18 SEPTEMBER 1830, Page 13

PUBLICANS' LICENCES — FLASH - HOUSES.

THE licence of a person named GRAYGOOSE, who keeps the George Inn, Wanstead, was suspended by the Magistrates at the Ilford Sessions, because GRAYGOOSE—who seems on the occa- sion to have proved a green goose—had refused, when specially called on, to assist one of the patrol in securing a prisoner. It was one of the grand disadvantages of the monopoly which pub- licans virtually enjoyed before the passing of the late bill, that licences were hardly ever suspended or withdrawn. There was, in the first place, a strong disinclination on the part of the Ma- gistrates to license a new house, springing sometimes from bad and sometimes from good motives, although mistaken ones ; and there was a feelinffb of reluctance, in the second place, at depriving a man, even though he had done wrong, of a privilege for which he had paid perhaps no small sum, and the continuance of which was essential to the maintenance of himself and family. The ne- cessary consequence of the tender care evinced by Magistrates for public brewers and public morals, and the sympathy enter- tained for property however acquired or kept, has been, that the number of places of infamous resort in London and its neigh- bourhood surpass, as Mr. GALT says, all "count and reckoning." gut now that a public-house has ceased to be a monopoly, an four walls set apart for tke vending of beer are of no more value than if employed for the vending of bread—when the brewer's in- terest and the publihn's interest are out of the question—it may be fairly presumed that Magistrates, having no earthly motive for doing wrong, will really and truly consider the public morals in granting and renewing licences. The error of Mr. GRAYGOOSE was an offence very properly to be visited with the censure of the Bench; but there is one of much more common occurrence than the denial of assistance to officers, —we mean the harbouring of thieves and suspicious cha- racters. In the case of almost every burglar or robber that is ap- prehended, we are told that the plan of the robbery was in this public-house or the other ; that the parties met and talked over the affair, in language unintelligible to ordinary men, but in which all publicans and tapsters are at least moderately. skilled ; and that this was done, not in a private apartment, which such places of resort seldom possess, but in the tap-room, the bar, the parlour,— as the magnitude of the attempt and the respectability of the plunderers might happen to warrant. We would not say to the landlord in such a case, "You are an accomplice of the men whom you harbour,"—although if we did, we should in a vast majority of instances say the truth ; but we would say, " If you are so ignorant and inattentive that two or three notorious.thieves can sit in your house, day after day, and plan robberies and burglaries, and you all the while know nothing of their characters and plans, it is no mighty harm to deprive you of a licence which your stupidity must render you incapable of using either for your own good or that of the public : and if you do know these persons and their plans, you are still less fit to be intrusted with a house of promiscu- ous resort."

In all cases, therefore, where it is in proof that a robbery has been planned in a public-house, we would, for the first offence, admonish the landlord ; for the second, suspend his licence for six months ; for the third, take it away altogether. We would pursue the same course in all cases where robberies are committed inpublic-houses, or where riots occur in them. It is sometimes argued that flash-houses usefully minister to criminal justice, because they facilitate the capture of offenders ; and so perhaps they do. But while they render the task of a Bow Street officer so much an easier one; they militate directly against the grand object of police, which is not to punish of- fences, but to prevent their commission. Were robbers obliged to plan their attempts in the streets or the fields or in private lodgings, it is almost impossible that they should not be observed and watched. The flash-house is a house of call, where the thief who has scented out a job is certain of finding at all hours a sufficient number of journeymen ready to assist him in finishing it. Break these up ; deny to master thieves the facility they .afford, and half the burglaries that are planned in the metropolis would fail for want of materials to carry them through. These flash-houses are all public-houses—high-paying public- houses ; and under the old system of licensing, they were secure for that reason. But now that the monopoly of drawing beer is over, a decent neighbourhood needs no longer be exposed to the test of all nuisances—a low, blackguard alehouse—merely ecause its beer is good, and because the Bench of Magistrates feel disinclined to license another. Good beer the public are sure to have—the virtues of competition will give them that; and licences are no longer in the Magistrates' discretion.