PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.
The _Licensing Sy.stem.
The Select Committee on "Public-houses" have made their report. The inquiry was extensive and minute ; occupying considerable portions of two sessions, and embracing the modes in which licences for the sale of liquor are conferred, the character and practices of the places Bo licensed, and the moral results as regards the population. Dancing-saloons, theatres, and other such places, licensed and unlicensed, were also inquired into. There are upwards of ten classes of licences for the sale of intoxicating liquor, some of them conferred by Magistrates and others by the Excise. Generally speaking, the system throughout is one of evasion, and not un- frequently of fraud ; the persons licensed finding it more profitable to break the conditions of their licences and pay the fines, than to carry out a correct course of action. Thus, wholesale dealers may sell wine by the single bottle, but of spirits they cannot sell less than two gallons. The latter restriction is openly evaded. A witness from Brighton stated, "that for twenty years he broke the law by sending two bottles of brandy at a time to a late Chair- man of the Board of Excise." Persons whose licences prohibit the Bale of beer to be drunk upon the premises allow it to be consumed upon the pre- mises; "three-halfpenny table-beer sellers," who require no licence, sell beer of higher quality after the regular houses are shut ; persons free of the Vintners Company lend their names to public-houses, thus fraudulently trans- ferring the right to sell wine without a licence; unlicensed coffeehouse- keepers sell gin in cups; and Temperance hotels stand charged with har- bouring disorderly company. The heaviest charge lies at the door of the beer-shops ; and the parties who escape with the least amount of taint from the inquiry are the licensed victuallers, or the keepers of " public-houses." The Committee say that the beer-shop system has failed in its objects. The expectation was that it would give the public "cheap and pure beer," dissociate beer-drinking from drunken- ness, and put an end to the disorders arising from the use of spirits. Un- equal competition has frustrated these hopes. The public-house keeper, being permitted to sell spirits as well as beer, may trust to remuneration from his sale of spirits, and bring down the price of his malt liquor to a point at which it is hopeless for the competing beer-shop keeper to cope and be honest. The consequences are, adulteration on the part of the beer-shop keeper, and the adoption of all available means, legitimate or illegitimate, just as it may happen, to attract customers to his premises. The publican, in his turn, enhances his profit by drugging his gin. The subject of adulter- ation is gone into with some minuteness ; and the Committee's opinion is, that an early inquiry should take place "into the whole question of the adulteration of food, drink, and medicines." The remedy suggested for the ruinous competition between the licensed victualler and the beer-shop keep- er, is to put both on-the same footing as regards the kinds of liquor to be sold ; existing interests to be protected by continuing the respective licences to the pet:gus now holding them. The re,ationship of drunkenness and crime, and several of the other evils whi:-.4 enter into the social state are forcibly put forth. The Committee give it lialeir opinion, that the statistics of drunkenness which have from time to time appeared, so far from being exaggerated, have fallen short of the truth. Saturday night and Sunday are the times especially marked by intemperate excesses; all laws human and divine failing to keep the mass of the working and lower population of large towns within the bounds of moderation.
Turning to remedies, the Committee suggest that places for the sale of liquor be shut throughout the Sunday, except for one hour during the day and three hours in the evening. It is also advised that places of rational re- creation be opened on Sunday, under certain restrictions.
This latter view is fortified by the good results which have arisen from the adoption of the practice in certain large towns. At Dublin, the best effects have followed the opening of the gardens of the Zoological Society in the Phoenix Park after morning service, at the charge of a penny. The expe- riment has been in operation since 1840; and the experience of fourteen years is thus summed up, in a memorial presented to the Lord-Lieutenant- "The gardens have afforded to the working classes a most attractive place of rational recreation of which they fully avail themselves, and in which they manifest a conduct so decorous as to claim still further indulgence." Sir Joseph Paxton mentioned his experience at Chatsworth. Hundreds of per- sons came from Sheffield to go over the house and grounds, and returned in an exemplary manner. In consequence of a remonstrance from the servants who complained of the attendance, the Duke of Devonshire closed Chats- worth altogether on the Sunday. The same number of persons came to the neighbourhood as before, but, deprived of the main attraction, they revelled at the public-houses and created great disturbance. The Duke soon cured the evil by reopening the park and adjoining grounds. Sir Joseph refers to the large attendances at Kew Gardens on the Sunday, and puts in a word for the opening of the Crystal Palace at a low price, combined with the pro- hibition of the sale of intoxicating liquors. The specific recommendations of the Committee are—that no intoxicating drink be sold without a licence ; that the licence embrace all descriptions of liquor, and be granted by Magistrates at Sessions ; that all persons of good character have a licence ; that two sufficient sureties be given for the ob- servance of the law; that the licences range from 6/. to 30/. per annum according to population and not as at present according to rating. That efficient inspection of ailicensed houses be provided for ; that persons found in houses during prohibited hours be liable to a penalty, not exceeding half the penalty to which the proprietor is liable ; that coffee-shops, Temperance hotels, shell-fish shops, and similar places, be subjected to an annual licence at a charge of 2/. and under close inspection ; that licensed victuallers and beer-shop keepers already licensed remain as at present, but that their houses be liable to inspection ; that the sale of liquor on Sunday be limited to be- tween one and two o'clock in the day, and between six and nine o'clock in the evening ; and that on week-days the premises be closed from eleven o'clock in the evening until four o'clock next morning. That all public theatricals, musical performances, and pictorial representa- tions or exhibitions, be licensed, at a charge not exceeding 51. per annum. "That it is expedient that places of rational recreation and instruction, now closed, should be open to the public on Sunday after the hour of two o'clock p. m.•' and that, so far as any such places are now closed by operation of law, such law should be BO far amended as to enable the Lord Cham- berlain, or other competent authority, to determine what places shall be permitted to be so opened, and for what length of time."
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