was registered for religious worship. On this principle, forms of worship such as Mormonism or Mahommedanism are protected. In 1875 actions were brought against the Brighton Aquarium Company and penalties recovered under the act. As doubts were felt as to the power of the Crown to remit the penalties in such a case, an act was passed in 1875 to remove such doubts and to enable the sovereign to remit in whole or in part penalties recovered for offences against the act of 1781.
The substantive effect of the act is to hit all Sunday exhibitions or performances where money is charged for admission. In 1895 it was decided that the chairman of a meeting held to hear a lecture was not liable as manager of the meeting, and the solicitor of the liquidator of a company was held not to be liable for merely letting the hall for the meeting. In 1906 an attempt was unsuccessfully made to apply the act of 1781 to open-air meetings for rabbit coursing. The rules for the government of theatres and places of public entertainment, and the terms of the licences issued, usually prohibit performances on Sundays. The lessees of certain places of public resort in London have in some cases obtained their licences from the London County Council on condition that they do not hold Sunday concerts, but the recent policy of the Council has been not to interfere with or restrict the giving of Sunday concerts unless they are given for private gain or by way of trade. The Council has no legal authority to dispense with the Sunday Observance Act 1781, which enforces penalties on giving entertainments to which persons are admitted by payment of money or by tickets sold for money. The law has been judicially interpreted, however, to mean that charges for reserved seats are not incompatible with free admission. In consequence of this ruling Sunday concerts have been regularly given at the Albert Hall, which is not under the licensing jurisdiction of the London County Council, and at the Queen's Hall and other places within that jurisdiction. No charge is made for admission, but those who wish for seats must pay for them, and the proceeds of the concerts are not made the subject of profit. At the licensing sessions conflicts have annually arisen on this subject between the advocates and opponents of Sunday music.
Bands play on Sundays in most of the parks in London, whether royal or under municipal control; and it is said that local authorities cannot make bylaws forbidding bands of music in the streets on Sunday (Johnson v. Croydon Corporation, 1886, 16 Q.B.D. 708). Libraries, museums and gymnasiums maintained by local authorities may, it would seem, be lawfully opened on Sundays, and the national galleries and museums are now so open for part of Sunday.
Commercial.—At common law a contract made on Sunday is not void, nor is Sunday trading or labour unlawful, and enlistment of a soldier on a Sunday has been held valid. At an early period, however, the legislature began to impose restrictions, at first by making Sunday trade impossible by closing the places of ordinary business, later by declaring certain kinds of trade and labour illegal, still later by attempting to prohibit all trade and labour. 28 Edw. III. c. 14 (1354, now repealed) closed the wool market on Sunday. An act of 1448 (27 Hen. VI. c. 5) prohibits fairs and markets on Sunday (necessary victual only excepted), unless on the four Sundays in harvest—an exemption repealed in 1850 (by 13 & 14 Vict. c. 23) 4 Edw. IV. c. 7 (1464 rep.) restrained the shoemakers of London from carrying on their business on Sunday. An act of 1627 (3 Car. I. c. 2) imposes a penalty of 20s. on any carrier, wagoner or drover travelling on the Lord's day, and a penalty of 6s. 8d. on any butcher killing or selling on that day. The act does not apply to stage coaches. Both this and the act of 1625 were originally passed only for a limited period, but by subsequent legislation they have become perpetual. Next in order is the Sunday Observance Act 1677 (29 Car. II. c. 7), “An act for
