situated, for three prior Sundays, and serve a copy on one of the overseers and one of the peace officers.

3. "In case of actual or apprehended tumult, two Justices may direct the publican to close his house: disobedience to be esteemed as disorder.

4. "The licence stipulates that the publican shall not adulterate his liquors, or allow drunkenness, gaming, or disorder; that he shall not suffer persons of notoriously bad character to assemble therein; and that he shall not, save to travellers, open his house during Divine Service on Sundays and holy-days.

5. "Heavy and increasing penalties for repeated offences against the terms and tenor of the licence; Magistrates at Sessions being empowered to punish an alehouse-keeper, convicted by a jury of a third offence, by a fine of £100, or to adjudge the licence to be forfeited."

By the 2nd and 3rd Victoria, called the Metropolitan Police Act, operating within a circle of fifteen miles from Charing Cross, all public-houses are to be shut on Sundays until one o'clock p.m., except for travellers and publicans are prohibited, under penalties of £20, £40, and £50, for the first, second, and third offences, from selling spirits to young persons under 16 years of age. The same provision now applies to every part of the country, and has been followed with very beneficial results.*

in

*The WILSON PATTEN Act of 1854, closed public-houses and beershops on Sunday, from half-past two o'clock p.m. until six p.m., "nd from ten o'clock on Sunday evening until four a.m. on Monday. During the few mouths of its operating, there was a sensible abatement of drunkenness and disorder, as is testified by the returns from the police, throughout the country. We cite places by way of specimen. Warrington: "A most remarkable difference is observable in the general order which prevails throughout the town, as well as by the discontinuance of fearful affrays, and riotous conduct." Liverpool: "The new Act," says Mr GREIG, head-constable of the police, "has been attended with the most beneficial results. London: Mr G. A'BECKETT, magistrate of the Southwark Police Court, in a letter to the Times, Jan. 8, 1855, says, "that on the Monday mornings before the Act, the business of the court was greater tha on any other days, but that since, it had only averaged two cases of drunkenness for each Sunday." 1855, the Wilson Patten Act was superseded by the New Beer Bill of Mr HENRY BERKELEY, which extended the hour of closing to eleven at night, and gave a little more freedom to the Traffic on the Sunday afternoon. The history of this remarkable piece of legislation is worth preserving, as a monument of its author's -character. In a speech delivered by him, at the second anniversary dinner of the Licensed Victuallers' Association, Bristol, reported in the Bristol Mercury, of Nov. 4. 1854, he said, that after Wilson Patten's Bill had passed the second reading, he had been waited on by a deputation, but that being the eleventh hour,' no successful opposition could then be offered. He believed the words he used to the deputation were, 'If nobody else comes forward I will have a shy at it.' Tais, it will be seen, was just before the bill b came law, aud, therefore, before it had gone into effect Mr Berkeley opposed it without trial, and stood ple 'ged against it without regard to its results. On the 20th Feb. 1855, immediately after the meeting of Parliament, Mr Berkeley, in his place in Parliament, enquired of the Government, whether they intended to do anything in reference to the act, and received a reply that it was not their intention to repeal it. Mr Berkeley then recommended the appointment of a select committee. This created considerable division among the Publicans, who held many meetings for discussion, at all of which Mr Berkeley was recognized as their experienced and talented adviser.' (See the Daily News, April and May, 1855, and The Era of 22nd April). On the 23rd of April, a meeting of delegates is reported in The Era of the 29th, to have been held in Mr Painter's Public-house, Bridge Street, Westminster, which resulted in the appointment of a deputation to consult with Mr Berkeley. The deputation is reported to have waited on Mr Berkeley, in the lobby of the House of Commons. "A long desultory conversation ensued, after which Mr Berkeley advised the delegates to confer among themselves, and to consider well the course which would be most beneficial for them to pursue. He would postpone for a

§ 57. We have now to refer to one of the saddest mistakes ever made by any Legislature-one which has thrown back moral civilization for several generations, and hindered the success of efforts and circumstances of an ameliorating tendency to an extent beyond all human calculation. It was perfectly legitimate to favor the consumption of ale by way of weaning the people from the passion for gin, which possessed them in the last century, but to multiply the facilities of drinking, already too large, and to plant these facilities in rural districts, where the appetite for Spirits had not been formed, was at once to originate a new curse and to aggravate an old one.* Yet statesmen, professionally, ought to have known the actual working of the Licensed houses. Whenever that which troubled Parliament most was enquired into-we mean the progress of disorder and crime,— the evidence never failed to bring to view the atrocities of the Traffic-the fons et origo of the national malady. Take, for example, the evidence presented by the 'Report of the Select Committee on Criminal Laws,' 1819-20, as referred to in the following passage extracted from the Quarterly Review, of October, 1820 :—

"Public-houses are almost equally objectionable [with public fairs). There are such multitudes of these, in town and country, perpetually holding out allurements to those classes of the community who are the least able to resist them, that they can be regarded in no other light than as seminaries of iniquity, of which no principle of political economy that we are aware of can justify the continuance...It is in them that time and money, which tradesmen and laborers can ill spare, are spent; domestic unhappiness created and increased; bad connexions formed; familiarity with crime established, and consent too often given to become participators in its perpetration. It is there plans for the commission of crimes are usually

The

week his motion for a select Committee; in the meantime, it would be to the interest of the trade to hold meetings, and confer generally upon the most available course to pursue." Eventually, his advice was accepted, and on the 26th June, 1855, his motion for a select committee was agreed to by the House-Mr Cobbett, the seconder, remarking that no legislation could be attempted that session. Mr Berkeley became chairman. The evidence received was, with one exception, Metropolitan. The facts deposed to were almost uniformly favorable to Wilson Patten's Act. The opinions elicited, in some cases, against it. evidence suggested by the friends of the Act was not taken. The enquiry was abruptly closed, on the motion of Mr Cobbett. A report was presented, which was avowedly incomplete,-and legislation was immediately proceeded with! As soon as the New-Beer-Bill had been thus precipitately carried through the Commons, it was hurried through the Lords, the standing orders being set aside for the purpose. Mr Berkeley is reported in the Morning Advertiser, of 4th August, 1855, to have headed a deputation of Licensed Victuallers to Lord Granville, President of the Privy Council, to secure his support for the measure. In due course, the bill became law. Since that period, Mr Berkeley has never defended his conduct at public meetings. He has attended Licensed Victuallers' Meetings, and has sought to clear himself from the strictures of the friends of Wilson Patten's Act, by speeches rarely equalled in scurrillity and coarseness.

*When we recollect the superstitious, because unenquiring, opinions then entertained as to Beer and Ale, we can hardly wonder at this legislative blunder. Even three years later, on the motion of Sir William Ingilby for the Repeal of the Malt Duty, we find Mr Buckingham, an ardent friend of Temperance, characterizing Beer as "a cheap, wholesome, and nutritious beverage for the laboring classes"!

prepared and arranged; and there the actors in them almost invariably assemble after they have been committed. We entreat those of our readers who are in possession of the Report of the Committee on Gaols, to turn to the evidence of Dr LUSHINGTON, printed at page 162, and they will find proof of the encouragement and assistance which public-houses lend to delinquents, of which, till then, they probably had no conception. The scenes of depravity there disclosed reflect disgrace on the licence system, on the whole police of London, and excite wonder and astonishment that such deeds could be acted, night after night, without color or concealment, in any country where criminal law exists, and social order is established. If the multiplication and management of public-houses really augment misery and guilt as much as we have now supposed, the good they do to agriculture and the revenue by the sale of spirits is but a slender compensation for the evil they occasion. To connive at dissolute or desperate habits, because they may afford a temporary supply to an exhausted treasury, will be thought but a miserable shift for any minister as long as any sense of right and wrong is left among us. It has not even the merit of a word at all expedient; for private vices, when traced through all their consequences, will never prove to be public benefits; and we believe no prodigal being ever disposed of his expectations so improvidently as a finance minister who, for any sum of ready money, virtually assigns the expectant virtue of his country."

Overlooking all this, however, and the no less patent fact that Beer as certainly intoxicates, embrutes, and criminalizes its devotees (if not as rapidly) as spirituous liquors, parliament attempted to secure a cheap and unadulterated beer for the million by "An Act to permit the general sale of Beer and Cider by retail in England" (1st William iv.), of which the following are the most material provisions :

1. That any householder desirous of selling malt-liqour, by retail, in any house, may obtain an excise licence on payment of two guineas, and for cider only, on paying one guinea.

2. That a list of such licences shall be kept at the Excise office, open to the inspection of the Magistrates.

3. That the applicant must give a bond, and find 'surety, for the payment of penalties incurred.

4. Penalty for vending wine and spirits, £20.

5. In case of riot, Magistrates can command the closing of the houses. 6. Penalties for disorderly conducting of the house.

7. Not to open before four a.m., and to close at ten p.m., and during divine service on Sundays and holy-days.

This act, therefore, creates a new class of houses and landlords, commonly called 'Jerry Shops' and 'Jerry Lords.' The consequences of this facility of obtaining licences, by a small pecuniary payment, and without the troublesome and expensive process necessary to obtain A Licensed Victuallers' privilege, were a rapid multiplication of ale houses throughout the country, and the raising up of an interest which has hitherto prevented the repeal of the measure, and threatens to domineer over Parliament itself, through its members.

There are 41,517 beer shops. The Licensed Victuallers number double that: viz. 89,866. Total 131,413.

By 4th and 5th William IV., the preamble whereof recites that much evil had arisen from the management of houses in which BEER and CIDER are sold, it was enacted that each Beer Seller is to obtain his annual Excise licence only on condition of placing in the hands of the Excise, a certificate of good character signed by six rated inhabitants of his parish (none of whom must be Brewers or Maltsters), if in a town of 5000 inhabitants; but the house to be one rated at £10 a year. This act also distinguishes between persons who sell liquor to be drunk on the premises, and those who sell it only to be drunk elsewhere. By a Treasury order, beer sold at, or under, 1d. per quart, may be retailed without licence.

By the 3rd and 4th Victoria, which amends the two preceding acts, a licence can only be granted to the real occupier of the house; and the rated value to be £15, in towns of 10,000 inhabitants; £11, in towns of between 2500 and 10,000; and £8 in smaller places. The hours for opening and closing within the metropolitan boroughs are 5 a. m. and 12 p.m.; but 11 o'clock in any place within the bills of mortality, or any city, town, or place not containing above 2500 inhabitants. In smaller places 10 o'clock p.m. On any Sunday, Good Friday, or Christmas Day, or any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, the houses are not to be opened before one o'clock p.m. Licensed Victuallers and Keepers of Beershops who sell Ale to be drunk on the premises, may have soldiers billeted on them.

§ 58. What has been the success of these last measures, so much relied upon by politicians, and which formed the groundwork of such glowing prophecies at the time? It really seems, as if History, instead of being 'Philosophy teaching by example', had brought forth her painful records merely to be ignored: nay, the truth is, that the course of modern British Legislation has run directly counter to the clearest lesson which the history of the Traffic has taught us. For 300 years, we have been attempting to regulate the very fountain of misrule, and the failure stands confessed in the bulky records and Blue Books of Parliament itself.

Three years after the Beer-shops were opened (viz. in 1834), a select committee of the House of Commons was appointed to enquire into the "Extent, Causes, and Consequences of the prevailing vice of intoxication," (as noticed in § 6). This Committee, composed of some of the most eminent members of the House, including the late Sir ROBERT PEEL, sat for upwards of twenty-one days receiving evidence. The Official Report tendered a number of recommendations for repressing the manufacture, importation, and sale of alcoholic liquors, showing that this national disease of drunkenness stood in need of sharp and speedy remedies; and that the administration of these remedies was clearly within the province of the Legislature. One of the concluding suggestions was to the effect, that the government

should advise and order "a public declaration of their determina“tion to introduce early in the ensuing session, some general and "comprehensive law for the progressive diminution and ultimate "suppression of all the existing facilities and means of intempe"rance, as the root and parent of almost every other vice." Ūnfortunately, this challenge was not responded to, and the system. of iniquity, under the shield of law, has been permitted to exist and extend its ravages, until the disgraceful fact is recorded, in the last Committee on Public-houses, of one of our principal cities, in the year 1852, that the cases of persons actually taken into custody by the police for being found drunk and disorderly, is in the proportion of 1 to 20 of the population.*

§ 59. In 1849-50 the EARL OF HARROWBY obtained a Committee to enquire into the operation of the Beer Bill, before which evidence of the most conclusive description was presented as to its demoralizing effects. More than 40 Chaplains of Gaols, both in manufacturing and rural districts, give evidence, from which we here extract only a few testimonies.

Rev. J. FIELD, of Reading Gaol, had "ascertained by investigation, that about four-fifths of the offences committed by the agricultural population, are traceable to beerhouses."

Rev. W. C. BISHOP, of Northampton Gaol, was "led to conclude, from experience, that beerhouses, by increasing the temptations to drunkenness, have greatly contributed to the increase of crime."

Rev. W. BUTLER, of Nottingham Gaol, says, "Beerhouses operate in producing crime by providing occasions, more numerous and cheaper than otherwise would exist, for contracting drinking habits, bad companionships, and directly criminal engagements.

دو

The Rev. LEWIS PAIGE, Chaplain of Newcastle Gaol, says,"Having closely interrogated each prisoner as to the cause of their incarceration, has received answer (with one single exception), that it was the facility afforded in beershops for the indulgence of their drinking propensities."

The Lords report of the Beerhouses, that "a very large propor"tion are, as in the case of public-houses, the actual property of "brewers, or tied by advances to them; that they are notorious "for the sale of an inferior article; that the [absolute] consumption "of ardent spirits has, from whatever cause, far from dimi"nished; AND THAT THE COMFORTS AND MORALS OF THE POOR

HAVE BEEN SERIOUSLY IMPAIRED.

Owing to a bad system of describing and dividing crime in the country, the whole evil of Police Drunkenness (by no means equal to actual drunkenness,) is not seen in the re urns. When a man, for example, is excited, or half-and-half — and comm ts an assault then he ranks under that higher class of offenders, though he also belongs to the other. Three fourths of all the assault and stabbing cases should be added to those of drunkenness in estimating its extent as a Public Nuisance. In many places the police take little notice of simple drunkenness.