§ A Petition of the Licensed Victuallers, Publicans, within the cities of London and Westminster and its environs, was presented and read; setting forth "That the Petitioners form a very extensive body, and are the medium of contributing greatly to the annual public revenue: and that, from long usage, they have been under the necessity of furnishing the public with beer in pewter pots, in which article a considerable portion of their property is employed; and that, from the manner in which (partly unavoidable, but principally from the inattention of servants and lodgers) their said property is continually exposed to the temptations of the needy and the prey of the vicious; and that the Petitioners found that the depredators of their properly consisted of the most miserable and pitiable objects, and many very young; and the Petitioners some time ago associated themselves for the purpose of prosecuting such offenders, and they prosecuted several to conviction, but the punishment (doubtless from motives of humanity) have been in most instances slight, and in all very inefficient, as these offences still constitute some considerable part of the business of the sessions; and that any measure undertaken by the Petitioners to prevent the consequences stated, by substituting any other mode of accommodating, the public, is entirely hopeless (such plan having failed some years ago), and must ever do so, from the continual change in the trade 329 creating a competition that nothing short of legislative interference can counteract, so as to carry into effect any such measure, if proposed again; and that proofs are ready to be produced by the Petitioners, of loss to the enormous amount of from 70,000l. to 80,000l. per annum; therefore they trust that the House will consider their situation claiming, as a class of men affording accommodation to the public and the army, and as the means of contributing much to the facility of business and the comfort of society; and farther, the Petitioners are anxious to represent to the House, that the present mode of sending out pewter pots, forms of itself a nursery for the various depredators of the metropolis, inasmuch as it affords a constant supply in the absence of more extended prey, thereby enabling them to take advantage of any opportunity to plunder; and, when the extent of loss is considered, it is more than probable that from this cause alone has arisen many of those atrocities of late (more than ever committed) to the great terror and annoyance of his majesty's subjects; the prevention also of the nuisance (particularly on the Sabbath) of the calling out for and collecting pots, the Petitioners humbly conceive will be a desirable object with the community at large; and that the Petitioners have been informed that it is intended to make some regulations respecting the police of the said cities; they therefore hope that some clause or provision may be introduced in such Bill for the protection of their property, by restraining all publicans, under heavy penalties, from sending out from their houses any pewter or other pots; and that they may be permitted to afford the public an equal accommodation by vending their commodity without the use of pewter pots (excepting such as are necessary for the purpose of measuring their beer to their customers), which they are prepared to prove to the House may be effected without difficulty or inconvenience to the public."
§ Ordered to be referred to the Committee on the state of the Nightly Watch and Police of the Metropolis.