Butcher, a person who slaughters cattle for the use of the table cuts up and retails meat.

Although, by the constitution of this country, the butchers 'are not so restricted as they were in ancient Rome, nor in such high reputation for skill and shamble-learning, As they are among the Jews, yet there are proper laws enacted for regulating their trade, and preventing the abuses committed by them, and their servants, if they were duly en-forced.—A butcher selling swine's flesh measled, or dead of the murrain, shall, for the first offence, be amerced ; for the second, stand in the pillory : for the third, be im-joned, and pay a fine; and-, for the fourth, abjure the town. Those who exact unreasonable prices for their meat, shall forfeit double the value 5 they are also occasionally fined for forestalling, etc. but perhaps never for blowing (which see), as few persons are inclined to complain, when redress of grievances is attended with loss of time and trouble.

It appears that our legislature has affixed such an imputation of proneness to shed human blood, upon persons who slaughter brute creatures for a subsistence, that, by the laws of England, no butcher is permitted to serve on a jury, when sitting on the life of a fellow-subject.

With respect to the unlawful dealings of carcass-butchers, if has often been maintained, and we apprehend, upon good grounds, that they are a tax upon the necessaries of life, a toll upon the market, a chief cause of artificial famine ; in short, the worst class of usurers.

Dr. Buchan justly censures the practice adopted by butchers, of filling the cellular membranes of animals with blood. Thus the meat appears fatter, and weighs more than it would do in its natural state, while it is rendered unwholesome, and unfit for keeping. See also Balance.