REASONS humbly offered by the Land-owners and Farmers of England, For the passing the Bill relating to the Butter and Cheese Trade, in Answer to those offered by the Cheesemongers against it.  
I. THE Bill is for two purposes: The first is, to Relieve the Sellers against the great Oppressions they lye under by the ill use the Cheesemongers, and their Agents, have made of the Statute 14 Car. II.  
The Cheesemongers, soon after the making of that Statute, did set up in all the Port-Towns in the Counties where this Commodity is made, an Officer whom they call a Weigher( who is no Officer by Law, nor Sworn; but is usually a decayed Cheesemonger, sent from London by them) and he takes upon him( after the Factor hath bought the Goods at the Sellers House, and preached and approved them there, when they come at the cost, it may be 20 or 30 Miles from the Sellers House, and are out of his possession) to Weigh and Search the Goods over again, and sets Rates of Deduction as he thinks fit, upon every Mans Goods, and writes back Notes to the Factor who bought the Commodity, that he must discount so much out of the Price agreed for, which if the Seller refuseth to discount, then Informations are exhibited upon some of the Branches of that Statute, and much Oppression is thereby.  
About the year 1674. one Everard, a Weigher in the Port of Ipswich in Suffolk, exhibited in one Quarter-Sessions, above 200 Informations upon this Statute, against the Makers or Venders of this Commodity; and not one of them was tried, but the Makers were under a Necessity of compounding with him; because the Statute gives the Informant half the Penalty, and double Costs if the Offender be Convicted: But the supposed Offender hath no Costs if he be acquitted; and the Persons informed against, choose rather to give the Informant 30 or 40 s. apiece to agree with him, than to spend 3 or 4 l. or more, to be acquitted.  
And since this the Countrymen have not much contended with them, but have submitted to abate what the Weigher hath adjudged, rather than to stand an Information, in regard he can have no Costs if he be acquitted: And by this practise the Weighers, who are the Cheesemongers Servants, raise in one County, viz. in Suffolk, as near as can be computed, 600 l. per annum, which is supposed, pays the Factors and the Weighers Wages, and more.  
II. The second part of the Act is to prevent the Trade being engrossed by a few Men, and to make it open and free to all the Cheesemongers, and the makers of the Commodity.  
The Trade out of Suffolk and Norfolk is now totally engrossed by about 22 Thames-Street Cheesemongers, who oblige their Weigher at the cost, to receive no Butter and Cheese, or put it on Board, but for these 22: And they oblige all the Hoymen( who go by Sea between London and Suffolk, in the Nature of Common Carriers by Land, to carry and recarry Goods) to take into their Vessels no Butter and Cheese, but for some, or one of these 22 Men. These very hoys bring any other Goods for any persons: But by the contrivance of these 22 Men, no Butter and Cheese can be brought up, but it must be their Goods, or consigned to them, or the Countryman must have leave from one of them, or he cannot sand up his own Goods, nor sand a Firkin of Butter to a Friend.  
These 22 have every Wednesday a club where they meet, and they set the price of the Goods below, and dispatch their Orders accordingly; and also set the Price of the same Goods here; and make the rest of the Cheesemongers that they exclude, by this practise, give them their own Price for the Goods here.  
There are 300 Cheesemongers free of the City of London, and they would all( probably) Trade more or less, if these 22 did not exclude them; but they have excluded 20 Cheesemongers that did actually Trade into Suffolk and Norfolk, within a few years, and have very lately turned out a considerable Trader; and by degrees, if not prevented, they will lessen this Number, as they have already threatened to do.  
These 22 Men object two things against this Act, First, That it lets in all the Inconveniencies of the Statute of 14 Car. II. provides against: Secondly, That it invades their Properties.  
As to the first, the Act proposed doth not Repeal the Stat' of 14 Car. II. for that Statute will be the standard of the Weight, and goodness of the Commodity still: And if the Goods are not made according to that standard, the Factor may, and doubtless will, refuse to buy them: And he also may( if he doth not buy them) Indict the Maker upon that Statute, for not making the Goods according to it; and the Statute gives him Encouragement enough, viz. double Costs, and half the Penalty. And as to the Factors carrying Weights about them, they need not; for every Maker of Butter and Cheese hath Weights sufficient, and such as the Factors have always hitherto used to buy by; and if they have not, the Factor is not obliged to buy the Goods; and besides, may Indict the Seller for bad Weights, there being already Laws sufficient to oblige him thereto; and there is a sufficient Provision in the Act proposed to prevent any Frauds in the Seller after the Goods bought: And the Seller is willing to submit to any Penalty shall be thought fit in Parliament to restrain him therein; and the Factor that buys them, will be a Witness of such Fraud, and one Witness by the Act, is enabled to Convict the Offenders. And besides, the Buyer hath by Law an Action of the Case against the Seller for any such Fraud or Wrong.  
That these 22 Men make is, That it gives every Trader an equal Property in their private Shops, Warehouses, Servants and Vessels, without recompense.  
The Act proposed doth not meddle with any Mans Shop; and these 22 Men have no sole Property in any of these Vessels or Warehouses, or Servants, but the Vessels are the Common hoys that carry to and from London, and ought to be at Liberty to be freighted by every Man alike, that brings Goods to them before they be full; and not to be engrossed by any one Body of Men: Neither do these Men fraught them wholly, but if there happens not to be Butter and Cheese enough at that Port where they lad, the Hoy-master is at liberty to take in any other Mans Goods to make up his freights, and doth so constantly( provided it be not Butter and Cheese) Neither do these 22 Men fraught the said Vessels back from London, but they take in Goods of every Man, as they can get fraught, as Common Carriers by Land do. And the Weighers are paid by the Load, and out of that they pay for the Warehouses themselves; and so they are no Mans proper Servants: And whereas these 22 Men engross the whole Commodity in Suffolk, it would be the same thing to the Weigher, if this Commodity were bought by 300 Men, instead of 22. for he would have the same money for every Load that he hath now.  
This Act being only to prevent Oppressions made by the ill usage of the Statute of 14 Car. II. and being to make a free Trade, which is a Common Good to Mankind in general, and to prevent engrossers in this particular, Its humbly desired that it may pass into a Law.