§ Order for Second Reading read.
§ SIR HENRY SELWIN-IBBETSON, in rising to move that the Bill be now read a second time, said, that the measure of last Session had worked well, and that the present Bill was intended to amend some defects in it. He was sorry the Return he had moved for was not available; but, foreseeing that contingency, he had written to the chief constables of a largo number of towns. He had received answers from 20 towns, including Birmingham, Northampton, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Bristol, and the chief constables had one and all given favourable reports as to the working of the measure. In nine towns they told of 628 bad houses closed—in Manchester 180, in Hull 98, in Birmingham 25, Sheffield 37, Stoke-upon-Trent 96, Portsmouth 66, Plymouth 54, and so on. In 12 towns there were 426 fewer convictions against beer-houses in October, November, December and January, 1810 1869, than in the same months of 1868. Another good result was that magistrates were no longer afraid of refusing public-houses licences, and were able to put down the "free and easy." In Newington, alone, 163 were refused at the last brewster sessions in March of this year, and only 12 granted, while in Finsbury 29 had been refused and only two granted. So much for the Act of last year: the present Bill was intended, as he had said, to remedy some blots which had been found to exist in it. The first was with regard to the transfer of certificates. A clause would be introduced giving a power to the magistrates to transfer the licence, in cases where tenants being turned out by their landlords for disorderly conduct refused to give up the certificate, which constituted the goodwill of the house. Some persons took out a licence for the sale of what were called "sweets," and there being doubts whether the police had a supervision over their houses, the Bill proposed to give the police such a power. He proposed to adopt from the Scotch Bill a provision enabling magistrates to grant by a warrant to police officers, on an information made upon oath, a power to inspect houses where it was known or suspected that an illegal traffic was being carried on. The lion. Baronet concluded by moving that the Bill be now read a second time.
§ Motion agreed to.
§ Bill read a second time, and committed for Tuesday 10th May.