§ Mr. Bennetrose for the purpose of moving for leave to bring in a bill for the better regulation of the mode in which licenses are granted to publicans. He said that few questions regarding the interests, and what was of more consequence the morals of the people, were of superior importance to the present: he would not travel through long details which this House had heard over and over again, but would merely state the law as it stood, and the amendment he proposed to introduce. The principal act upon this subject was the 26th Geo. 2nd, c. 35, under which public houses were for 122 the first time annually licensed: it required that the party demanding a license should be provided with the certificate of the clergyman, the churchwardens, and overseers, and of four respectable inhabitants of the parish. Upon this point the practice had varied in different places: in some the magistrates would not license without the signature of the minister; and as the minister, from conscientious motives, would not sanction these places of entertainment, no public houses at all existed. In the metropolis the practice was quite the reverse, for there the clergyman signed as a matter of course, and the beadle, for a fee of from half-a-crown to a guinea, procured the necessary names of the parish officers and the inhabitants. The law was therefore in this respect a dead letter. The alteration he suggested was, that the signatures of the clergyman the churchwardens and overseers, and six inhabitants should be necessary; or of twelve inhabitants without the minister and the parish officers: but that they should be obtained from the parish where the applicant for a license had last resided: for it not unfrequently happened that a publican, whose house had been, the resort of the vilest of mankind, obtained a license from magistrates in a situation where he was totally unknown. The next change he had to propose was in the system of recognizances, which hitherto had been either two of 5l. each, or one of 10l.: and in general one publican became surety for another, through a whole line of applicants, without the slightest knowledge of their characters or circumstances. It was his object that the amount of the recognizance should be increased, and that the parties entering into it should be sworn as to their responsibility. The arbitrary power which magistrates enjoyed of depriving a man of his license and his living, without the assignment of any reason, was a great evil in the existing law: he did not mean to cast any slur upon the general impartiality of the mode in which magistrates discharged this part of their duty in the country: cases of oppression could be pointed out, but they were few in number compared with the metropolis, where, according to the evidence before the committee, a system of petty tyranny had been carried on to a most injurious and shameful extent. Instances could be detailed where victuallers, with the signature of the clergymen, the parish officers, 123 and of almost every respectable inhabitant in their favour, had been debarred of the means of obtaining a living by being deprived of their licenses, in order to gratify the vindictive spleen or petty caprice of some man who was disposed to display his insignificant but cruel authority. Another great evil originated in the system of licensing being converted into an engine of political influence, more particularly in boroughs, where the corporate magistrates exercised a most arbitrary and ruinous power, to favour the views of some patron or proprietor. The object of rendering licenses annual was, to augment the tax, and those which in Queen Anne's time were only 1s. each, in a very short period were augmented to 10s.: and every gentleman who had read the act of Geo. 2nd, knew that another purpose in making licenses annual was, that magistrates should not have the power to deprive a man of his license until the expiration of a year. His intention was, to repeal the 26th Geo. 2nd, and instead of allowing to magistrates in the first instance so arbitrary and extensive a power, to provide a graduated scale of penalties for irregularities which should be proved against the house of a publican, the recognizances ought to be forfeited in such a case, and the maximum of penalty he thought, should not exceed 100l. on the third conviction, or forfeiture of the license, and incapacity to keep a public-house for three years. This would limit the authority of magistrates in putting down houses without cause assigned, and tend to put a termination to the vexatious despotism that had reigned in the metropolis. The hon. member then mentioned the case of a Mr. Meek, of Clerkenwell, a man whose conduct had been such as to command the respect of all his neighbours and of all who knew him. This person's license had been taken away from him by the arbitrary act of the magistrates, and had not been since renewed, by which he had suffered a loss of property to the amount of upwards of 1,000l. He should propose, then, that there should be an appeal, not after a trial by jury, for the House had testified its disapprobation of such a provision in the last parliament; but that there should be an appeal from the licensing magistrates to the magistrates of the quarter sessions. However, it might be urged, that the former, those respectable persons, might not want a check on their conduct; yet even if this held good of those of the 124 metropolis, other towns and cities might not be equally fortunate. There were certain other clauses in the bill, the object of which was to give a greater degree of publicity to the licensing of those houses. He trusted they would be found also to provide a check upon one of the greatest grievances existing, by putting an end to the monopoly of the brewers, who forced the publicans to vend their adulterated liquors; whereas, all contracts between them in future would exempt them from selling any other than genuine liquors, of an exciseable quality. In one town there were not less than 67 public houses all of which were in the hands of brewers. In the town of Warrington there were 18 houses, 14 or 15 of which belonged to brewers. In the town of Maidstone there were 40 under the same circumstances. An artificial value had been given to public houses, throughout the country, by the licenses given to them; the consequence of which was, that they generally fell into the hands of the brewers them, selves, who were thus enabled to sell a deleterious compound, very injurious to the health of their customers. If any gentleman would give himself the trouble to taste what real good beer was, 6uch for instance, as that brewed in Shropshire or Staffordshire, and contrast it with the trash retailed by the unfortunate people in question, he would soon discover the great difference. The principle of the present bill he trusted, no one would object to; as he believed it was a measure which would remedy most of the existing evils. He should therefore move for leave to bring in a bill." for amending the laws for regulating the manner of licensing alehouses in England and for the more effectually preventing disorders therein."—Leave was given, and the bill was presented and read a first time.