§ Mr. Gillonmoved for leave to bring in a bill to enable persons holding licences, to sell beer, spirits, and other exciseable liquors, to obtain a renewal of their licences from the excise in Scotland.
§ Mr. Pringlesaid, he felt bound to take the very earliest opportunity of opposing 1259 the motion. A measure of precisely the same nature had been several times brought before Parliament by the hon. Member for Falkirk, and as often rejected. Last session, a bill which he brought in at the commencement, he suffered to remain on the book till the month of August, and, without giving Members, who came down night after night for the purpose, he then withdrew it without even discussing it on a second reading. The bill would take away from the local magistrates in Scotland that salutary influence and check which they at present held over the morality of the country, and he therefore should take the sense of the House against the introduction of the bill.
§ Mr. Gillonsaid, that last year he had been prevented by indisposition from proceeding with the bill until so late a period as to render it impossible to pass it through this House and the other House of Parliament. The hon. Member opposite had entirely misrepresented the objects of the bill. It retained all those salutary provisions to which he had referred, and only went to relieve the wholesale and retail dealers in spirits from the hardship of being obliged every year to get a certificate of character from the magistrates before they could obtain a renewal of their licence from the Excise. To this they were exposed, even though they had conducted themselves in a manner consistent with the laws, and though no charge had been made against them. They were now subject to the caprice of magistrates, who, in frequent cases, used their powers for political purposes. The bill was to relieve the wholesale and retail dealers from such grievances.
§ Mr. Lockhartthought the power of the magistrates to refuse licences a very useful check. If the hon. Member could show any instances of a licence having been improperly refused, it ought to be inquired into. As far as his experience as a magistrate went, he had never known any application rejected, unless the case happened to be one of a very aggravated nature.
§ The Chancellor of the Exchequerwould not oppose the introduction of the bill, but lie would not pledge himself to take away the power of granting licences from the magistrates.
§ Leave given.