The Exchequer GALLON Vindicated To be the true and only Standard Gallon of ENGLAND.  
Against the unjust calumnies in a Pamphlet, entitled, The Cry of the Oppressed, by reason of false Measures.  
Written in behalf of the Commonwealth.  
Wherein is manifested, That the Brewers are not forced to sell by one measure, and pay Excise by another, as they pretend they are. But their Vessels are Gauged by that only Standard Gallon which is commanded to be used throughout the Nation by Acts of Parliament in force, made by this and many precedent Parliaments; which Gallon by those Acts is also appointed to be and remain for a Standard in the Treasury or Exchequer for ever; to the end no deceit might be used by variety of Measures in this Nation.  
By John lion, Professor of mathematics, and a Well-wisher of public Good.  
LONDON, Printed by John Macock, 1659.   

IN the Brewers 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 their ●●per directed To the Right honourable the Committee of Parliament for Inspection, they city Magna Charta, wherein they affirm it is said, Unum pondus& una mensura fit per totum Regnum nostrum. Doth not those Acts of Parliament made in the ninth year of Henry the III. the seventeenth year of Edward the II. the 14, 25, and 27. years of Edward the III. the 14, 15, and 16. years of Richard the II. the 11, and 12. years of Henry the VII. and the 23. years of Henry the VIII. provide for the same thing; and to that end establish one Standard Gallon, and also one Standard for all Weights and Measures, to be used throughout the Realm, to be and remain in the Treasury or Exchequer for ever? And to the end that no deceit might be used in variety of Measures, was not those Standards in the Exchequer further established by an Act of this present Parliament, in the year 1641. as it is in the 19. Chapter of Mr Scobels Collections of Statutes, which is consonant and not contrary to that Sacred Directory in Deut. 25.13, and 14. verses There shall not be divers Weights and Measures, a great and a small, but a perfect and just Measure throughout the Land. Though the Brewers seem to affirm the justness of their complaint, by pretending two different Measures, complaining they are gauged by one Measure, and are forced to sell by another, pretending their loss in the Excise of Beer and Ale in London only, thereby to be 7000 l. per an. whereas they are gauged by that alone Measure which is justified by Law to sell by; only in policy some Brewers give greater Measure then others, and also undersell one another in the price of the Barrel of strong drink, on purpose to gain each others Customers, out of mere design and covetousness of Trade, when the Law doth not oblige them thereunto. Besides many or all of them have no sealed Gallons in their houses, that they may be at liberty herein.  
And whereas in the first page. of their Pamphlet, it is complained by the Brewers, that the Gaugers do not observe the Assize of Beer and Ale, as they are commanded by the Ordnance of the Lords and Commons in Parliament, made in the year 1643. Article 23. whereby the Brewer is to pay 2s per Barrel Excise, for every Barrel of strong Beer which is made and Brewed.  
Surely it is meant such a Barrel of Beer as is established by Law, which Barrel is to contain just 36. of the Standard Gallons, or else above and not under( as it is in the foresaid Act, made in the 23. year of Henry the VIII.) By this word ( above) certainly no unbiased person can understand, that Act ever intended the Barrel should be 37. Gallons, or as much bigger as the Cooper or Brewer pleases; but the Law provides for the contrary; for it says in the same Act, That if any Vessel hold more or less then 36. Gallons, the Cooper is thereby directed on a penalty, to set the number of Gallons it contains on the outside thereof; and if it be less then a Barrel and hath not the number of Gallons on it, the Sealer may burn it.  
Besides for further confirmation of the Exchequer Gallon, there hath been tried with water, by that Gallon, divers new barrels that are sealed in near twenty Brewhouses in London, and the biggest of them have not held above 36. Gallons and 3. quarts, some but 36. gallons and a half, and some but 36. gallons and a quart, which had they been measured by the great gallon which the Brewers contend for, they had held little above 34. gallons; which shows that the Measure the Sealer seals the Barrels by, and that Measure at Coopers Hall the Brewers pretend they seal by, is not all one, and that the Sealer doth seal by the Exchequer gallon, or else those Barrels could not be sealed but broken.  
And whereas the Brewers are pleased to city the 11. of Henry, the 7th and 4. Chapter which they say( in the supplement to their book) declares by the express words in that Act, the proportion is as 5. to 4. for that the water Measure or bushel should hold 5. pecks of the Standard, and the common measure or bushel but four pecks of the St , which water measure by the same Statute is only to be sold within the ship-board; so it is hereby made manifestly to appear, that Beer and Ale is not to be sold by that measure,& yet from hence they derive the foundation of their great gallon at Coopers-Hall, by dividing those 5 pecks into eight gallons or parts,& thereby frame that measure they would have called the Ale-gallon: a gallon of which quantity was never established by any Law in any place of England; besides if one bushel contain 10 gallons, or 5 pecks, and another bushel contain 8 gallons, or 4 pecks, yet though the Law doth appoint two different bushels, that doth not make two different gallons; for there is but one gallon fixed by Law, and that is in the Exchequer, as aforesaid.  
And for their saying 8 l. of wheat makes the wine gallon, Let any judge to what purpose it is to derive a gallon from the weight of wheat, when all the Statutes before recited fully clear that point, and show where the Standard gallon shall reside, to which the whole Nation ought to comform, as doth the gallon in Guild-hall London, and in all the Corporations in England, which are fixed there by Law. And can it be presumed that gallon in the Exchequer( so long practised as ever since the 16. of Ric. 2. being near 300 years, as is seen by the fore-mentioned Statutes) is contrary in the contents thereof, to the true intent of so many Acts made for the constant confirmation thereof to this present time.  
Nor as they allege in the second page., doth any Statute speak of different Gallons to be found by proportion, although most absurdly it is said, according to the proportions they bear to itself, whereas no number can bear a proportion to its self; but the quantity of two different numbers or things, must be given to beget a proportion, and there is no Gallon established but of one quantity, and that is in the Exchequer. Besides not any Statute whatsoever doth so much as mention the word Proportion, that should be between any two or three Gallons.  
〈…〉 n diversity of Specie● so as to establish different Gallons, as one for Corn, and another for Beer and Ale; I am sure they are not in the Exchequer; if they are in any other place, it is desired they would show where they are, and by what Law so placed; for I conceive practise ought to be reduced to Law, and not Law to practise.  
And in the third page., after the said Brewers have declared the Wine gallon to be the Standard gallon, then they begin to speak of an Ale gallon, bigger by one fifth part for the foulness of working, whereas there is but one Standard gallon placed by any Statute Law, and that is in the Exchequer, as aforesaid. Neither is there any such thing as one fifth part more, expressed in any Statute whatsoever, for the measure whereby the Ale or Beer barrel is made, is appointed to be the Standard Gallon, which all that know the Laws of this Nation, know it is only fixed in the Treasury, or Exchequer, as aforesaid: And for the scantling of length and depth, or form of any Barrel, or other Vessel which the Cooper is to make, that scantling or any whatsoever, is not commanded by any Statute Law extant, only( as aforesaid) they are obliged to make the Barrel so that it must hold 36 of the Standard Gallons, unless it be in that Treatise called Compositio Mensurarum, the substance of which they know not, for they themselves confess it is not in being, nor did any man living ever see it, Also they confess, that in Henry the sevenths time a Standard Gallon, according to the Assize for dry things, was placed in the Exchequer: Now if that Standard Gallon be not also fo● Liquids, as Beer and Ale, it is desired they show a Standard Gallon in any other pl●ce; and yet before they said there was no Standard Gallon in the Exchequer but the wine Gallon, and that was the Standard of England: so that by this time they seem to find two different Gallons in the said Exchequer; which how true this is, any judicious man may go and try, where he shall find their supposition to be false.  
And those who have most accurately tried the quantity of that established Gallon, know their suggestions are contrary to truth, and have found but one Standard Gallon there, and that doth contain just 272 Cubical or solid Inches.  
And in the fourth page. they say a Winchester bushel holds 16 Ale quarts, or Winchester quarts; I am confident there is not in any Act of Parliament in all the Statutes at large, either the name of a Winchester bushel, or Winchester Gallon, or Winchester quart: But in. Primo Jacobi it was Enacted That the Victualler should sell a full Ale quart for a penny; but not one word in that, or any Statute, that four of those quarts should fill the Standard gallon( though I believe it doth) yet if three of those quarts did but fill the Standard gallon, it doth not invalid that Standard Gallon by any Law, but that the Barrel was to be made to contain 36 of those Standard gallons. Besides, as to the measure of the barrel, the Law doth not refer either to the Ale quart, or Bushel, but to the gallon, firkin, or kinderkin; which if the gallon were made by 4 of those quarts, as the Brewer would have the gallon made by( there being no Law extant that leads thereto) besides the trouble and charge of altering and placing new gallons in all the several Towns corporate in England, the Commonwealth would be damnified in the Excise of Beer and Ale in London onely, about 7000 l. yearly, and in the Nations about 40000 l. yearly: And in the same page. they say; the assize is still kept up by the tradition of the Coopers scan●ling: I pray by what established Law is that Coopers scantling? I believe you will as soon find it, as you will that Treatise called Compositio Mensurarum, for tempus edax rerum hath swallowed it up also. And though in pag 5. they are pleased to call M. lion a novice in the Art of Gauging, yet he hath more experimented the Standard gallon of England residing in the Exchequer, then any of his accusers,& that may be seen by their calling the Standard gallon in the Exchequer the Wine gallon, and they give this reason, for that it is the least of gallons; and that their mistake may further be seen( as this case is) it is not how many cubical inches a gallon contains( for which end they brought many Artists to prove the gallon was to be 288¾ inches, none of them ever seeing any original Standard gallon in their lives, as themselves confessed) But which is the Standard gallon of England, and where it is placed, and by what Law so established, and whether there be one or many Standard gallons established by Law; then it is easy to know the quantity thereof, and not to trouble themselves about the proportions of 3 several gallons one to another, when there is but one gallon as aforesaid established by Law and not the word proportion used in any Statute. It being most absurd for the Brewers to offer to justify that gallon of 288¾ cubical inches, when there is no such gallon in any Corporation in England placed there by any Statute Law; only that placed( at will) in Coopers-Hall, without any established authority.  
And had the Brewers vessels been Gauged by any other gallon then the aforesaid gallon in the Exchequer, the said lion had then not only acted to accommodate the illegal ends of the Complainants, but utterly contrary to the established Law in that behalf, and in breach of the trust reposed in him.  
But if it shall please the Parliament to alter those Laws already made, and confirm another gallon of any quantity they shall determine of, he the said lion shall be ready( being by Authority thereunto directed) from the same Dimensions he now hath of all the Brewers Vessels in London, to cast up the exact quantities thereof, as accurately as he hath formerly done by the Exchequer gall●n, whereby he hath experimented his knowledge, by the trial of several tons with water, in near 20 Brewhouses, wherein he hath always been careful rather to under, then over gage them, according to the Legal gallon, as hath been found upon proof.  
FINIS.