OPENING OF THE INN TRADE.
IT is only in semibarbarous countries that antique forms of furniture or ceremony are maintained after what they typify has passed from them as an association, and that the public is charged with their support when the wish for them has ceased. In respect of its inn-accommodation, however, England is so far a semibarbtu.ous country. We pay for a furniture of dignity which we no longer regard as dignified. The landlord procures for us things which we have ceased to prize—which are inferior to modern comforts, and have ceased to belong to anything but the inn ; being even there available only as formal items upon which the landlord may charge. The four-post bedstead is the "Deputy Chaff-wax" of the inn—nobody wants it ; and, as we showed before, the landlord would not burden his customers with such things if he could pre- sent his reasonable charges in a reasonable form. This artificial system, however, could not be maintained but for an artificial basis. The inn system rests upon the tavern and public-house system ; and that rests upon the licensing system, which is in itself arbitrary and capricipus. There are few inns that are not public-houses, or at least taverns. In most country towns a considerable portion of the business of the inn consists of ordinary tavern business, without which the inn could not be maintained. This tavern business brings the inn under the same system with the ordinary public-house, and it appears upon a foot- ing with that kind of establishment before the magistrates on "licensing-day." Ostensibly, the magistrates are charged with a discretion in giving their licence so as to promote the "good order " of the neighbourhood ; and it is usually presumed also that they have some duty of apportioning the supply of public-houses to business. Thus, if there exists a house in a particular neigh- bourhood, and the business of that house does not appear to be re- dundant, the magistrates hold themselves justified in preventing the opening of a second house ; although it is possible that the scanty custom of the first may be caused by bad management, and by the want of that accommodation which is required in the district. ' This discretion, which is pretty freely exercised by the magi', trates in their wisdom, paternally or personally interested, has given rise to a species of trading upon the magisterial licence ; a commerce best exemplified in the Metropolis. It forms, indeed, the subject of speculation even before a neighbourhood is actually built. An enterprising builder will take, on a long lease, a large tract of ground, which will be laid out with its due allowance of streets, and a special piece reserved as the site for a public-house: the construction of the houses, the gradations of their rents, are all calculated with a view to bearing upon each other in the profit of the speculating builder ; and then the exclusive possession of the public-house for the neighbourhood becomes in itself an ob- ject of barter and sale. In some neighbourhoods the houses are positively restricted from obtaining a licence by a condition in the lease ; in others, the enjoyment of the Dogberry and Verges privi- lege of justices in keeping down the number is used by a species of inverse action : the discretion is treated as a sacred thing, which must not lightly be infringed, but must be influenced only by a weight of testimonials in favour of the particular person destined for the particular public tavern pre-ordained for the neighbour- hood ; a species of testimonial easily managed. Although the re- striction of the market cannot be carried out with the same distinct- ness and simplicity in country places which are under a laxer legime, still the same principle applies, and the enjoyment of power in the magistrates is exercised at the expense of those who would desire to enter into the trade, and of the public who might obtain a better accommodation from an open trade ; for, unques- tionably, the first step in any radical improvement of the trade ,must be to throw it thoroughly open.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer may object, that he cannot spare the amount of duty upon the licences : but in order to the opening of the trade there is no necessity for that Minister to make any sacrifice whatever. On the contrary, there is reason to be- lieve that an open trade would considerably promote the number
of licences, and of course the public revenue. It might be a ques- tion es- don whether, with an open trade, somewhat lower amounts might
not be charged in certain cases ; but the true test of that would be an increase to the revenue derivable from that which is unques- tionably a very fair source of taxation. There is, however, no necessity for mixing up the question of taxes with that of magis- terial discretion. The granting of a licence should be made a mat- ter of course, and vested not in the justices but in some responsible public officer. Nor would such an arrangement at all diminish the power of the magistrates; since, although granted as a matter of course, theficence, with the distinct registration, would bring houses of public entertainment as strictly within the control of the _police as the present system can do. Any case of misconduct could then be advanced against a responsible because a registered landlord, and upon conviction for certain offences it might be proper to vest in the magistrate the power of withdrawing the licence ; a very different thing from the power of withholding it in the first in- stance.
Were the trade thus thrown open, there is no doubt that in the first instance more persons would enter into it ; but also it is pro i - bable that the very introduction of new persons with new ideas would introduce new experiments and new improvements for the benefit of the public ; just as the opening of the candle or glass trade has led to the striking improvements with which we are now familiar in every household. We have spoken of licensing for public-houses or taverns ; and we need scarcely: repeat that it is the tavern which is the basis of most country inns, any universal improvement of inns depending to a considerable extent upon the improvement of taverns. There would indeed be no necessity to wait for this improvement before introducing that kind of asso- ciation to which we referred in our last number; which might very well stand upon its own basis. But in general, a spontaneous im- provement of the whole inn accommodation of the country, we are convinced, must take its rise from a complete opening of the bade.
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