’Our sovereign lord, considering that it is most agreeable to reason and equity, and of universal concernment to all his majesty’s subjects, and especially to those of the meaner sort, that a due proportion be observed betwixt the price of the boll of beer and the pint and other measures of ale and drinking-beer rented and sold within this kingdom, that thereby the liberty taken by brewers and vintners, to exact exorbitant prices for ale and drinking-beer at their pleasure, may be restrained.  Therefore his majesty, with advice and consent of his estates of parliament, doth recommend to and authorise the lords of his majesty’s Privy-Council from time to time, after consideration had of the ordinary rates of rough beer and barley for the time, to regulate and set down the prices of ale and drinking-beer rented and sold in the several shires and burghs of the kingdom, as they shall think just and reasonable.’  The council were authorised to make their regulations by acts and orders, ’and to inflict such censures, pains, and penalties upon the contraveners of these acts and orders as they shall think fit; and to do all other things requisite for the execution of the same.’

When the Scottish Privy-Council ceased to exist by the union with England, there was some difficulty in knowing how this act should be applied.  The Court of Session, looking upon the supply of ale as vital to the country, took on itself to protect the public, just as a passenger sometimes undertakes the management of a vessel which has lost its proper commander.  On the occasion of the malt-duty being extended to Scotland in 1725, they thought a juncture had come when it was absolutely necessary to interfere, as there was no saying how far the brewers, let loose from the old regulations of the Privy-Council, might abuse the public by charging an extravagant price or selling a bad article.  The Court of Session is the supreme civil tribunal in Scotland.  Its rules of court for the regulation of judicial proceedings are called ‘acts of sederunt.’  On this occasion it passed ’an act for preventing the sale of bad ale.’  The object was an excellent one, but we are apt at the present day to consider that brewers under the influence of competition can best save the public from bad ale, and that judges are better employed when they direct their attention to the protection of the public from bad law.  They enacted that the brewers should sell by wholesale at a merk Scots per gallon, and that dealers should sell by retail at 2d. per pint.  They professed to make this regulation from ’taking into consideration the frequent abuses in vending and retailing bad twopenny ale; and that from the present duties and burdens wherewith the brewers of ale in and about the city of Edinburgh are charged, occasion may be taken by ill-designing persons to impose on the lieges and undersell fair dealers, unless the prices for brewers and retailers be certain and fixed.’

The brewers threatened to give up their business, and the court found it necessary to take farther measures.  Another act of sederunt was passed.  It is best, we think, where their contents are so curious, to quote the documents themselves, however stiff or formal they may seem, and the commencement of the act follows: