LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 THE LORD LIEUTENANT 
 
 OF 
 
 Clje Couiup of S>urrep, 
 
 ON 
 
 THE MISCONDUCT OF 
 
 LICENSING MAGISTRATES, 
 
 AND THE CONSEQUENT 
 
 DEGRAD/ITION OF THE MAGISTRACY. 
 
 By THOMAS EDWARDS, LL.D. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 rniNTED FOR JOSEPH BUTTERWOUTH AND SON, 
 
 LAW-DOOKSELLEnS, -l^t. FLEET-STKEET. 
 1825.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 It will not escape the reader that this pam- 
 phlet has been repeatedly altered, and, in many 
 places, greatly mutilated during its progress 
 through the press, from a desire to avoid what- 
 ever might be thouglit to have a personal 
 reference to individuals. The difficulty of 
 writing at all under such circumstances can 
 only be appreciated by those who have made 
 the experiment. 
 
 It had been determined to suj)press this })ub- 
 lication altogether, in the hope that the New 
 Licensing Act would remedy many evils ; but 
 the deliberate assurance with which it was 
 denied at the late Reigate General Quarter 
 Session that there were any grounds for the 
 resolution voted last year at Kingston, has ren- 
 dered its appearance indispensable. .Such de- 
 nials are calculated to mislead the Magistrates 
 of a county, and to prevent the introduction of 
 useful regulations. To preclude the necessity 
 of any further discussion, the ])amj)hlct has 
 been revised, and its relerences conlinetl (o
 
 VI 
 
 documents already before the public, and to 
 such facts as require no sup})lementary proof. 
 The use which was attempted to be made at 
 Reigate of the revered name of the late Mr. 
 Harrison, has occasioned the case which was 
 laid before Mr. Denman to be annexed to the 
 Appendix. If this publication should have the 
 effect of inducing a more general perusal of the 
 police reports before the New Licensing Act is 
 brought under discussion, it will not have been 
 circulated in vain. A subject of deeper in- 
 terest to this country, in every point of view, 
 moral, political, and religious, can rarely pre- 
 sent itself to the consideration of Parliament, 
 than one which involves the honour and purity 
 of the Magistracy. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 2. line 11. for " real," read " chief." 
 • 11. line 6. for "country," read " county." 
 
 13. lines 2 and 3. for " than of," read "than that of." 
 
 19. line 2. for "dinners," read "dinner." 
 
 93. line 13. for " there was," read " there were."
 
 A 1. E T T E 11 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 Your Lonlsliip will doubtless recollect, 
 that at the General Quarter Session which was 
 held at Kingston in October last, Mr. Drnni- 
 niond moved a resolution, which directed that in 
 future every Magistrate sliould receive notice of 
 the respective Licensing Sessions throughout the 
 Country ; and that he illustrated the ex))ediency 
 of this measure, by referring to the })roceedings 
 at the last Licensing Session for the Brixton 
 East Halt-Hundred, in the case of the Horse and 
 Groom public house. (Aj)]). A.) It became 
 necessary for me to assert the truth of certain 
 circumstances connected with those j)roceediugs 
 whicli a Magistrate then ])resent, possibly Horn 
 misa})prehension at the moment, thought pro))er 
 to deny, as it ha[)pened tliat Mr. Drinnmond in 
 that particular j)art of his statement had derived 
 his information tioni me ; and the County had 
 to witness the disgrace/id spectacle, of two Ma- 
 istrates rising in open court to contradict eacli 

 
 5 
 
 otlier on facts, whicli, fVom their recent occur- 
 rence could not well be supposed to have escaped 
 the distinct recollection of either. I regret this 
 denial the more, because it could only apply to 
 the introductory part of Mr. Drunimond*s state- 
 ment, which admitted of an easy explanation ; 
 and if the Court had not been thrown into con- 
 fusion by a scene so unexpected, it could not 
 have escaped the Gentlemen present, that Mr. 
 Drummond^did not ascribe to any individual, or 
 individuals, that which constitutes the real offence 
 in Barton's affiiir ; I mean the rescinding of a 
 solemn decision in the absence of the Magistrates 
 by whom it had been pronounced. I shall con- 
 tent myself, therefore, with stating that if any 
 persons conceive that I ought to prove whatever 
 has been contradicted, whether it is material or 
 not, they will find the names of my witnesses in 
 the margin*, and with this observation I dismiss all 
 controversy, between that Magistrate and myself. 
 My name had been added to the list of Magis- 
 trates of this County but a short time, when I was 
 anxiously and repeatedly requested by that 
 virtuous and accomplished Magistrate, our late 
 Chairman, Mr. Harrison, to watch with care the 
 proceedings at the petty Sessions at Ncwington 
 for granting Licences, where, sitting in the chair, 
 he could only state the law while others voted. 
 
 * Mr. Scriven, Mr. Davies, Mr. Nottidge, Mr. Laing, 
 Mr. Boriodaile, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Curling. 
 
 17
 
 An acquaintance of twenty years, and a similarity 
 of opinion on many subjects, rendered all reserve 
 unnecessary between us, and as the business of 
 of licensing public houses is so immediately 
 connected with tlie pubUc morals, and with the 
 honor of the Commission, we were not accus- 
 tomed on referring to particular instances of mis- 
 conduct, to speak of transactions involving sucli 
 momentous consequences as mere irregularities. 
 When he was suddenlv taken from us, I was 
 confounded : my first impression was to resign ; 
 but I ascertained, that the advocates of correct 
 principles still constituted a powerful minority 
 in the Division, among whom I recognize some 
 of the most honourable men I have ever known, 
 and I felt that, instead of withdrawing myselli 1 
 ought to endeavour to strengthen our number. 
 I had therefore communicated a variety of facts 
 to Mr. Driunmond, to induce that Gentleman to 
 be present at our future Licensing Sessions; and 
 I entertained the intention of makiuir the same 
 representations to other Magistiates, who, as they 
 had residences in I^ondon, might be exjiected to 
 attend without much inconvenience. When Mr. 
 Drunnnond, improving on this idea, moxed the 
 order at Kingston, it was obviously j)r(>|)er that 
 he should give some reason for it, and the re- 
 scinding of our decision in Barton's case, present- 
 ed the most recent instance of miscondiicl. ihit 
 bv whom the derision of the morning was resrinil-
 
 ed up stairs, at the very Dinner with which the 
 termination of our Licensing Session is celebrated 
 and after the Magistrates who had so decided* 
 had gone home in tlie full belief that the Session 
 was at an end, Mr. Drummond did not state, nor 
 could he have stated ; for it will excite surprise, 
 and probably indignation, when I add, that I and 
 several other magistrates have searched our minute 
 book in vain for the names of the Magistrates as- 
 sembled at this extraordinary Dinner Session. (App. 
 B.) The Minute is so constructed that a stranger 
 wishing to inform himself would infer that wCy 
 the same Magistrates who refused Barton's re- 
 newal in the morning, had returned to the same 
 placCf at five o'clock in the afternoon to undo 
 our own work : the Magistrates assembled in 
 Dinner Session and the dining room being quite 
 out of sight. The fact that our decision was re- 
 scindedby some person or persons unknown is easi- 
 ly established, but Mr. Drummond did not state by 
 whom this was done, nor by whose orders the names 
 of the magistrates then assembled were omitted. 
 This remains to be investigated, and to this inves- 
 tigation we must come if the honor of the magis- 
 tracy is to be maintained. At present we sim- 
 ply know the fact, that our decision was rescind- 
 ed ; and although we may respectively entertain 
 within our own breasts a latent suspicion, we have 
 no evidence that would justify us, in pointing 
 out the actors on that occassion, or in stigmatis-
 
 ing them, it' it were our desire to do so. At 
 this moment I have only a very imperfect know- 
 ledge of the j)roceedings in the dining room : I 
 have yet to learn whether many or few magis- 
 trates were present : even now I should want the 
 means of proving tiom the minute-book, that any 
 particular individual was in the room at the time, 
 and if it were proved I should want the inclin- 
 ation to believe, that the rescinding of our decision 
 ought to be imputed to that individual. When 
 it is recollected, that the decision in Barton's case 
 liad only been carried in the morning by a ma- 
 jority of eight to seven, the conclusion can be at 
 no great distance, that the proceedings in the 
 dining room were the work not of an individual, 
 but of a party. Our decision gave a shock to the 
 system, and created general consternation. I may 
 further add, that I regret the unexpected aspect 
 which was given to Mr. Drummond's statement 
 by the denial at Kingston, because I have reason 
 to know that he drew up and read that paper, 
 lor the j)urpose of calling the attention of the 
 court, not to individuals, but to princij)les opposed 
 to the intentions of the Legislature, and modes of 
 proceeding discreditable to the commission. 
 
 Of those principles, against which some virtuous 
 magistrates in this Division have ibr years car- 
 ried on an unecjunl contest in the privacy of our 
 own secret tribunal, llure is not one more pro- 
 
 B 3
 
 6 
 
 miiienl, Jiioic })cniicious, or more t!onii)lctoly 
 aiUiptcd to promote profligacy, and to subserve 
 tlie interests of s})eculators in public houses at the 
 expenee of the public morals, than the incom- 
 prehensible maxim, that a delinquent publican 
 possesses an unquestionable right to transfer to 
 another a personal privilege, which in con- 
 sequence of misconduct he has forfeited lor 
 himself. The late Mr. Bowles in his evidence 
 before the Police Committee, gives a striking in- 
 stance of the practical application of this princi- 
 ple in the case of the Lord Nelson public house 
 at Camberwell, which he is inclined to believe 
 was licensed througli the influence of a Brewer 
 who held the Lease, "in a place where, of all 
 others, no public house ought to have been per- 
 mitted.** Whether Mr. Bowles was justified or 
 not in suggesting undue influence cannot now be 
 known ; but he goes on to state, that after the 
 keeper of the house had been repeatedly convict- 
 ed of suffering tippling, the house was so grossly 
 misconducted, being in a situation remote from 
 observation, as to impose on the magistrates the 
 duty of sending the publican to the Quarter Ses- 
 sions. It so happened, however, that the delin- 
 quent had the good fortune to escape on an in. 
 formality, and he was then allowed to save him- 
 self and his licence from further peril, by the 
 grant of a transfer, " it being the opinion of a
 
 majority of the magistrates then present, under^ 
 the advice they had takcn^ that in the case of a 
 transfer they had no discretion." Tlie practice 
 of putting down the name of every magistrate 
 who enters the room at our licensing sessions in 
 this Division, although lie may withdraw before 
 the business is half disposed o{\ renders it impos- 
 sible to ascertain from the Minute Book who 
 were the magistrates that pretended to have taken 
 this advice ; but I will venture to assert, that the 
 opinion of Sir S. Shepherd, which has long been 
 in the possession of the magistrates of this Divi- 
 sion, informs them (as itcould not fail to do), that 
 they have a discretiony and / cannot learn that 
 any other opinion was ever taken on the sul^ect, 
 (App. C.) It is known to be a common practice 
 with the owners of brothels to change the tenant 
 when an indictment is threatened, but less for- 
 tunate than the owners of public houses, they do 
 not meet with magistrates to connive at and aid 
 the fraud, on the authority of an opinion that was 
 never given. Mr. Beaumont, in his examination 
 before the Police Committee, says, •' It is not an 
 utujsual expedient, where a house is of such ill 
 lame, that it is known complaints will be made 
 against it, for the old tenant, just before the licens- 
 ing day to be removed to some other house, or 
 removed from the one in ([uostion at least, and a 
 new man put. in ; in which case there can be no 
 evidence.** 
 
 B 1'
 
 The mimites of the Police Committee are fill- 
 ed with instances of the baneful consequences to 
 society, of thus substituting the interests of indi- 
 viduals for the interests of the public. It is dis- 
 tinctly stated by another very intelligent magis- 
 trate, that ** the worst conducted houses are 
 often the most valuable on account of the in- 
 creased consumption ;" and it follows, of 
 course, that wherever magistrates can be found, 
 who will allow a transfer under all possible cir- 
 aimstanceSy speculating owners of public houses 
 will be at no loss in selecting a profligate tenant 
 to push a profligate trade, until it becomes expe- 
 dient to arrest the hand of the law and save ap- 
 pearances, by introducing a new man, who is 
 destined to run the same career as his predeces- 
 sor. Relays of desperate characters abound in 
 this metropolis, who will not hesitate to take 
 public houses in situations, and under circum- 
 stances, which afford no prospect of obtaining a 
 livelihood by honest means ; these houses, with 
 their skittle grounds, are the common and noto- 
 rious lounging places of thieves in the day-time, 
 and are the receptables of vagabonds and beg- 
 gars at night, whose luxurious suppers and 
 drunken orgies are depicted in the Mendicity 
 Reports, with an accuracy that can leave no 
 doubt of the immense profits which individuals, 
 through the medium of these wretched beings 
 draw from the public. The money they collect
 
 daily by their artifices aiul importunities is shown 
 to be very considerable ; but it does not stay 
 with them : — if any thing is left on the succeed- 
 ing morning, the remnant is shared in gin before 
 they set out on their respective rounds. ( App. D.) 
 That licensing magistrates, whose anxiety for 
 the interests of the proprietors of disreputable 
 public houses is such, that they adopt the prin- 
 ciple of" perj)etuating these houses, by allowing a 
 transfer when the case is desperate, should be 
 very leady to encourage parish officers in mak- 
 ing complaints, is scarcely to be expected j and 
 thus the existence of the false principle may be 
 taken as a sure indication, that in the subordinate 
 departments zeal and activity are not encouraged, 
 where they go the length of bringing the in- 
 terests of owners into peril. The Report of the 
 Police Committee, of whose labours the beneficial 
 consecpiences to the public morals are silently 
 making their way, notices a case at Shadwell as 
 demonstrating, ** that the most disorderly and li- 
 centious conduct of houses belonging to par- 
 ticular owners, docs not insure the loss of the 
 hcence ; but that, if at last, fiom the notorious 
 infamy of tlie parties complained against, the 
 magistrates are compelled to interfere, the least 
 possible punishment is inflicted, tlie tenant is 
 shifted, a real or fraudulent transfer is made, 
 and a new huidlord takes possession, lo follow 
 llu old practices in llu- same house with ag-
 
 10 
 
 ^ravated misconduct: the maxim is, that the 
 house being brick and mortar^ cannot be guilty of 
 any moral crime, and the old system is revived 
 with tlic same profit as before." The number of 
 in(hvi duals stated to have been hanged out of 
 one infamous public house, which had been per- 
 petuated by this culpable connivance on the part 
 of those whose duty it was to have caused it to 
 be shut up, may serve as a fearful illustration of 
 the consequences of introducing a false prin- 
 ciple into a system, which is so intimately con- 
 nected witli the vital interests of society, in 
 Divisions immediately adjoining the metropolis. 
 Neither the extent of the mischief) nor the vigi- 
 lance required to prevent abuses, by which 
 speculators rise to affluence, and the unhappy 
 victims of temptation are hurried to their de- 
 struction, can be understood by looking at the 
 state of things in the country Divisions ; where 
 the weight and consequence of the owners of 
 public houses are comparatively nothing, and 
 where the public houses are so few in each 
 Division, that a desire of patronage could not 
 operate very strongly to defeat the wholesome 
 regulations of the Legislature, even if there were 
 any ground for supposing the absence of high 
 lionor and integrity in the country gentlemen. 
 But in the Divisions adjoining the metropolis, the 
 owners of public houses are men of powerful 
 influence ; persons immediately dependant on
 
 11 
 
 them in trade thrust themselves in as licensing 
 magistrates, and the temptations of the patronage 
 are enormous : the number of public houses, for 
 instance, in this Division alone, being upwards of 
 830, while the number in all the other divisions 
 of the country taken together, amounts only 
 to 503, 
 
 It is not easy to ascertain with any degree of 
 certainty, by what private regulations the business 
 of granting licences was conducted at a period 
 nnich earlier than the year 177^ ; but the man- 
 ner in which the public houses are clustered 
 together at the Marsh Gate, and in other parts 
 of the Division, leaves little room for supposing 
 that there was any want of a good understanding 
 among the licensing magistrates on the subject 
 of patronage and profit. It is undoubtedly to a 
 time long past, that we ought to ascribe the per- 
 nicious scheme of converting the grant to an 
 individual, of a personal privilege of one year's 
 thiration, into a perpetuity inseparable from a 
 house ; merely because it is subject to the condi. 
 tion of specifying the house in which the licence 
 is to be made use of, in order that the intended 
 convenience to a particuhu- neighbourhood should 
 not be defeated by removing the licence clse- 
 wiiere. Although a licence is granted, not to 
 the house, but to tlie publican ; although it is 
 granted to that individual, not for his benefit, 
 but to meet the wants of the surroiuidiim- inlia-
 
 12 
 
 hitants and of the waylaiiiii;- man ; althougli the 
 sole Ibunclation of the u:nint is declared to be 
 '*|)LibHc utihty," by tlie same authority wliicli 
 entrusts the grant to the Ucensing magistrates, 
 a way was Ibund, notwithstanding, to convert an 
 instrument held by so irail a tenure, and gj^a- 
 tuitouslij give?i, into an object of" valuable traffic. 
 The secret consisted simply in connecting the 
 licence with the house in peipetuity, and with 
 the individual licensed to whom alone it belongs, 
 J?iSt so Jar as to make him the scape-goat for all 
 oflfences committed against it, leaving the licence 
 to survive for the benefit of the owner of the 
 house. From this period, whatever may be its 
 date, a licence might be considered as adding 
 many hundreds of pounds to the value of a 
 house ; the legal principle of " of public utility '* ' 
 was lost sight of, and public houses were con- 
 tinued in situations where they could not fail 
 to become a " public evil," under the specious 
 pretext of a tenderness for private property. 
 
 It required no great penetration in any magis- 
 trate, not influenced by a sense of duty, to per- 
 ceive that the principle of " public utility" would 
 render his patronage at a licensing session of too 
 precarious a nature to be available, and the no- 
 tion of a tenderness for property was plausible. 
 But false as this pretended regard for private 
 interests is in principle, and incompatible as it is 
 with an honest discharge oi public duty, it is
 
 IS 
 
 equally false in fact. Magistrates who can re- 
 gulate their conduct by an/ other principle than 
 of " public utility" at alicensing Session, are not 
 likely to feel for any private interests but their 
 own ; and, therefore, with all this affected tender- 
 ness for property, the same men will, without 
 the smallest remorse, exercise this lucrative pa- 
 tronage, by thrusting the nuisance of a public 
 house into a genteel neighbourhood wherever 
 they can, to the great dismay of the respectable 
 inhabitants, and the certain deterioration of the 
 adjoining houses. Nay, more, where a public 
 house has been established, and the occupier is 
 doing well, and, by doing w^ll, can afford to 
 conduct his house in a respegtable manner, he is 
 surprised by the grant of a licence to some new 
 house in his immediate vicinity, and his petitions 
 and remonstrances, as well as those of the owner 
 of his house, are unavailing. Mr. Bowles, in a 
 letter addressed to the licensing magistrates of 
 this Division, complains of the grant of a licence 
 to a new house called the Anchor and Hope, at 
 Camberwell (a ])arish which, he observes, al- 
 ready overHows with public houses,) contrary to 
 the general wish of the inhabitants, the greater 
 part of whom jietitioned against it ; and he re- 
 marks that tlie licence was granted three montiis 
 before the house was co!nj)leted, workmen being- 
 employed to put in the windows on the Sunday 
 preceding the view-day, and a roast joint being
 
 14 
 
 introduced on the table in f]^reat form to com- 
 plete the deception wlien the magistrates arrived, 
 although, in point of fact, the house was not inha- 
 bited until three montlis after the licence was 
 obtained. Mr. Bowles stated all this, as well as 
 his opinion as a magistrate, residing in that 
 parish, tliat the house was not wanted when he 
 oj)posed the grant j but he stated it in vain. He 
 observes that the case of the then occui)ier of 
 the Duke of Clarence (an adjacent public house), 
 in consequence of the grant of this new licence, 
 was such as to deserve commiseration. A few 
 years before this, the Duke of Clarence had lost 
 a considerable portion of its accustomed trade, 
 through the licensing of the Windmilll, which Mr. 
 Bowles had strenuously opposed. The conse- 
 quence w\as, that the Duke of Clarence changed 
 its tenant four times in four years. This last 
 grant had driven the fbiuth tenant to despair, 
 and he also had transferred his licence and his 
 difficulties to a successor. In another place, 
 where the inliabitants objected to the opening 
 of a new house as unnecessary, the worthy 
 magistrates could not approach it on the view- 
 day without passing five neiglibouring public 
 houses ; they condescended, therefore, to cross 
 two planks that were laid for their accommoda- 
 tion across a ditch, by which they were enabled 
 to escape the five public houses, and to discover 
 that the new liouse was indis})ensable. But the
 
 15 
 
 best evidence on this subject, whicli is of great 
 importance, as tliis boasted tenderness lor pro- 
 perty is the key-stone of the patronage-system, 
 will be found in the petitions of established pub- 
 licans that are poured in at the licensing sessions, 
 when an application is made on behalf of a new 
 house, in which they show the condition of the 
 neighbourhood, and the number of houses already 
 licensed within the distance whicli the new ap- 
 plicant proposes to supply. Wherever these pe- 
 titions have not been carefully destroyed, they 
 will effectually settle the question of tenderness 
 for property. If this principle of tenderness 
 were sincerely entertained, it would operate in 
 cases such as I have instanced, but it does not ; 
 it is a principle which is only put forward wliere 
 it promotes — not where it opposes magisterial 
 patronage. Hence we see public houses licensed 
 far beyond the wants of a neighbourhood, some- 
 times, as in tiiis district, actually next door to 
 each other ; hence it is that public houses are 
 continued in decayed and dangerous neighbour- 
 hoods, and in such numbers that the publicans 
 starve each other, and frequently confess that 
 they cannot live without conniving at improper 
 conduct. In houses so circumstanced, thieves 
 congregate, robberies are plamied, and gentle- 
 men's servants out of place are seduced — pnblic 
 utility is outiaged — ))nnishment is abont to visit 
 the dulin(|ueut publican, — and what is the result ? 
 Why, to keep ali\-e flie system of perjx'tiiitv and
 
 If) 
 
 patronage, ho is allowed to save liiinscir and his 
 licence by a transfer. These are among the evils 
 <)('j)ermitting by far the most important of all 
 the magisterial duties, and that which is the 
 most likely to be abused, to fall into the hands of 
 a few individuals in the metropolitan Divisions. 
 Upon this point the evidence given before the 
 Police Committee is conclusive. 
 
 The corrupt contrivance of giving the owner 
 of the house a perpetuity in the licence has 
 enabled the brewers of bad beer to force a trade, 
 to enslave the publicans, and to half-poison the 
 public, by buying up these privileged houses : 
 while the respectable brewers, to prevent them- 
 selves from being thus thrust out of the market, 
 are driven in their own defence to adopt the 
 same expedient, and are consequently obliged to 
 lock up vast sums in the purchase of public 
 houses, to keep that footing in the trade, w^hich, 
 under a better system, the good quality of their 
 beer would command, without subjecting them 
 to such enormous and never-endinjy drafts on 
 their capital. If they do not buy, they must 
 forego their trade ; and when they have bought, 
 they hav^e no security that within a much shorter 
 distance than their public house could supply, a 
 rival house will not be licensed. It is no very 
 enviable situation in which browsers and distillers 
 are placed, by this pretended tenderness for pri- 
 vate property, and real tenderness for magisterial 
 patronage ; but if any thing could aggravate
 
 17 
 
 their grievance, it is to see themselves excluded, 
 and their own tradesmen become their licensing 
 magistrates. How is a brewer or distiller to find 
 fault with bad workmanship or overcharges 
 under such circumstances ? 
 
 On the other hand, it must be admitted, tliat 
 magistrates whose trades place them in immediate 
 connection witli the owners of old, and the appli- 
 cants for new public houses, by continually pre- 
 senting themselves at licensing sessions, evince 
 but little sense of what they owe to their brother 
 magistrates, who, as a body of public men, ought 
 not to be subjected to the possibility of censorious 
 remark. The legislature, it is true, has been 
 silent with respect to tlie attendance of magis- 
 trates who are thus connected with brewers and 
 builders, but their presence on such occasions 
 tends to lower the magistracy in the estimation 
 of the people ; and that feeling of delicacy which 
 every one is bound to clierish who is called to 
 rank with gentlemen, ought to have rendered un- 
 necessary tliose hints on the subject, which are 
 evidently implied in the examinations of the 
 Police Committee. Magistrates so connected, 
 may no doubt discharge this very important and 
 frequently very unpleasant duty with fidelity ; 
 but tliey must, in so doing, incur the hazard of 
 disobliging their best customers, and the public 
 will scarcely give them credit for such superflu- 
 ous martyrdom, when it is evident tliat others 
 are ready to execute that duty witliout their in. 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 terfereiice. It is no secret, that a very active 
 private canvass sometimes takes place in the 
 metropoHtan Divisions to obtam Hcences for new 
 houses, and the public reasoning on general 
 principles, and knowing nothing of the peculiar 
 upriglitness of individuals, infer that a brewer's 
 back maker or a timber merchant may increase 
 his business, by making himself conspicuous as a 
 licensing magistrate in a division like this, in 
 which it appears that no less than twenty-five 
 new houses have been licensed in the short period 
 of tlie last three years, while the speculating build- 
 ers of a mucii larger number are looking forward 
 in trembling hope. It is not enough that such 
 magistrates, wrapping themselves up in their own 
 conscious integrity, disregard the sneers of a 
 jealous public ; it should never be forgotten, that 
 much of the usefulness of the magistracy depends 
 on the public respect, and that it is, or at least 
 ought to be, our only recompence, for services 
 which occasion to ourselves infinite trouble and 
 anxiety. On these observations, which I think 
 it expedient to make, it is not my wish to dwell 
 unnecessarily ; but I am anxious, according to 
 the mediocrity of my ability, to uphold the dig- 
 nity of the commission in which I have the honor 
 to be enrolled, and I regret that any thing should 
 take place which may cause it to fall into dises- 
 teem. Where such instances occur, the common 
 interest of the magistracy requires that they 
 should be taken notice of. For this reason it
 
 19 
 
 was that I alluded to the turtle sent by a brewer 
 to our licensing dinners ; but in so doing, it was 
 not my object to fix Mr. Drummond's attention 
 on the donor, with whose conduct I have nothing 
 to do, but on the state of degradation to which 
 the spirit and proceedings of a majority had 
 reduced the Division. Viewed in their proper 
 light, such presents, under such circumstances, 
 constitute a practical sarcasm ; they savor of an 
 intimacy which has dwindled into contempt ; 
 and the circumstance was adverted to by me, for 
 the purpose of showing the very low estimate of 
 our delicacy and sense of propriety, which is 
 taken by those who may be supposed to know us 
 best. The singularity of accepting presents for 
 our licensing dinners from precisely the persons 
 who should have nothing to do with us on those 
 occasions, was not wholly irrelevant as an exposi- 
 tion of the extent to which the dignity of the 
 magistracy has been committed in this Division j 
 yet it has been said that I ought not to have men- 
 tioned to Mr. Drummond so trivial a circum- 
 stance. Sucli an observation may pass ciurent 
 with gentlemen, who have not })ossessed many 
 op})ortunities of becoming acquahited with the 
 details of the police reports ; but the public take 
 a very different view of the subject. If we have 
 forgotten, it is not forgotten elsewhere, that the 
 donor of the turtle, and the son of another magis- 
 trate, arc said by a publican, named Hayward, to 
 
 have promised, after he Iiad bound himself to 
 
 c 'Z
 
 20 
 
 take his beer of them, that " tliey would do 
 ALL THEY COULD to get hiiii a Hccnce ;'* and it 
 appears that he did get a licence for his house as 
 soon as it was finished. The promise is denied 
 by the donor of the turtle in his examination ; 
 but he adds, that " if any man had an impression 
 that we could procure him a licence, I should 
 not take the trouble to tell him we could not." 
 This may be good brewers' policy, but as a ma- 
 'gistrate I am afraid that I shall always feel it to 
 be my duty to protest against, and expose, by 
 every means in my power, any conduct in our- 
 selves which is calculated to strengthen that im- 
 pression ; especially as I perceive, by a very 
 strong note which is appended to the evidence 
 of Hayward, by a Middlesex magistrate, in the 
 edition of the Police Reports published by 
 Sherwood, and by the examinations of the magis- 
 trates, Messrs. Bowles and GifFord, that the 
 impression, however unfounded it might be, was 
 not confined to a single individual. Mr. Gifibrd, 
 speaking of this firm, says, " One of the magis- 
 trates is himself a brewer, and the son of another 
 magistrate, who constantly attends the licence 
 meetings^ is a partner in the same house ;** and 
 the same witness, in answer to the next question, 
 replies, '• I have heard, but I do not know it to 
 be the fact, that as many as eleven licences had 
 been granted to new houses belonging to that 
 house, in the half-hundred of East Brixton, or in 
 the borough of Southwark, in one day." This
 
 report is, I believe, as to the number, an exagge- 
 ration ; but I introduce it to show, that reports 
 were afloat tending to compromise tlie honor of" 
 the magistracy, and in part arising, I presume, 
 from that magnificent disregard of appearances, 
 which, notwithstanding the efforts of the minor- 
 ity, seems to have accompanied our proceedings. 
 That in the face of this (I am wilhng to suppose 
 unjust) impression, a gentleman who was not 
 only father to one of the partners, but who was 
 in immediate contact with brewers generally, as 
 a back-maker, should have imagined that he con- 
 sulted the dignity of the magistracy, by still 
 persevering in his attendance at the licensing 
 sessions, is much to be regretted, and in my 
 apj)rehension is scarcely to be excused. It 
 affords no consolation to me, to reflect that 1 
 share with some highly honorable gentlemen in 
 this Division, and with more than a hundred gen- 
 tlemen in the otiier Divisions, the discredit to 
 which we are subjected, as a body, by this absence 
 of high-minded delicacy in individuals. Unfor- 
 tunately, a still greater evil remains behind, for 
 if honorable and spirited men are to be disgusted 
 and discouraged from coming into thccommission 
 of the j)eacc, from an apprehension of its being- 
 made a l)ye-word and a jest, tiie civil administra- 
 tion of the empire must sustain a shock which 
 no virtues or assiduities in the other de})artments 
 can redeem. 
 
 It has been doclared by the highest niitiiority 
 
 * c .S
 
 22 
 
 in one of our courts of justice, that the mischief 
 of granting a licence improperly is infinitely 
 greater tlian that of refusing one j as in the 
 former case it may be productive of injury to 
 the whole community ; and the same reasoning 
 is more strongly applicable to the improper grant 
 of a transfer or a renewal. I have already ob- 
 served, that whenever this takes place, the pre- 
 text made use of is an affected regard for private 
 property, and that magistrates who put forward 
 this doctrine are too frequently influenced by a 
 very different motive. They must be aware, 
 that it ought to satisfy the owner of a public 
 house, that, like any other landlord in losing his 
 tenant, he gets his house back again ; but it is 
 said that this is not enough, because as a public 
 house it either yielded a larger rent, or enabled 
 him to compel his tenant to take his beer from a 
 particular brewer. Now on what principle, I 
 would ask, is the owner of a house in which a 
 shop is opened to sell beer, to be upheld in put- 
 ting an exorbitant rent upon it, by which either 
 his tenant or the public must be injured, because 
 that tenant, for the convenience of the public, 
 and not certainly for the profit of the owner, has 
 obtained a licence personal to himself] which 
 costs the owner of the house nothing, and with 
 which he has nothing to do ? Whenever a house 
 is sold or let on terms above its intrinsic value, in 
 consequence of a circumstance so perfectly ad- 
 ventitious, it is obvious that those who drink the 
 beer must ultimately bear the burthen j and for
 
 '22 
 
 the protection of that public whose interest alone 
 it is the duty of magistrates to consult, there can 
 be no doubt that in all such cases of extortion, 
 the licence ought to be, and where magistrates 
 are honest, would be, removed to some other 
 house in the same neighbourhood. The coarse 
 fittings up of a public house are not more pecu- 
 liar or expensive than those of butchers and 
 bakers, who require their slaughter-houses and 
 their bake-houses, and yet whut owner of a house 
 so occupied ever thinks of claiming an indemnity 
 from the public for the accident of his tenant 
 quitting trade or removing? To put the case 
 more strongly, I will suppose the owner to be a 
 mealman or a grazier, who had determined that 
 the public should only consume bread and meat 
 of such quality, and at such a price, as it might 
 vsuit his interest to furnish : it would assuredly 
 afford no very solid title to commiseration on 
 losing his tenant, if he were to urge, that in the 
 full expectation that the nefarious scheme would 
 prove successful, he had purchased tlie house at 
 a price above its real value. These, however, 
 are instances which at the worst would be limited 
 in their injurious effects to the public pocket, 
 and possibly to the public health ; but the sub- 
 stitution of private interests for the principle of 
 " public utility," in the licensing of victualling 
 bouses, not only involves both those considera- 
 tions, but goes directly to affect the ])ubiic morals 
 over which magistrates are appointed to watch. 
 
 C if
 
 24 
 
 Tlie abuse can only be accounted for by the fact, 
 that whenever the legal principle of *' public 
 utility," is suffered to prevail, magisterial pa- 
 tronage is worth nothing. If it could be made 
 to appear that the owner of a public house had a 
 legitimate interest in the licence of his tenant, it 
 would then be a joint concern, in which he, as a 
 sleeping-partner, must bear the consequences of 
 his own neglect in not taking proper securities 
 for the good conduct of his associate. The con- 
 dition of the unfortunate publican, where the 
 false principle is allowed to operate, is dreadful ; 
 on the one hand he has to struggle against an 
 exorbitant rent, or to take beer at an indemnify- 
 ing price, or of an indemnifying quality •, and, on 
 the other hand, he sees public houses increasing 
 around him without the smallest necessity. His 
 only resource is to keep a dissolute house, and to 
 render his beer still worse by adulteration, which 
 drives the lower classes to the use of ardent 
 spirits, and the victualling house in name, be- 
 comes in reality a gin-shop. It is in evidence 
 before the Police Committee, that this is the'ine- 
 vitable consequence of any deterioration in the 
 quality of the malt liquors. 
 
 In this Division it appears that an honorable 
 minority, who had long endeavoured to support 
 the legal principle, succeeded by some accidental 
 concurrence of circumstances in obtaining a 
 Committee, who, in a Report dated 24th of 
 August 1811-, called the attention of the other
 
 
 (( 
 
 25 
 
 maoistrates to " the too notorious fact, that in 
 many parts of tlie Division the number of pub- 
 lic houses greatly exceeded the utmost demands 
 of public accommodation ;" observing at the 
 same time with perfect truth, " that it is the 
 " unavoidable consequence of an unnecessary 
 *' multiplication of public houses, to render it 
 '* impossible for the keepers of such houses, in 
 " the orderly and regular course of their business, 
 *' to gain a subsistence.'* This Report, which 
 contained many useful suggestions, was confirmed 
 at a general meeting and entered on the minutes. 
 The advocates of the legal principle no doubt 
 imagined that they had gained an important step. 
 But at the very next licensing session a majority 
 came down upon tliem, and not only voted that 
 this Report, 'which had been regularly confirmed^ 
 should be sent back for reconsideration, but 
 reformed the Committee itself by the introduction 
 of new members. 
 
 The new Committee, tluis reformed, framed 
 and submitted to a subsequent general meeting a 
 series of " Observations, Remarks, and Opi- 
 " nions," in whicli they controvert the assertion 
 of the former Committee, and their reasons re- 
 duce themselves to the following axioms. 
 
 1^'irst. — Mr. Colquhoim has stated, that besides 
 casual cu.slo?)!, it will rv(\mrc al least sixty ])rivate 
 houses, occupied l)y fUrnihes in the constant habit 
 of consuming porter, to siij)p()rt a res})ectable 
 public-iiouse ; thcrffore Ibrty-one private houses
 
 at most to one public-house, (wliich is the pro- 
 portion in this division) are quite sufficient, 'whe- 
 ther the inhabitants consume porter or not. 
 
 Secondly. — We are not so bad, as we were be- 
 fore 1792, or as others are in other places. 
 
 Thirdly. — A victualler's business is drawn 
 from sources totally distinct from the local trade, 
 and depends on casual custom, which cannot be 
 calculated, Dr. Colquhoun having stated, that 
 some labouring men consume from twelve to 
 sixteen pots of porter each per day. 
 
 Fourthly. — That at Camberwell, it is true, 
 there are five public-houses within the distance 
 of 174 yards ; but if (I do not undertake to ex- 
 plain the logic of the six magistrates) nine public- 
 houses are no more than sufficient for the de- 
 mand of public accommodation on a line of road 
 two miles in length, it is of no moment how 
 close the nine houses may be situated to each 
 other; therefore the five houses are not too 
 close. Besides, in the district at large, there 
 are only forty-one private houses to each public- 
 house; whereas in Camberwell and Peckham 
 there are forty-seven private houses to each pub- 
 lic-house. 
 
 Fifthly. — That at Peckham there are, it is 
 true, seven public-houses in a given length of 
 road, but as the public houses do not all stand 
 on the same side, the length ought in that case 
 to have been ascertained by measuring up one 
 side of the road and down the other, by which
 
 means the road would be found to be as long 
 
 again. 
 
 Sixthly. — Having admitted that there are in 
 Kent Street alone twenty-one public houses, of 
 which six stand between the numbers 268 and 
 298, this new Committee proceed to vindicate 
 the abuse, and to do them justice, I must beg 
 leave to give the vindication in their own words — 
 " But (say they) it must be remembered of 
 " what description of persons the inhabitants of 
 " Kent Street and its neighbourhood are com- 
 " posed. A very considerable number of the 
 «' tenants both of the public and private houses 
 " are, and have been, time out of mind, support- 
 " ed by letting them out in lodgings to persons 
 ♦< of the lowest class of the community; of 
 *' whom. Dr. Colquhoun says, above twenty 
 ** thousand rise every morning without knowing 
 *« how they are to be supported during the pass- 
 ** ing day, or where, in many instances, they are 
 '* to lodge in the succeeding night. It is a fact 
 *' easily to be proved, that no small portion of a 
 *« publican's support in this neighbourhood is 
 " derived from persons of this description. An 
 " instance has been pointed out to your Com- 
 " mittee, by an intelligent ofiicer of the police, 
 '♦ of a public house in Kent Street, in which not 
 *' less than fifty people sleep every night, and 
 *♦ lew of them are beheved to accommodate less 
 •• than twenty or thirty. Many of the private 
 *♦ houses are also occii])ied in a similar way.
 
 
 -28 
 
 ** The miserable accommodations that are met 
 " with at these dreary abodes, and the deplor- 
 " able shifts to which the persons who resort to 
 *' them are obliged to submit, are distressing be- 
 yond the powers of imagination ; yet, however 
 cheerless, however destitute they may be of 
 " comfort, they are nevertheless in request, they 
 " are useful; nor under the existing state of so- 
 " ciety are they to be dispensed with. Annilii- 
 " late the swarms of beggars with which the me- 
 " tropolis abounds, and the number of public 
 " houses in Kent Street, and in similar situations, 
 " may undoubtedly be dispensed with ; but 
 " while the one is suffered to exist, the other 
 ** must be tolerated : and cold indeed must be 
 " the heart which, after taking all due precau- 
 " tion for securing the peace and good order of 
 ** such a neighbourhood, can cherish the most 
 " distant idea of depriving these unhappy beings 
 " of any of the scanty enjoyments which fall 
 " within the reach of their slender means to ob- 
 " tain." The six magistrates who ostentati- 
 ously signed their names to these " Observa- 
 " tions, Remarks, and Opinions," then go on to 
 say, " that from a due consideration of these 
 "circumstances, your Committee feel no hesita- 
 <* tion in submitting it as their opinion, that the 
 " first position assumed in the Report of the 
 *' 24th of August last (1814), namely, that the 
 " number of public houses in many parts of this 
 ** Division greatly exceeds the demands of pub-
 
 $9 
 
 " lie accommodation, is altogether unfounded." 
 This extraordinary document is given at length 
 in the printed correspondence between Mr. 
 Wisset and jMr. Bowles, and considering the 
 great extent of road which a single good public 
 house (and no other ought to be licensed) can 
 supply, as far as the traveller is concerned, and 
 that a great proportion of the respectable. private 
 families, who are very numerous in this Division, 
 do not supply themselves with beer from the 
 pubUc house, the assertion that 837 public houses 
 (whicii was the number at that time), or one to 
 every forty-one private houses, did not exceed 
 the demands of the Division, requires no com- 
 ment. It was not originally intended that this 
 Report should ever come before the public ; in 
 a Division meeting it did all that was wanted. 
 When Mr. Colquhoun said, that besides casual 
 custom^ it would require at least sixty houses in- 
 habited by families in the constant habit of 
 drinking })orter, to support one respectable pub- 
 lic house, he stated sixty as the minimum^ and 
 certainly did not mean to imply, that one such 
 house would be incom])etent to su))ply a mucli 
 larger numher. Taking into consideration the 
 manner in which the houses of the lower classes 
 are crowded together in this Division, and the 
 fact, that contiguous private houses of a supe- 
 rior chiss, in streets, do not occu})y a frontage of 
 more than thirty feet each on an average, and 
 that these streets again are intersected by back
 
 30 
 
 streets ; taking into consideration, also, that in 
 many of these private houses no pubhc house 
 beer is consumed ; the six magistrates, if fairly 
 put to the proofi would have had some difficulty 
 in showing that one public house to every two 
 hundred private houses was not sufficient. But 
 instead of thinking about an excess of above six 
 hundred, they actually contend, that *' they 
 ** would have been justified in licensing two 
 " hundred more victualling houses !** 
 
 The six magistrates next declare, that it has 
 neither been proved, nor have they any reason to 
 believe, that there is a single house throughout 
 the district, in which disorderly practices are re- 
 sorted to or countenanced ; and this declaration 
 is ventured, although it is self-evident, that a 
 public house which receives every night from 
 thirty to fifty vagabonds, thieves, and prostitutes, 
 can be nothing else than a flash house and a 
 brothel. It is fortunate for the community that 
 there are other magistrates in this Division, who 
 feel it to be their duty to interrupt these " un- 
 " happy beings in their scanty enjoyments," by 
 sending them off periodically to the tread-mill ; 
 but these gentlemen are neither the owners of 
 public houses, nor the tradesmen of owners, nor 
 the relatives of owners. 
 
 On this declaration, that there is not, in the 
 belief of the six magistrates, a single disorderly 
 house throughout the district, there is an obser- 
 vation of Mr. Bowles, in his reply to their Re-
 
 <( 
 
 3\ 
 
 port, which illustrates the continued struggles 
 of the minority against the principles maintained 
 in this Division : " What, in their opinion," he 
 says, " is necessary to constitute a disorderly 
 " house, it is not for me to determine ; but I 
 have a shrewd suspicion, that a nocturnal visit 
 to Kent Street (to say nothing of many other 
 parts of the Division), would tend much to 
 " unsettle the belief of the Committee in the 
 " above respect ; nay, without subjecting them 
 " to so disgusting a visit, I conceive that such 
 *' belief is at variance with the many severe re- 
 " primands, which in this very room have been 
 " ffiven from the chair to victuallers, whose dis- 
 «' orderly conduct has been complained of by 
 " parish officers and others : on which occasion, 
 *' the hands that have been Jield up against a re- 
 *' newal of the licence, have proved that, in the 
 " opinion of some magistrates at least, the majo- 
 ♦* rity displayed more of that lenity, the exercise 
 " of which the Committee make a ground of 
 ** exultation, than was cojisistent with the true 
 *' interest of the public.''* By some accident or 
 other, in the case of the Black Horse at Brixton, 
 which had been shut up for misconduct, these 
 virtuous opponents of the system actually ob- 
 tained a majority of one against the grant of a 
 new licence, but the Chairman for that day Cone 
 of the six magistrates) decided that he possessed 
 the right of voting as a magistrate, by which he 
 made the numbers even, and then carried the
 
 .•32 
 
 licence in defiance of tlie remonstrances of several 
 gentlemen who were present, by giving the casting 
 vote as chairman. In this he was supported by 
 his party ; and I am informed, that at the meet- 
 ing last November, the fact was adverted to, and 
 unblushingly avowed as meritorious ; and that 
 at the time when it occurred, the gentlemen who 
 objected to this mode of conducting public bu- 
 siness were gravely told, that they were intro- 
 ducing the apple of discord into the Division. In 
 happier days, wlien all was unanimity, a conjec- 
 ture may be formed of the manner of proceeding 
 at the Licensing Sessions from this specimen. 
 Some years have elapsed since the scene took 
 place, but it appears that the spirit of that trans- 
 action yet resides among us. 
 
 It must be admitted, that the expressed anx- 
 iety of the six magistrates about " taking all dice 
 " precaution for securing the peace and good 
 *' order of such a neighbourhood,'* accords but 
 ill with the determination to deny that twenty- 
 one public houses are too many for one short 
 street, and the real feeling is disclosed, by the 
 recommendation which follows, that " when it 
 ** shall be thought necessary to refuse the licence, 
 " where the complaint lies only personally against 
 " the publican (as if it could lie against any one 
 " else), the proprietor of such house shall be at 
 ** liberty to bring forward a new tenant on the 
 " day of adjournment appointed for the licensing
 
 Q 
 
 8 
 
 " of new houses." What might be intended by 
 the words " due precaution," it is not easy to 
 say; but the only ^^c/zm/precaution would have 
 been, to make an example of the disorderly 
 houses by shutting them up, instead of recom- 
 mending the palpable expedient, of allowing the 
 owner to thrust in a new tenant on the ad- 
 joui-nment day of the same session. Of course, 
 " the Observations, Remarks, and Opinions," 
 do not conclude without adding, that ** your 
 *' Committee came to the unanimous resolution 
 " of submitting to this general meeting, that the 
 " Report of the Committee, dated the 24th of 
 " August last, (1814) be rescinded." The ob- 
 ject of the Committee of 1814, was to keep 
 down the patronage, and to render the public 
 houses more respectable, by taking every fair op- 
 portunity to reduce their number ; and in re- 
 compence, the members of the Committee of 
 18 1.7 tell tliem, that *' cold must be the heart that 
 *' wouhl deprive unhap})y beings of their enjoy- 
 '*ments;" and an observation which the Com- 
 mittee of 1814 had thrown out (respecting the 
 mcreased danger of irregularities and disorderly 
 conduct, arising from the number of depredators 
 returning in consequence of the Peace in that 
 year, whose punishments had been comnuited by 
 entering into the service), is treated as *' an un- 
 ** qualified stigma iiidiscriminnlclij cast on the 
 *' army and navy, in which the six magistrates 
 ** can by no means concur." " The men," say 
 
 u
 
 they, " who so gallantly fbugiit the battles of 
 " then* country by sea and land, surely merit a 
 " more gratifying welcome on their return to 
 *' their native land, than to be viewed as objects 
 £' of terror, to be dreaded as depredators, to be 
 " branded as culprits." Remarks like these, 
 wholly uncalled for, were well calculated to dis- 
 gust and drive away the gentlemen who were 
 principally concerned in framing the forrrier Re- 
 port ; and I believe, in at least one instance, they 
 had that effect. It appears, however, from the 
 Police Reports, that the termination of the 
 war, notwithstanding the " gratifying welcome,'* 
 brought many depredators back upon the pub- 
 lic ; and it is certain, that a very large propor- 
 tion of " the men who so bravely fought the 
 battles of their country by sea and land,'* were 
 effectually drained of their pay and prize money 
 in public houses, such as the six magistrates de- 
 clare " under the existing state of society can- 
 not be dispensed with.** I collect from the reply 
 of Mr. Bowles, that to this extraordinary docu- 
 ment, six magistrates had the courage ostenta- 
 tiously to annex their signatures, although the 
 signatures were carefully omitted, when in a 
 moment of triumphant folly these " Observ- 
 *' ations, Remarks, and Opinions,'* were printed 
 for the edification of the public. If I could have 
 ascertained and verified the names on any suf- 
 ficient authority, I should undoubtedly have 
 published them j but when I applied to our clerk
 
 S5 
 
 lo see the original, wijhrtunatcl^ he could give 
 me no information on the suJyect. 
 
 As these gentlemen have thought proper to 
 designate by the less descriptive word *' beggars" 
 the thieves, prostitutes, and abandoned charac- 
 ters of every sort who frequent such houses, I 
 have in the Appendix (D) introduced a few 
 short extracts from the Mendicity Reports, to 
 show what London beggars usually are. The 
 public had already learned with astonishment and 
 indis^nation that mamstrates had sometimes found 
 their way into the commission, who were dis- 
 posed to wink at the existence of the dens of in- 
 famy to which these desperate vagabonds resort ; 
 but I believe that tender-heartedness and huma- 
 nitv were never before invoked to proclaim their 
 utility. The fact is, that these low public houses 
 are sources of great individual profit under cer- 
 tain circumstances ; and the six magistrates (one 
 of them being a very extensive owner of houses) 
 have fairly and frankly expressed their opinion, 
 " that the possessors of this kind of property have 
 i>;ood reason to ejvpecty that their capital shall 
 be as well secured, as firmly protected, and as 
 *' effectual/// guarded against depreciatioUy as pro- 
 " perty of any other description whatever." 
 Among other suggestions for securing this ob- 
 ject, the six magistrates propose to the general 
 meeting, that when a com])]aint has been made 
 against a publican, although it had been usual to 
 lake i( /brmally into consideration on the ad- 
 
 D 2 

 
 36 
 
 jounimcnt day, yet " it' the nature of tlie com- 
 " plaint is found to be such as will admit of an 
 " instant decision, it be determined \\])on previous 
 *' to, or on the day set apart for licensing the 
 " houses in the parish wherein the house com- 
 ^' plained of is situated ; but if otherwise, that it 
 *' be postponed to a day after the three usual 
 *' licensing days, at which time the complainant 
 *' and the party complained against shall be mu- 
 •*' tually heard, the one in support of, and the 
 " other in his defence against, the complaiut.'* 
 It is impossible not to perceive, that under the 
 authority of such a rule as this, any two or three 
 magistrates, assembling on other business and 
 watching an opportunity, perhaps by out-staying 
 the rest, would have it in their power to strike 
 out of the list of houses complained against, those 
 which they might desire to protect, by finding 
 that the complaint admitted of an instant deci- 
 sio?i, leaving to less fortunate publicans and 
 owners the hazards of the regular complaint-day, 
 when there is a numerous attendance of magis- 
 trates, " at which time (say the six magistrates) 
 " the complainant and the party complained 
 against shall be mutually heard, the one in sup- 
 port oi'j and the other in his defence against 
 " the complaint.** These " Observations, Re- 
 " marks, and Opinions'* of the new Committee, 
 being intermixed with what were considered to 
 be insulting allusions to certain members of the 
 former Committee, appear to ]m\Q brought on an 
 
 ti
 
 (( 
 
 -'37 
 
 angry discussion at the next general meeting of 
 the Division, and some modifications were intro- 
 duced into the proposed regulations. But 
 although the last which I have cited was not ven- 
 tured on, or not sustained, yet the majority were 
 strong enough to carry a resolution, tliat *' the 
 Report of the former Committee, which de- 
 clared the public houses in the division to be 
 too numerous, should be expunged from our 
 " minutes ;" and it was also resolved, that when- 
 ever on either of the three licensing days " an 
 «' application for the renewal of a licence shall 
 " be refused, a new application may be made by 
 " another person in respect of the same house y 
 *' such application to be taken into consideration 
 " on the adjournment day, and in the mean 
 " time the house to be included in the view." 
 How individuals voted on that occasion I cannot 
 venture to state, for although a division frequent- 
 ly takes place, the names of the majority and mi- 
 nority are not separated in the Minute Book, by 
 which mean.] tliose who oppose, are conveniently 
 confounded with tlie sup})orters of fidse princi- 
 ples. But 1 can easily imagine the deep and 
 boiling indignation vvitli which the passing such 
 a resolution as this, must have been viewed by 
 one gentleman wlio appears to have been present ; 
 and yet magistrates, who had not the same op- 
 ])ortunities of becoming ac([uainted with his sen- 
 timents, may at some future period iiear Iiiin 
 quoted on the authority ol" our minutes, as one 
 
 n 3
 
 ^8 
 
 vil'iis supporters. In short, no man's lionoin* is 
 safe : at this very moment (and I mark tlie fact, 
 by stating it again in the same words), if a 
 stranger were to refer to our Minute Book, he 
 would be led to suppose that tee, the same magis- 
 trates wlio refused Barton's renewal, and had 
 gone home at the conclusion of the business in 
 the morning, in the full persuasion that the ses- 
 sion was at an end, had actually returned at five 
 o'clock to reverse our own judgment in the same 
 place. The only names that I, and several other 
 magistrates, who have examined the book with 
 that view, could discover, are those of the gen- 
 tlemen who attended in the morning. (App. B). 
 We have sought in vain for the *' Dining Room,'* 
 and the names of the voters in the Dining Room, 
 by whom our decision was actually reversed in 
 our absence. 
 
 If I could have ascertained in an authentic 
 form wlio really were the voters, and, above all, 
 who were the encouragers of the voters at the 
 dinner session, I should probably have discovered 
 that certain of the six magistrates, or their disci- 
 ples, were in the room, and had the gratification 
 of seeing their principles, which had been in 
 some measure kept in check by the firm hand 
 of Mr. Harrison, again bursting forth in full acti- 
 vity. I should gladly have followed up this im- 
 pression ; but I am deprived of the proper means 
 of authenticating the fact, by the omission of the 
 names ol'the magistrates present; — an omission
 
 39 
 
 of which I have found no parallel in any other in- 
 stance. 1 might perhaps be justified in marking 
 this singularity in a more pointed manner, as I 
 understand that these minutes, so singularly de- 
 fective, were appealed to as conclusive evidence 
 of my inaccuracy, at a special meeting of the 
 division which was called in November last, for 
 the double purpose, it appears, of inducing the 
 rest of the magistrates to make common cause 
 against Mr. Drummond, and of persuading the 
 meeting that I had not stated the truth. The 
 scheme failed, and a gentleman then present 
 immediately pledged himself to prove from these 
 same minutes that I had misled Mr. Drummond. 
 — I have waited long to see this pledge redeemed. 
 At that meeting, Mr. Drummond, who had 
 clearly shown in his statement that there were 
 two distinct parties in this division, both of whom 
 he could not possibly mean to censure, was care- 
 fully represented as attacking the division itself; 
 but fortunately a majority of intelligent gentle- 
 men were in the room, who very properly re- 
 solved, that " tlic observations of Mr. Drummond 
 did not appear to call for the notice of the ma- 
 gistrates of this division as a body." It is 
 generally understood, that if the majority of the 
 magistrates at the meeting could have been in- 
 (hiced to libel themselves by treating Mr. Drum- 
 mojid's observations as their own concern, some 
 very strong resolutions were to have been pro- 
 posed ; for ahJiough Mr. Diiiinmond hrul not 
 
 1) {'
 
 40 
 
 set a mark on any individual, he had struck a 
 powerful blow at the patronage. The unsuc- 
 cessful result of this discreditable attempt was, 
 I hear, a source of great disappointment to an 
 individual magistrate, who has tliought it not 
 unworthy of himself and his situation to display 
 his anxiety for the honor of the division, by 
 quarrelling with Mr. Drummond's observations, 
 instead of uniting with those who are desirous to 
 correct the practices which called them forth. 
 The zeal of this gentleman appears to have been 
 sufficiently dormant, until the system was at- 
 tacked ; and I must plainly say, that to me it 
 seems somewhat strange, that, living in the very 
 focus of information, he should never have heard 
 of our licensing principles, or that he should 
 sincerely have believed that Mr. Drummond's 
 intimation, that " there were other instances of 
 ** misconduct which he could bring forward," 
 implied an indiscriminate censure of the magis- 
 trates residing in the Brixton East half hundred, 
 from some of whom Mr. Drummond actually de- 
 rived his knowledge of the facts. It may be the 
 policy of those who, either from interest or from 
 sentiment, have attached themselves to the wrong 
 side of the question, to widen as much as possi- 
 ble the line of distinction between the division 
 and the county, and to create a jealousy of the 
 country gentlemen ; but the highly respectable 
 individuals by whom this attempt was defeated, 
 do not Itel, I believe, that because they happen
 
 il 
 
 to reside in this district, they ought to consider 
 themselves in any other Hght than as magistrates 
 of the county, the same in rank, in honor, and in 
 duty. The proceedings in this division have 
 been too long a standing topic with the public, 
 to leave room for the frivolous pretence, that the 
 resident magistrates may lose some portion of the 
 public respect by an active and open effort to 
 correct them. The artful cry that the Division 
 is attacked, when individual misconduct is ex- 
 posed, is not nev/. The evidence given by 
 Messrs. Bowles and Gifford drew forth a publica- 
 tion, ingeniously entitled, '* A Vindication of the 
 ** Magistrates of the Brixton Division^''* in which 
 the arguments and observations of the six ma- 
 gistrates are repeated. This objection is the last 
 refuge of those who feel that publicity is fatal to 
 their system. If any other mode of attack could 
 have been effectual in the privacy of a division 
 meeting against a determined majority, acting on 
 siich a code as that wliich they upheld^ some gen- 
 tlemen whom it has been our great misfortune to 
 lose, and others who happily yet remain with 
 us, would long ago iiave put a stop to the evil. 
 
 The resolution voted at the general meeting 
 in 1815, on the suggestion of the six magistrates, 
 ** that whenever an application for a renewal of 
 *' a licence is refused, a new application may be 
 " made by another person respecting the same 
 ♦< house, sucli apphcation to be taken into cou- 
 " sideration on the adjournment day," tloes not
 
 4*2 
 
 iippear to have been rescinded, and it puts tlie 
 finishing hand to our licensing code in this divi- 
 sion, M^hich may be thus summed up in a few 
 words. First, On the authority of a legal opinion 
 that never was given, it has been held that the 
 magistrates have no power to refuse a transfer 
 imder any circumstances, and, consequently, when 
 a publican has violated the law, he may save his 
 licence, and make his own escape, by applying 
 to transfer on either of the transfer days in the 
 course of the year. Secondly, If the publican 
 should not have had recourse to this expedient, 
 not being aware, perhaps, that his misconduct 
 would be the subject of a regular complaint at 
 the licensing session, he has only to leave the 
 owner of the house to put forward another man, 
 and to find him a situation in some other division 
 or county. Sucli is our code ! ! and it spares me 
 the trouble of multiplying instances of miscon- 
 duct. When Mr. Collins, in his examination, is 
 asked, *' Is it not a very common manoeuvre, 
 *« when a victualler conducts himself badly, for 
 ** him to be removed a short time before the 
 " licensing day, and another person to be put in 
 " the house to go on as before ? Again, another 
 " tenant to take his place, so that it might hap- 
 " pen that a house might change its tenant 
 " nearly every year ; every year fresh promises 
 *' being made of better conduct, and every year 
 " those promises being broken ?" — He replies, 
 *' I am very sorry to say it is.'* When the same
 
 43 
 
 gentleman is asked, <' Does it happen to come 
 " within your knowledge, that it is a very com- 
 *' mon practice for person^ to be deprived of a 
 *' licence lor misconduct in one part of the town, 
 " and to go into another and get a fresh licence?" 
 — he replies, " I have heard so ;" and this fact 
 is established by much other evidence. 
 
 It is impossible, in looking over the Police 
 Reports, not to contrast the opinion of the six 
 magistrates, respecting the utility of crowding 
 public houses together in such a neighbourhood 
 as Kent Street, with the opinions of a host of 
 witnesses who take a very opposite view of the 
 subject. Thomas Spring, a publican, who keeps 
 the York Minster, 55, Bunhill Row, complains, 
 tliat within the extreme distance of forty-nine 
 yards there are three complete gin shops, and 
 two pubhc houses, including his own, and de- 
 clares that it would be a great benefit to the 
 pubhc at large, if instead of these five there were 
 only two, altliough liis own house should be one 
 " that was to be taken away ;" and lie goes on to 
 state, that there are twenty-three public houses 
 in White Cross Street. When he is asked, 
 " Whether he thinks there was a demand, for 
 '* the convenience of the public, for that number 
 '* of public houses ?'* — he replies, " No ; it has 
 ** been known to be the greatest possible nui- 
 " sance ; that it has been the resort of connnon 
 " thieves.'* In his answers to the following ques- 
 tions, his description of the luighbourhood, ac«'
 
 44 
 
 cords with that given of Kent Street by the six 
 magistrates. " Is the neighbourhood of White 
 *' Cross Street inhabited principally by poor per- 
 ** sons ?" — " The neighbourhood is particularly 
 *' low." *' Of what description are the inhabit- 
 *'ants?'* — *' I should wish to draw a more 
 *• liberal conclusion if I could ; but the inhabit- 
 *' ants of Twister's Alley, Blue Anchor Alley, 
 *' Chequer Alley, and Chequer Yard, are of the 
 " lowest description, degrading to human na- 
 " ture ; and Salmon and Ball Passage, and a 
 ** variety of others which I cannot name.'* 
 " Are those persons mechanics, or are they a 
 *' description of people who sell articles in the 
 " streets, and get their living by improper prac- 
 " tices?" — "I believe that nine-tenths of them 
 " get their living by improper practices, — 
 " thieves, and pick-pockets, and prostitutes." 
 Do you think the number of public houses serve 
 to increase the number of persons of bad cha- 
 "racter?" — ^^ Most assuredly; I believe that 
 is the great 'principle of it. Gin-shops are the 
 hot-beds of vice ; and 'want of character in 
 public houses^ and the want of money in publi- 
 cans to conduct their houses as they ought to 
 *■ </o." Mr. Mills, an intelligent magistrate, 
 who in the course of his examination is asked, 
 " Whether, in his opinion, so many public 
 " houses in White Cross Street can be supported 
 *' by that neighbourhood, by a fair trade and 
 " honest means ?" replies, " It is impossible." 

 
 4.5 
 
 And I have myself received tlie very same an- 
 swer from publicans in Kent Street. When our 
 late chairman, Mr. Harrison, in his examination 
 before the House of Lords, in 1819, is asked, 
 " Is there not an increase of crime attributable 
 " to otiier causes than that of the crowded state 
 " of tiie prisons ?" lie replies, " Certainly. 
 
 I think the great number of public 
 
 " houses, in the District to which I am alluding, 
 *' one great cause j we license between eight 
 *' and nine hundred })ublic houses in that Dis- 
 " trict ; in many streets of the worst parts of 
 *' the borough of Southwark every other house 
 ** almost appears to be a public house.'* Let not 
 the fault, however, be ascribed to brewers, or 
 distillers, or publicans, who act from necessity : 
 the mischief may easily be traced through the 
 volumes of the Police Committee, to a system 
 which appears to have been well understood by 
 certain licensing magistrates in the metropolitan 
 divisions, than which it would be impossible to 
 devise any thing more simple or more certain in 
 its operation, if it were wished to cut up by the 
 roots all those ])rovisions and regulations by 
 which the Legislature hoped to control j)laccs of 
 j)ublic and promiscuous resort, where intoxicat- 
 ing li(iuors are retailed. Of many of the resj)ect- 
 able brewers it may safely be asserted, that they 
 deprecate the present system, ami would proba- 
 bly prefer selling their beer in particular streets, 
 through the medium of one good tenant, in-
 
 46 
 
 stead of lialf'-a-dozen insolvent publicans. It 
 is not, perliaps, going too far to suppose that, on 
 a principle of reciprocity, they might, by an ar- 
 rangement among themselves, consent to abolish 
 a great number of houses, in various places, 
 which are injuring each other. But they have 
 too much reason to fear that, if this were done, 
 magisterial patronage would step in, and imme- 
 diately open others. They have the declaration 
 of the six magistrates hanging over their heads, 
 that they would have been justified in licensinp; 
 two hundred more victualling houses in this divi- 
 sion* ; and they cannot but know, that, although 
 in the course of twenty-one years immediately 
 preceding the year 1815, no less than one hun- 
 dred and twelve public houses were voluntarily 
 withdrawn from our calendar, care was taken to 
 license one hundred and twenty new houses 
 within the same period, by which the brewers 
 were subjected to a fresh outlay of capital in 
 consequence of the system. Mr. Beaumont, a 
 well-informed magistrate, who, in his evidence 
 before the Police Committee, recommends the 
 
 * The six magistrates arrive at this conclusion, by insti- 
 tuting a comparison with the state of things in the metro- 
 politan Divisions before 1792 as the standard of perfection. 
 Townsendj in his evidence, says, " Before the Police Bill 
 took place it was a trading business ; — there was justice this, 
 and justice that; — they were nothing better than the en- 
 couragers of blackguards, vice, and plunderers ; — there can 
 be no doubt about it." Such is Townsend's description of 
 the golden age of the six magistrates.
 
 T 
 
 throwing open of the monopoly in the Divisions 
 adjoining the metJopoHs, under strict regulations, 
 and large securities for the good conduct of the 
 pubhcans, seems to think that this would be 
 strongly resisted by the great brewers and distil- 
 lers, — and by the " licence jobbers," who, he 
 says, *' have fed and thriven on it so largely.'* 
 \t is very possible that those whom I suppose 
 this gentleman to designate by the term " licence 
 jobbers," would strain their utmost energies to 
 defeat any plan by which they *' might thrive 
 and feed" no longer ; but it appears to me, that 
 althouiih brewers and distillers realise occasion- 
 ally large profits, like most other commercial 
 men acting on an extended scale, yet that they 
 owe no obligation to a system which places a 
 very considerable portion of their property at the 
 absolute discretion of the magistrates, not merely 
 in the way of legitimate visitation for misconduct, 
 but by the opening of new houses against those 
 which they have been in their own defence com- 
 pelled to purchase. An instance is given in the 
 Police Reports, of a brew^er with a capital of 
 thirty thousand })ounds, who had found it neces- 
 sary to invest half the sum in ))ubUc houses. It 
 is true that new houses would be opened, if the 
 victualling trade, like other trades, were left to 
 find its own level, but in that case brewers and 
 distillers would no longer be compelled to buy 
 up these houses at an inflamed price, as houses 
 which magistrates have thought pro})er to enilow
 
 48 
 
 with privilege. The scheme of connecting tlie 
 licence with the house as its inahenable right, 
 wliicli is tlie great secret of magisterial patron- 
 age, enables every speculating builder that can 
 iind means to obtain a licence, to extract large 
 premiums from brewers and distillers j and it 
 frequently liappens, that to increase the price, an 
 unprincipled tenant is put in, to push an artificial 
 ^trade, which, from its apparent extent, holds out 
 the prospect of a considerable return. Some 
 ..neighbouring magistrate may possibly give no- 
 tice that he will oppose the renewal of the 
 licence, but the well-informed speculator is 
 aware that the next transfer day cures every 
 thing. It is well known that private families of 
 the respectable class do not usually send to the 
 public house for their beer ; but it is assumed, 
 notwithstanding, that a certain number of houses 
 justify the grant of a new licence, and in that 
 case, if the licence is granted before the adjoin- 
 ing new houses are finished, the accommodation 
 of the workmen affords a plausible excuse. The 
 house is sold at a large profit, the builder gets 
 wherewith to pay his timber-merchant and brick- 
 maker, and as soon as the surrounding houses 
 are completed, the brewer finds that the business 
 of his new purchase must depend principally on 
 a few idle men-servants, whom it becomes the 
 object of the publican to allure from their duty, 
 in order to save himself from starvation. In 
 numberless j)rivate families only female servants
 
 4g 
 
 are kept, and in others, only one man-servant, 
 whose visits to the public house are so far from 
 being thought desirable, that I could mention a 
 neighbourhood in this division, of which it is 
 considered to be a high recommendation, that, 
 for the distance of nearly two miles, public 
 houses are positively prohibited in the leases* 
 In many cases they can only thrive by demoral- 
 ising the men-servants of the neighbourhood, or 
 by drawing off the casual custom from other 
 houses on the same line of road. And if every 
 stack of fifty or sixty houses, among the thou- 
 sands that are now rising up in the vicinity of 
 London, is to have its accompanying public- 
 house, individual magistrates may find their 
 account in the abuse ; but the brewers and dis- 
 tillers must severely feel the pressure of a sys- 
 tem which obliges them to become the pur- 
 chasers of pro})erty, at once so exj)ensive and 
 so precarious. The most rigid advocate of the 
 necessity of shutting up disorderly public houses 
 is less to be dreaded, as far as their property is 
 concerned, than the licensing magistrate, who, 
 while he professes an extravagant tenderness for 
 the interest of owners, opens as many new 
 houses as he can. Tlie former, after a few ex- 
 amples had been made, would find that he had 
 nothing more to do ; but where is the limit to 
 the operations of the interested licencer? I am 
 rather inclined to think that the great brewers 
 and distillers would rejoice in the success of 
 
 E
 
 50 
 
 almost any feasible plan that might dehver them 
 from this bondage. As long as new houses may 
 be opened at the discretion of magistrates, and 
 new capitalists may open new breweries and 
 distilleries, the monopoly, if so it may be called^ 
 is only theirs to the extent of injuring them- 
 selves and the public ; it is not theirs in any be- 
 neficial sense. If they derive large profits from 
 their trade, the public-house monopoly will be 
 found, on close inspection, to be a positive bur^ 
 den on those profits ; and yet, such is the posi- 
 tion of brewers and distillers, that they are in 
 some measure bound to co-operate with, and 
 bear the odium of a system which was not in- 
 vented by them, and is only profitable to jobbing 
 licencers, and to jobbing licencers' clerks. 
 
 An eminent brewer, in his evidence before 
 the Police Committee, frankly states, that his 
 house has deemed it expedient to retain one of 
 the clerks to the licensing justices, as agent for 
 the purpose of protecting their views, with 
 regard to licences. But, that brewers and distil- 
 lers should exercise their influence, perhaps cor- 
 ruptly, to protect the licences that happen to 
 be thus connected with houses, in which they 
 have been compelled by the operation of false 
 principles to embark their property, is no proof 
 of their attachment to a system which places 
 them in that painful predicament. It is certain 
 that whatever is wrong in this respect will be 
 found to have its origin in the patronage.
 
 51 
 
 The publications of Mr. Bowles and Mr. Wis- 
 set sufficiently explain the nature and extent of 
 those differences respecting the licensing of pub- 
 lic-houses, which have long existed among the 
 magistrates of the Brixton East half-hundred. 
 At a much earlier period no disunion can be 
 traced : public-houses were licensed next door 
 to, or directly opposite each other; patronage 
 knew no limits, and the unhappy victims of 
 temptation were hanged or transported. The 
 convenient maxim, *♦ that if evil is shut out in 
 " one direction, it will find itself an opening in 
 ** another," may be sufficient to satisfy the 
 seared conscience of grasping avarice ; but no 
 one can doubt that facilities and temptations, 
 which meet the wavering and irresolute at every 
 turn, have a direct tendency to increase the 
 amount of wickedness. 
 
 It appears that in this Division, at various 
 times, magistrates of other principles came to 
 reside, who knowing an excess of public-houses 
 to be a fertile source of crime, maintained a 
 constant struggle to ])revent their increase, al- 
 though they were not able to succeed in ma- 
 terially reducing the scandalous aggregate, in 
 consequence of the great nimiber of new liouses 
 to which licences were ainnially granted. From 
 the return made by our clerk to the I^olice 
 (Committee, it is evident that a considerable 
 check had been in gradual operation, as it ap- 
 pears that in 1S()<S, eleven new houses were 
 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 Jicfensed, anti Hiteen in 1809 (although these 
 were not the buikhng times of peace), and 
 that during the six following years the average 
 scarcely exceeds five in each year. A marked 
 distinction occurs in the year 1816, when the 
 Committee of the House of Commons was push- 
 ing its alarming enquiries into the licensing 
 system ; for in that year the field appears to 
 have been abandoned to the minority, and it is 
 signalized by the striking fact, that not a single 
 new house was licensed in this division, ^Lwdjive 
 licences xvere refused rene'wal. This was no year 
 of triumph for the six magistrates who signed 
 the ** Observations, Remarks, and Opinions** of 
 1815, in which they had expressed their dis- 
 belief that there was a single disorderly pub- 
 lic-house in the division ; but their opponents 
 lost ground again as soon as the Police Com- 
 mittee terminated its scrutinizing labours. When 
 we lost Mr. Harrison, I knew it was scarcely 
 to be hoped that we should get through the 
 next licensing session, without some efibrt to 
 bring the principles of the six Magistrates into 
 full operation ; and accoidingly it was attempted 
 to carry Barton*s licence on the fallacious plea 
 that as he proposed to transfer to another per- 
 son, we had no right tp look at his past mis- 
 conduct. 
 
 When such principles are avowed, and at- 
 tempted to be carried into effect, I cannot but 
 know that I owe a paramount duty to society. 
 
 If)
 
 53 
 
 The attempt to make a personal aftair of* these 
 things is mere artifice. I have no quarrel with 
 individuals ; I will, I can have none : on the 
 contrary, I have much unvaried personal civi- 
 lity to acknowledge on every side. But that will 
 not change wrong into right; and I wish the 
 abettors of wrong, whoever they may be, clearly 
 to understand that they will only deceive them- 
 selves, if they indulge the hope that I am to be 
 deterred from exposing principles or practices, 
 which I may at any time consider to be dis- 
 graceful to the Commission, by any private or 
 public hostility, niid still less by the absurd 
 pretence, that sucli an exposure tends to bring 
 discredit on the Magistracy. On bcluilf of tlie 
 Magistrates of Surrey, on behalf of the Magis- 
 trates of this Division as a body, I deny the right 
 of the advocates and admirers of misconduct, 
 to identify others with themselves, or to screen 
 their licensing principles behind the reputations 
 of those who arc opposed to them. The tears 
 which have been shed at my gate by the 
 wretched parents, and most connnonly by the 
 widowed mothers of unha])])y ])risoners, when 
 they iiave applied for orders to visit their re- 
 lati\es in the Brixton House of Correction, have 
 frecjuently led to enquiries, by whicli I liave 
 directly traced the ruin of the culjirit to j)laces 
 wliicli we had licensed ; the whole mischief grow- 
 ing out of tiie princi])le of protecting the interests 
 of the owjier of the house, instead of the in- 
 
 L 3
 
 54 
 
 terests of the public. These consequences were 
 forced on my attention, I was obUged to study 
 from living subjects, before I had even heard of 
 those harrowing Reports of the Police Com- 
 mittee, which ought to be better known to Ma- 
 gistrates and Legislators, and by which I was 
 enabled to trace the false principles to their 
 causes. 
 
 But it has been pretended, from an over- 
 anxiety to put me in the wrong on some point 
 or other, that I erroneously informed Mr. Drum- 
 mond, that at the end of the business on the 
 mornins: of the 21st, the Chairman had closed 
 the Session, as it was his duty to have done ; and 
 that in point of fact it appears from the clerk*s 
 minutes, that I ought to have represented the 
 Chairman, as reserving within jiis own breast a 
 secret intention of keeping the Session open, 
 after the business was over, and the majority had 
 gone away in the full belief that the session had 
 terminated. This is a singular mode of bring- 
 ing my accuracy into question, and of attempt- 
 ing to defend the dinner-session at the expence 
 of the chairman : but as I was very far from 
 suspecting that gentleman of any such scheme, 
 I should be sorry to have represented him, in a 
 light, for which I trust there can be no just 
 foundation. Mr. Drummond, on my represent- 
 ation, did justice to the chairman, by giving him 
 credit for having closed the session in the morn- 
 ing, when it ought to have been closed. Thq
 
 55 
 
 rescinding of our decision in tlie dining-room, 
 was evidently the act of a party, who appear to 
 be extremely willing to throw that important 
 fact into shade, by raising a discussion on a 
 point which, however it might afiect the chair- 
 man, is altogether unimportant, as flir as their 
 conduct is concerned ; for it would not tend to 
 draw the sting from their offence if it could be 
 shown, that the majority who went away in the 
 morning believing tjie session to be over had 
 been misled, and that I had been duped when 
 T told Mr. Drummond that the session had been 
 closed in the usual manner. My representations 
 would have lost nothing by such a fact, but 1 
 did not so represent the course of the })roceed- 
 ings, because I did not so understand them. As, 
 however, I have been informed, that at the ge- 
 neral meeting of the division in November last, 
 this incidental point in Mr. Drummond's state- 
 ment was brought forward in the ho})e of ob- 
 taining a vote impeaching my accuracy, it is 
 necessary I should state my reasons for saying 
 and believing that tlie chairman closed the ses- 
 sion at the time when it was his duty to have 
 closed it. I must, therefore, observe, that all 
 the pubHcans not complained against in this 
 division, had been directed to attend and take 
 out tlieir new licences, on the 3d, (ith, and 8th 
 of Septeml)er. This 21st of September was the 
 adjournment i\\\yy and its business was comprised 
 in a list of pubHcans complamcd against, and a 
 
 E 4'
 
 5&, 
 
 printed list of applications tor new honses. The 
 business of this day is special ; and when I gave 
 an account of the proceedings to Mr. Druni- 
 mond, shortly after the occurrences took place, 
 it was under the impression, that when the two 
 list$ had been gone through, the chainnan had 
 distinctly said that our business was at an end. 
 I still retain the same impression ; but, if this 
 is denied, I can at least assert that an observ- 
 ation was made aloud to that effect by some 
 person, who was not contradicted ; and the meet- 
 ing then broke up, eleven of the magistrates 
 quitting the room immediately. I may have 
 been deceived, as to the voice, under the feeling 
 that it was the chairman's province either to 
 have made that observation, or to have con- 
 tradicted it ; and if it shall be proved that the 
 chairman had, at that moment, a secret inten- 
 tion floating in his mind of holding an adjourned 
 session at the dinner, I will of course admit that I 
 was, in this immaterial point, mistaken, — though 
 not till then. At all events, that which is ma- 
 terial cannot be denied ; — we had arrived at 
 the usual termination of the licensing session ; 
 and if we were not sent, we were at least sufl 
 fured to go away in the full persuasion that our 
 work was done. The licensing session has no 
 ©ther duties than to hear complaints, to grant 
 licences to new houses, and to renew old ones ; 
 — the complaint list had been gone through, the 
 list of new applications had been gone tluough,
 
 57 
 
 and every publican had got his renewal ; which 
 is evident, from the fact, that no man apphed 
 for or obtained one afterwards. No business 
 remained to be disposed of j none could remain. 
 In the very same manner I had seen the licens- 
 ing session terminate, in the morning of the 
 adjournment day of the preceding year, when 
 Mr. Harrison was in the chair ; and the clerk 
 then made tiie following minute, which, on look- 
 ing back, I find to be the customary form : — 
 
 " All the rest of the publicans in this division, 
 who had omitted to apply for their licences 
 on the proper days, were this day licensed ; 
 and the licensing of victuallers for the present 
 year finally closed. Adjourned.'* 
 
 This minute clearly shews that the clerk, 
 who has or oudit to have the calendar before 
 him, knows perfectly well whether there is any 
 business remaining to be disposed of or not ; and 
 if tile magistrates had broken up under an 
 erroneous impression, it was the duty of the clerk 
 and of the chairman to have undeceived them. 
 But, in point of fact, there was no business out- 
 standing ; I must leave it to the chairman and the 
 clerk therefore to explain, whij the usual m'mute 
 was not madcy in the customarif fhrm^ at that time, 
 or at anif subsequent time, all circumstances being 
 precisebj the same. At this jierioil, I took my 
 hat among the rest, and accompanied Mr. Gor-
 
 58 
 
 don and Mr. Scriven halt" way across the court- 
 yard, intending to go home ; but not seeing my 
 coach, I returned into the licensing room to 
 wait for it. That the business was so conducted 
 as to send the gentlemen home who had voted 
 against Barton's renewal, and some of them into 
 the country, in the entire belief that the session 
 was at an end, is certain ; and I prove the fact, 
 that their decision was afterwards rescinded by 
 the notice sent round on the Ibllowing day by 
 the clerk, which was expressed in the following 
 terms : — 
 
 
 Sir, 
 You are requested to attend an adjoiu'ned 
 meeting of the magistrates of this division, on 
 Thursday, the 29th instant, at nine for ten o'clock 
 in the forenoon, at the Sessions House, Newing- 
 ton ; to reconsider the application made yester- 
 day, by Mr. John Clark, for a licence to the 
 Horse and Groom public-house, Lambeth ; pre- 
 vious to which I am directed to state a case for 
 the opinion of counsel, and a draft thereof will 
 be submitted to the magistrates who may at- 
 tend, to-morrow, at three o'clock, at the Sessions 
 House. 
 
 " I am. Sir, 
 
 ** Your very obedient servant, 
 
 " Geo. Ware. 
 
 " Soulhnark, 22il Sept. 1824." .
 
 59 
 
 This is the material point in Mr. Drummond's 
 statement ; but it is proper that the other point 
 should be pursued and fully explained, though 
 it was perfectly immaterial in itself, and has 
 nothing to do with the merits of the case. Cer- 
 tain individuals have ingeniously thought pro- 
 per to fix their exclusive attention upon it, 
 imagining, probably, that as it occurred after the 
 meeting broke up, and my witnesses were gone, 
 I cannot prove the fact. In my communications 
 to Mr. Drummond, I had certainly informed 
 him that " an adjournment to dinner in the 
 usual way was carried, thanks being voted to and 
 acknowledged by the chairman.'* I will explain 
 this, although it cannot be of any great conse- 
 quence whether we adjourned to dinner, or whe- 
 tlier the chairman was thanked ; the fact is, and 
 the fault is, tliat tlie majority wlio had voted 
 against the renewal of the licence to Barton, 
 were allowed to go home in the full belief that 
 the business of the session was at an end, and 
 that after tlicy were gone their decision was 
 rescinded. When I returned into the licensing- 
 room, ill conse(|uence of not finding my coach, 
 as I have before stated, I found Mr. Lett still 
 sitting in the cliair ; Mr. King, who had voted 
 for Barton's renewal, was o})positc to Mr. Lett; 
 and at the end of the table, at some distance, 
 Mr. Davies, who had voted with the majority 
 agaiJist it, was sitting. I suj)p()sed that the 
 gentlemen were, like myselfi accidentally dc-
 
 f)() 
 
 tained; and in fact I afterwards understood tliat 
 Mr. King and Mr. Davies thought it not worth 
 wliile to go home, as they intended to stay to 
 the dinner at five o'clock, with which the /er- 
 7nination of the hcensing session is commonly 
 celebrated : the magistrates ai)peared to be oc- 
 cupying themselves in looking over the news- 
 papers. I had gone out with the rest of the 
 gentlemen when the meeting broke up, and may 
 not have been expected to return ; but I did 
 return, and just in time to witness, to my sur- 
 prise, the re-introduction of Barton and Clark. 
 The scene was somewhat awkward ; they com- 
 plained of hardship, to which Mr. Lett replied 
 that we could do nothing for them, as their case 
 was decided, and after rather a long pause 
 Barton and Clark withdrew. Nothing was said 
 by Mr. Knig, Mr. Davies, or myself. Shortly 
 after this Mr. Lett, who I think had been signing 
 the licences for the new houses, said to our 
 clerk, *•' I believe there is no more business, 
 Mr. Ware," and receiving for answer, that there 
 was none, Mr. Lett then said, " Mr. King, you 
 sliould now move that I leave the cliair, and 
 that we adjourn to five o'clock." Mr. King 
 immediately repeated the words carelessly, with 
 the newspaper in his hand; and I, being a young 
 magistrate, and supposing the words " to five 
 o'clock" to have some accustomed jocular re- 
 ference to the dinner at that hour, up stairs, 
 immediately seconded the motion, adding, " with 
 thanks to the chairman," which Mr. Lett slightly
 
 Gl 
 
 acknowledged as he left the chair. I siipphed 
 the vote of thanks, whicli I thought Mr. King 
 had accidentally omitted ; and I did so, because 
 there had been a sort of conflict between the 
 chairman and myself respecting Barton's case, 
 and as that was settled, I wished the session to 
 terminate in good humour. I was quite close to 
 Mr. King at this time. Mr. Davies M'as at a dis- 
 tance, and seemed to pay no attention to what 
 was passing in this transient and apparently 
 unimportant manner. Some conversation then 
 took place between Mr. Lett, Mr. King, and 
 myself) the whole tenor of which confirmed me 
 in the impression, that the session was at an end. 
 Mr. King observed, that he was always glad when 
 the licensing business was over ; and Mr. Lett, 
 who had come round ana taken a chair next to 
 me, said tliat he was only dissatisfied with our 
 decision in Barton's case ; and I again explained, 
 that if tlie renewal had been granted, it would 
 have been a merenulHty, disgraceful to ourselves 
 and dangerous to the publican. If Mr. Lett 
 had at tliat time evinced any want of compre- 
 hension of the law of the case, or any want of 
 reliance on Mr. Scriven's opinion or mine, I 
 shouhl for his own personal satisfaction have 
 referred him to Mr. L. B. Allen, who was at 
 Union Ilall on that day, whose oj)inion I knew, 
 and to Mr. Handle Jackson, who was near at 
 hand, and of whose assistance we had only been 
 deprived by accidental indisposition. But no 
 one li;id atfompted to controvert the legal ox-
 
 6^2 
 
 po<!ition of Mr. Scriven aiul myselfMuring the dis- 
 cussion in the morning : the point was much too 
 clear and simple. The opposition had been made 
 on the hacknicd plea of tenderness for property, 
 and on the old principles, that a transfer can in no 
 case be refused, and that in all cases it cures all 
 delinquency, (^a) In support of these principles, 
 as in the case of the Lord Nelson, the authority of 
 Sir S. Shepherd was cited, but fortunately the 
 opinion was read through^ and Mr. Scriven im- 
 mediately detected the fallacy of giving it an uni- 
 versal application. That learned gentleman at 
 once exposed the impropriety of applying the 
 words " shall and may" to the case of Barton, who 
 had not only committed a fraud on our confidence, 
 by substituting another man for himself without 
 our knowledge; but had done it in such a manner, 
 that if the renewal or transfer had been granted, 
 its indispensable basis being wanting, the grant 
 would have been a complete nullity. Who mis- 
 represented the law of the case in the dining- 
 room, I am not prepared to state ; though it is 
 evident from the notice that it was misrepre- 
 sented. It would be satisfactory to learn whether 
 the illegality of our decision was maintained by 
 some gentleman who had remained silent in the 
 
 (a) On these principles, which had been kept down by 
 Mr. Harrison, the proposal at the licensing sessions on the 
 3d and Gth of September, to take the case on the 8th without 
 waiting to hear the complainant's evidence, may be explained. 
 Otherwise this proposal would have been without any pos- 
 sible justification.
 
 ti3 
 
 presence of Mr. Scriven and myself in the morn* 
 ing ; or whether its illegaUty was adventurously 
 asserted by persons who, not having attended 
 the session, had neither heard the argument nor 
 the evidence. That a loud clamour would be 
 the consequence of a decision which extended 
 itself far beyond the interests of the individual 
 publican or his mortgagee, and shook a main pillar 
 of the system, was to be expected ; but that the 
 session would be kept open, and the decision 
 rescinded after we were gone, was a possibility 
 which no honourable man could allow himself to 
 anticipate. The word " adjourn" is always used 
 at the termination of our licensing session, and 
 I have stated the sense in which I understood 
 the addition " to five o'clock." Such a mon- 
 strous absurdity, as an adjournment to the dining- 
 room at the dinner hour, among brewers and 
 other visitors, for the despatch of licensing busi- 
 ness, I could not in any case have suspected ; 
 and least of all in this case, when every item of 
 business connected with the session had been 
 disposed of. At the time when I informed 
 Mr. Drummond of tiie rescinding of our de- 
 cision, 1 imagined that the dinner-room reso- 
 lution was tiie suddtMi result of an unexpected 
 re-infbrcement of dissatisfaction and of daring. 
 The busthng activity of certain persons while 
 the question was still pending, had given me 
 that impression ; and their anxiety subse(iuently 
 evinced to draw off attention from themselves, 
 and to fix it on a particular individual, by pre-
 
 64 
 
 tending to defend liim instead of the system, 
 has confirmed ine in the behef, tliat if tliose 
 gentlemen with whom I consider myself as acting 
 in this division, had been strong enough to 
 venture on an enquiry, we should have traced 
 the origin of the dining-room proceedings to one 
 or other of those magistrates of the old school 
 who misrepresented and sneered at, as innovating 
 and theoretical, our determination at the last 
 session, to close up the shrubberies, and cause 
 the dark walks to be illuminated atVauxhall; 
 a measure in which every parent has reason to 
 rejoice ; in which we had the entire concurrence 
 of the gentleman who has been so dexterously 
 thrust forward to be killed with kindness, and in 
 which the proprietors of the gardens readily ac- 
 quiesced. But if the words " to five o'clock** 
 were not made use of in the sense in which I 
 understood and stated them, 1 am afraid there 
 would be room to suspect, that they were sug- 
 gested with the secret intention of reversincj the 
 decision in Barton's case up stairs in the dining- 
 room, if an opportunity should present itself; 
 and that I was to be duped by making the ad- 
 journment to the dinner hour, instead of adjourn- 
 ing to some time proper for the despatch of 
 business, which would have startled me. I 
 should be very unwilling to adopt this impression ; 
 and for the credit of the magistracy must hope 
 that as my account gave the more favourable, it 
 also gave the true representation of the fact : 
 and yet this was the point selected to fix me with
 
 Go 
 
 misrepresentation ! ! If it is boastingly said, that 
 i am afraid to attend my duty any longer, it 
 must be admitted that I have some ground for 
 caution. It is very certain, that if I had en- 
 tertained the shghtest suspicion of apian to ksep 
 the session open after the meeting broke up, I 
 should immediately have dispatched messages, 
 urging the return of all those magistrates who 
 had voted against Barton's renewal, (excepting 
 such as I knew had gone out of town), and I 
 should undoubtedly have staid myself. 1 thought 
 at the time, that I described this adjournment 
 correctly, as a jocular adjournment to dinner, 
 and for no other purpose, and I think so still j 
 if I was mistaken, it can, I apprehend, reflect 
 no discredit on my veracity or my principles, to 
 have it understood, that my habits of association 
 through life have not been of a nature to render 
 me very suspicious, when I am transacting busi- 
 ness with persons holding the rank of gentle- 
 men. It has since been pretended, that although 
 every publican had obtained his licence whose 
 house was intended to be continued in tlie trade, 
 yet that it was possible that a ])articular in- 
 dividual, wlio did not apply lor his renewal, 
 might have applied, and i\\\xt thcre/bre t\\\'A extra- 
 ordinary adjournment i'ov the dispatch of licensing 
 business at diiuier was proper and necessary. 
 But if this pretence were worth any thing, these 
 adjournments ought to have gone on to the last 
 possible moment, in the iiope that this imaginary
 
 being would make liis appearance — that is, until 
 niitlnight of the 30th of September ; but we find 
 that no more was thought ofhim^ after the 29th, 
 when the hist effort in favour of Barton was de- 
 feated by the opposition of Mr. Rogers, and the 
 adjournment wliicli was so properly moved and 
 seconded by Mr. Nottidge and Mr. Davies. To 
 those gentlemen belongs the merit of having laid 
 the ghost. But supposing this fictitious publican 
 to have had a real existence, the natural inference 
 to be deduced from his not making his appear- 
 ance either on the 3rd, the 6th, or the 8th of 
 September, or at the adjournment-meeting on 
 the 21st, which did not break up till about 
 three o'clock or later, would have been, that he 
 did not mean to apply for a renewal. Nor can 
 it be believed that magistrates would adjourn a 
 session on the mere speculation of an irregular 
 and impudent application from a publican, who 
 was too indifferent to give them any reason for 
 his neglect, or to make it known whether he 
 intended to apply or not. So far from these ex- 
 tra-adjournments, so condescending and compli- 
 mentary to the publicans, and so degrading to 
 the magistracy, being usual, I should have no 
 difficulty in proving, that during the sitting on 
 an adjournment day, special messengers have 
 been sent to tardy publicans by a friend at court 
 to remind them, that if they did not arrive be- 
 fore the magistrates broke up, they would inevit- 
 ably lose their licenses for that year. I call on 
 
 i8
 
 f)7 
 
 the individuals wlio, shiki/ig that which teas ma-' 
 ter^ial, selected this point at the meeting in 
 November, in the hope of obtaining a vote be- 
 hind my back, impeaching my accuracy — I call 
 on them to prove that, in point of fact, the clerk 
 did attend in the usual manner with the Minute 
 Book in his hand, for the unusual purpose of 
 holding an adjourned licensing session in the 
 dinner room at the dinner hour, in the presence 
 of the Higli Sheriff, and of a brewer, and of 
 other visitors. I call on them to show that 
 this minute of the resolution of the dinner ses- 
 sion was entered at the time when it was voted. 
 I call on them to shew that any business had been 
 left undone in the morning, that could have jus- 
 tified an adjournment for the dispatch of busi- 
 ness ; or that any business was afterwards trans- 
 acted excepting the rescinding of the decision in 
 Barton's case. I call on them to show why such 
 an adjournment was more necessary in the pre- 
 sent instance, tf)an in the years preceding when 
 Mr. Harrison occupied the chair. I call on tiiem 
 to shew, wliy the accustomed minute which was 
 entered in the book when the meeting broke up, 
 under circumstances in every respect similar, 
 in 182d, and in former years, is not to be found 
 among the minutes of the proceedings of 1824. 
 I call on them to explahi why, instead of letting 
 it appear on the minutes, that the decision in 
 Barton's case was reversed in the ** dining 
 room," the words «♦ same place" are introduced, 
 
 K <^'
 
 OS 
 
 as if the meetirip; had been lield in tlie hcensing 
 room below stairs. I call on them to explain 
 why, contrary to all usage and all propriety, the 
 names of the magistrates present at this dinner 
 session are omitted ; and I call on them again 
 and again to state who were the voters, and, 
 above all, who were the encouragers of the voters, 
 at this extraordinary session. I am aware that, 
 as that part of Mr. Drummond's statement 
 which described the session as having been closed 
 in tlie morning was altogether immaterial, and 
 might have been spared without at all affecting 
 the '* material points," it may appear strange 
 that I should concern myself about it ; but I 
 am desirous to show the situation in which it has 
 been wished to place me, and in which I should 
 certainly have been placed, if I had not pos- 
 sessed the means of establishing my facts by cir- 
 cumstances, as a caution to those who may follow 
 me in the same dangerous and disgusting service. 
 A vote obtained from a general meeting of the 
 division, declaring that it appeared by the clerk's 
 minutes, that Mr. Drummond's statement was 
 not altogether accurate, would have been invalu- 
 able ; and a point was selected which, although 
 perfectly immaterial in itself, was precisely that 
 on which I had no witnesses to oppose to the 
 authority of a document, which I have already 
 shewn possesses some singularities. Having 
 said all that appears to be necessary for the pro- 
 tection of my own character, I owe something
 
 .69 
 
 perhaps to others. There are circuinstances 
 which induce me to conjecture, that in the 
 dining room the breach ot" promise respecting 
 the brotliel was kept out of sight, and that at least 
 one of the gentlemen whom rumour states to 
 have been present, was misled by bold misrepre- 
 sentations of the law of the case, and by the af- 
 fected candour manifested in the proposal to take 
 counsel's opinion. Men are not always on the 
 alert (according to the representations of some 
 persons, I also had been taken by surprise when 
 the adjournment in the morning was moved), 
 and these gentlemen, possibly, at the moment, 
 did not recollect that the decision in the morn- 
 ing had been only carried by a majority of o?iey 
 and probably did not know that two of the gen- 
 tlemen who had voted against Barton's renewal 
 were going to the sea-side, and that conse- 
 quently our majority, which was only accidental 
 on the 21st, would be changed into a positive 
 minority on the Syth. Another day at a week's 
 distance, was every thing to those who wished 
 to carry Barton's licence. At the same time 
 there was something extremely plausible in the 
 pro])Osal to take counsel's oj)inion, on a case 
 which was to be fairly stated and previously sub- 
 mitted to the magistrates ; and the gentlemen to 
 whom I allude could hardly have anticipatcul the 
 outrageous circumstance, that on the 29th Mr. 
 Gurney's opinion was destined to be opposed by 
 the opinion of Mr. Denman, given on a caac drawn 
 
 V S
 
 70 
 
 ?//; on a false statement of fact s^ and got ready in 
 time lor exhibition. I am informed, that when 
 the day arrived for giving another chance to the 
 pubHcan, conformably to the resolution voted at 
 the dinner session, this opinion of Mr. Denman, 
 which was directly the reverse of that of Mr. 
 Gurney, was carefully introduced at the meeting, 
 and handed round in aid of tender consciences, 
 although the notice had clearly implied that only 
 one opinion was to be taken, and that on a case 
 previously agreed on. Consequently, if those 
 who remained in town of the majority of the 
 21st, had been so ungarded as to sanction this 
 meeting on the 29th by their presence as a body, 
 they would have found Mr. Gurney *s opinion 
 neutralized by an opposite opinion, and them- 
 selves probably in a minority, against gentle- 
 men who had already turned a deaf ear to every 
 argument that had been urged on the morning 
 of the 21st, to show that the renewal could not 
 be legally granted. The consequence cannot be 
 doubted, but the meeting on the 29th had no 
 result, because several of the gentlemen who 
 voted against Barton's renewal had made it 
 knoum that they would not attend^ by which the 
 responsibility of whatever might be done, was 
 thrown on the contrivers of that meeting. It is 
 however impossible to overlook the fact, that by 
 throwing back the decision a whole week, the 
 relative strength of the two parties was com- 
 pletely changed, and that this delay was created
 
 71 
 
 by treating as unworthy of" attention or of en- 
 quiry, the verbal opinions of four barristers of 
 long standing, who happened to be in the com- 
 mission in this division, and were close at hand, 
 two of them having actually stated their senti- 
 ments in the morning. The process of preparing 
 a case for Mr. Gurney, was necessarily attended 
 with loss of time ; but when it is obtained, it is 
 found to confirm wliat had been done, and an 
 opposite opinion obtained on a false statement is 
 then handed round at the meeting on the 29th. 
 Of this opinion so introduced, and so obtained, 
 one gentleman, I understand, expressed his de- 
 cided preference to that of Mr. Gurney. But if 
 the motion was made to grant the licence on 
 that authority, it was at least not seconded, as 
 our determination not to countenance tlie meet- 
 ing had created an alarm, and only five gentle- 
 men were present, of whom some were by no 
 means favourable to sucli extraordinary proceed- 
 ings. I liave not liad an opportunity of seeing 
 the case on wiiicli Mr. Demnan's opinion was 
 given, but it is rumoured that tlie licensing ma- 
 gistrates are represented as having been aware 
 in the preceding year, when they granted that 
 renewal, that Barton did not reside in the house, 
 and tliat consequently Mr. Denman held, that 
 tliey ought not to liave taken advantage of their 
 own act. T state this merely as rumour j but as 
 suck it is injurious and ouglit to be contracUcted. 
 Mr. Denman could not have hekl, tliat because 
 
 I 1.
 
 72 
 
 nuigisUates had not done their duty in a former 
 year, they could cure a fundamental defect 
 in the title to a renewal, by misconducting them- 
 selves again. Their negligence in the former 
 year might, under certain circumstances, have 
 created a case of hardship, and perhaps have 
 founded a claim for damages, if the publican 
 could show that he was misled by their con- 
 nivance ; but it could never have given valid- 
 ity to a renewal which was deficient in its legal 
 foundation. If there are any magistrates who 
 have so connived, they are unknown to me. Of 
 our late lamented chairman, Mr. Harrison, I 
 can safely assert, that he had no suspicion of Bar- 
 ton's non-residence. I was with him when he 
 exacted the promise from Barton in the former 
 year, respecting the brothel, and on our way 
 home together on that day, he told me that he 
 had intended to stop Barton's licence, as he was 
 informed that he let a house in his neighbourhood 
 to a brothel-keeper, and that he therefore con- 
 sidered him to be an improper person to keep a 
 public house. Mr. Harrison then added, " he 
 " should not have had his licence, but some how 
 " or other, it was put into my hands in the hurry 
 " of business, and I inadvertently let it pass; how- 
 ** ever, I have done what remained in my power, 
 ** for I sent for him, and have made him pro- 
 <* mise that the brothel should be discontinued.** 
 I think I might also very safely assert, that not 
 one of the gentlemen who voted against Barton's
 
 75 
 
 renewal, was aware, when the former renewal 
 was granted, that he did not live in the public 
 house. Among other instances stated before the 
 Police Committee, it does appear that brewers 
 have been allowed to put in their nominees in 
 this division : and it is reported that the non- 
 residence of speculating builders has been con- 
 nived at. If Barton can fix anv magistrates 
 individually with this guilty connivance in his 
 own or in other cases, he should bring them for- 
 ward. The request that our reasons should be 
 put into writing, laid the foundation of the case 
 for Mr. Denman's opinion ; but I have no ob- 
 jection to the communication of our reasons to 
 the publican, except on the score of singularity. 
 This should be the uniform practice. It was 
 evident that advantage might be taken, or rather 
 attempted to b6 taken, of what we committed to 
 writing ; but as far as I was concerned, and pro- 
 bably this feeling was participated, I wished that 
 the request should be com})lied with, in the most 
 unguarded form of words in which our reasons 
 could be intelligibly exj)ressed, as the only way 
 left to us without descending too low, of meet- 
 ing the hints thrown out respecting the Court 
 of King's Bench, and the responsil)ility we had 
 taken on ourselves. Otherwise the simj)le addi- 
 tion *' and for other good and sufficient reasons,*' 
 would easily have included the breach of pro- 
 mise respecting the brothel, which formed the 
 other f^roujid of conijjlaint. Oiu* refusal to
 
 74 
 
 sanction the meeting on tlie Sytli overset every 
 thing, and rendered the opinion obtained from 
 Mr. Denman of no avail ; but this necessity lor 
 counteracting adverse movements tends to de- 
 grade us below the level of the most degraded 
 parish ^'estry, and must be attended with con- 
 sequences seriously injurious to the public in- 
 terest, as it cannot fail to deter honourable men 
 from connecting themselves wdth the magistracy 
 in this division. Those magistrates with whom 
 I desire to act have many private engagements, 
 and still constitute, I well know, a minority, if 
 we were all assembled, notwithstanding the ac- 
 quisition of the recently appointed magistrates, 
 who happily are no friends to the principles of 
 the old school. And although the impression 
 created by Mr. Drummond's motion at Kingston 
 still gives us a temporary predominance, the 
 manner in which the whole ground was lost 
 again, soon after the Police Committee ceased 
 to act in I8I7, renders our future success by no 
 means certain. Where, then, would be oui' 
 hope, if we w^ere to be deprived of the co- 
 operation of magistrates residing in other divi- 
 sions ? If we carry our complaints to the General 
 Quarter Sessions, that court has no power to 
 ascertain the truth of our statements, by going 
 into evidence; and assertion is easily opposed 
 by assertion. It will not always happen that a 
 magistrate has leisure to write a pamphlet, or 
 that by a rare concurrence of circumstances, he
 
 75 
 
 shall be able to prove his statements by evidence 
 which cannot be controverted. If he fails, his 
 character is gone for ever. Under such circum- 
 stances it can hardly excite surprise, that in the 
 Police Reports so many instances occur of 
 magistrates in the metropolitan divisions with- 
 drawing themselves from the licensing sessions 
 in despair. Opinions may be divided as to the 
 proper remedy, but it is evident tliat some 
 change is indispensable. In the evidence of an 
 intelligent magistrate who is examined, the sys- 
 tem is well described, " as impotence itself for 
 " the object of keeping public houses in the 
 <' metropolitan divisions in order;" while the 
 Pohce Committee, in their very able Report, 
 declare on the other hand, in reference to the 
 patronage, that they " cannot help contrasting 
 *' the facility with which some new houses have 
 " been licensed against the wishes of their re- 
 " spective neighbourhoods, as detailed in the 
 *' evidence of the magistrates, Messrs. Bovvles, 
 " GiUbrd, and Beaumont, with the refusal of 
 *' others, whicli were unanimously petitioned for 
 ** in their vicinity j and which cases evidently 
 " prove (says the Report) that the rule of 
 ** 'public convenience in these instances has not 
 " guided the decision of the magistrates." h\ 
 this passage, and in others, the misconduct of 
 magistrates in the Brixton East half hundred is 
 referred to in direct terms by this high autho- 
 rity. There is certainly great reason to suppose
 
 7() 
 
 tliat if, by any expedient, the patronage coiiltl 
 be destroyed, we should see fewer and more 
 respectable public houses in the vicinity of 
 London. It appears from the returns to the 
 Police Committee, that the trade of the pub- 
 lican, like all other trades, has a tendency to 
 find its own level, and that wherever the public 
 houses are too numerous, they would, if left to 
 themselves, rapidly fall into disuse, and become 
 extinct. But the system which induces the 
 brewers to purchase privileged houses at an 
 exorbitant price, causes them to be kept open 
 by artificial means, and not unfrequently with a 
 view to facilitate the opening of houses else- 
 where, by getting the licences removed. Not- 
 withstanding this counteracting impediment, no 
 less than one hundred and twelve public houses 
 were withdrawn from the calendar in the course 
 of twenty-one years, in this division, and it can- 
 not be doubted that a much greater number 
 would have been discontinued, but for the prac- 
 tice of protecting the monopoly for the benefit 
 of the owner of the house. The rapidity of the 
 transfers, amounting, as Mr. Bowles states, to 
 thirty or forty on a single transfer day, shows 
 plainly that the publicans are not doing well ; 
 but as long as the owner of the privileged house 
 can find enough on the premises to cover his 
 exorbitant and unjust rent, it will be his policy 
 to draw in successive victims, and to keep the 
 house in a trade which he knows must bring his
 
 77 
 
 tenant to a gaol. Mr. Collins, the magistrate, 
 in his evidence says, " Gentlemen's servants, 
 and people of that description, save a few 
 pounds, and come into one of those houses ; 
 in three or four months they have spent their 
 money, and are obliged to quit the house ; a 
 house,'* he adds, '* will change three or four 
 times in a year." The evil would be in a great 
 degree corrected, if the legal principle of "public 
 utility" were allowed to prevail ; but this pre- 
 supposes a constant majority of honorable magis- 
 trates in the metropolitan divisions, which the 
 evidence before the Police Committee forbids 
 to be taken for granted. The motion of Mr. 
 Drummond at Kingston, which, to the honor of 
 the magistracy of this great county, was carried 
 almost by acclamation, has, however, done much 
 for the public interest. It has enabled all or 
 any of the magistrates in the county, in case of 
 need, to exercise their right of attending at 
 either of the licensing sessions; a right which 
 the legislature evidently left open, to prevent 
 business involving great power and patronage 
 from falling into the hands of a few individuals, 
 especially in such neighbourhoods as those of 
 London, where the public houses in a single 
 division greatly exceed the sum total in all the 
 other parts of a county. The separation of a 
 county into divisions to facilitate public busi- 
 ness, was obviously liable to abuse, and the occa- 
 sional presence of a few strangers, whenever a
 
 78 
 
 j until became too powerful, was well calculated 
 to counteract that tendency, among men acting 
 in the secrecy of a private room, where argu- 
 ment and remonstrance might be silenced by 
 the holding up of hands ; and where, after other 
 magistrates had withdrawn, even a defeated 
 attempt might be renewed, unchecked by the 
 terrors of a public exposure. That magistrates 
 privileged, and therefore invited to attend at the 
 licensing sessions out of their divisions, for the 
 purpose of protecting the public interest and 
 the honor of the commission, when abuses are 
 said to prevail, should be informed of the times 
 when these sessions are to be held, would seem 
 to follow of course ; but I understand that the 
 order voted at Kingston for that pui'pose, not- 
 withstanding its obvious propriety, has not cre- 
 ated a sentiment of unmixed delight in every 
 bosom in this division ; and that at the late 
 General Quarter Session at Newington, notice 
 was given of a motion to rescind that most sa- 
 lutary order. Indeed, a magistrate who was 
 examined before the Police Committee states, 
 that " it is deemed the very height of indecorum 
 *♦ to disturb licencers in the management of their 
 " respective localities ;" and that " a magistrate 
 *' sitting in a division in which he does not 
 " dwell, is called a foreigner, is frowned at, and 
 ** perhaps personally insulted.'* In the course 
 of his examination, this witness produces two 
 newspapers (The Times of September 12th and
 
 79 
 
 19th, 181G), in wliicli the justices of a particular 
 division advertise against an inter-licensing con- 
 cern set up by two others in an adjoining dis- 
 trict. In this division, as the assertion that one 
 public house to every forty -one private houses is 
 not too many, cannot be true at one time, and 
 false at another, the six magistrates must either 
 support that principle, or admit that they be- 
 trayed their highest duties at a former period, 
 when they advanced it ; and therefore it is not 
 to be expected that the principle will be aban- 
 doned. But if this rule is to be our guide, and 
 magistrates from other divisions are to be kept 
 away by the want of notices, our first business 
 will be to sit down and calculate the value of 
 the patronage to particular individuals, at a time 
 when not merely hundreds, but literally thou- 
 sands of new houses are in contemplation in 
 this division. And in making this calculation 
 it will be necessary to recollect, that although 
 from twelve to fifteen magistrates on an average 
 may be present at our licensing sessions, a con- 
 siderable minority who oppose the grants must 
 be deducted from the number of patrons. There 
 is no great reason, however, to apprehend, that 
 the assembled magistracy of Surrey will re- 
 scind the order voted at Kingston on Mr. Drum- 
 mond's motion, of" which it was evidently not 
 the intention to secure the constant attendance 
 of all the magistrates at every division session, 
 but such an occasional '.vttendance irt any par-
 
 80 
 
 ticular division, as might turn the scale when 
 false principles were supposed to be predomi- 
 nant. Nor can there be much difficulty in fix- 
 ing different days for the licensing sessions in 
 the several divisions, as it is plain that when five 
 days are found to be sufficient for the business 
 in this division, which contains upwards of 830 
 public-houses, the remaining days of the month 
 of September may be conveniently set apart for 
 the business of the other divisions, in which 
 there are only 503 public-houses altogether. 
 The same policy which has induced individuals 
 to desire the repeal of the order made at King- 
 ston, appears to have actively employed itself 
 in representing me as displaying a want of cou- 
 rage in not moving that order myself This 
 would have answered their purpose to a certain 
 extent, as the work would not have been so well 
 done ; but, in point of fact, the idea was not 
 mine, and if it had been mine, a magistrate so 
 little known in the county as myself, would not 
 have been the most proper person to come for- 
 ward with a measure of general regulation. I 
 will add, that no magistrate in this division, 
 whose indignation had been recently excited by 
 the occurrences in Barton's case, would have 
 been the proper person to introduce such a mo- 
 tion, as he could not have stood perfectly clear 
 of the suspicion of personal feeling, when he 
 proceeded to show the utility of the measure by 
 referring to that transaction.
 
 81 
 
 Mr. Drummond appears to have considered, 
 that the single fact of an important decision 
 being rescinded after the magistrates who had 
 voted it, were gone liome, was sufficient to jus- 
 tify his motion : but in my communications to 
 that gentleman, I did not, nor do I now ascribe 
 the act to any particular individual, for I lost 
 sight of the proceedings in the dining-room. 
 I there left the case for that further investiga- 
 tion which it so loudly calls for, and contented 
 myself with stating (what I had accidentally 
 learned), that the company had arrived when 
 the dining-room session was held ; from which 
 it was evident that the adjournment in the morn- 
 ing, if such it must be called, had been made to 
 the dinner hour ; and that among the visitors 
 there were gentlemen in whose presence the 
 transacting of any licensing business was so 
 higlily indelicate and improper, as fully to con- 
 firm my im])ression, that there was originally no 
 intention of adjourning to that hour for any 
 otlier purpose than to dine. 
 
 It will be seen by tlic Police Reports, that 
 magistrates who are capable of acting on iidse 
 principles at a licensing session do not usually 
 commit themselves in any tangible shape, or 
 enter into discussions — tiiey hold up their hands 
 in silence, and defy the visionary terrors of a 
 criminal information. i\w(\ it is a peculiarity 
 wliich I believe attaclies to no other body of 
 })iiblic men, that a few individuals may thus
 
 82 
 
 bring disgrace on the magistracy of a county, 
 and then im})udently venture to show themselves 
 among those whom they liave dishonoured. In 
 the army and the navy the remedy is by court 
 martial j and the admirers and advocates of mis- 
 conduct have never yet ventured, I believe, to 
 represent the public exposure of individual de- 
 linquency as discreditable to those services ; on 
 the contrary, it is by that occasional purification 
 which arises from the expulsion of improper 
 characters, that their professional honour is pro- 
 tected. But magistrates have no such means of 
 securing themselves from disgrace : the court of 
 general quarter session possesses no power to 
 institute enquiries. If by accident, misconduct 
 is glanced at, the fact itself may be boldly and 
 safely denied as an unfounded calumny, and no 
 reply can be permitted, because the court has 
 no jurisdiction. To this singular defect in the 
 organization of the magistracy of this kingdom, 
 may be ascribed the unwillingness of many gen- 
 tlemen to come into the commission ; especially 
 in the metropolitan counties, where we learn 
 from the evidence before the Police Committjee, 
 that the most honourable names are enrolled 
 with those of persons, whose delinquencies are 
 proved to be of such a nature and extent, that 
 they could only be vindicated by that species of 
 logic, which enabled the six magistrates to prove 
 that twenty-one public-houses w^re not too many 
 for Kent-street. It is not easy to conceive a
 
 83 
 
 greater act of magnanimity or of devotedness to 
 the interests of the pubhc, than that whicli is 
 exhibited in the conduct of a few individuals in 
 those reports, who, controlHng their own indig- 
 nant feeUngs, appear to have persevered for 
 years in a hopeless struggle for true principles, 
 and to have condescended to sit in such com- 
 pany. And yet, not witlistan ding the disclosures 
 which came out in evidence before the Police 
 Committee, the corrupt principles may have 
 survived the storm. The Reports themselves 
 are, I understand, out of print, but I venture to 
 hope, that they are borne in memory in that 
 high quarter from whence a legislative remedy 
 would most properly emanate. Whoever has 
 read the police reports must be satisfied, that 
 there is wanting some autliority in the nature of 
 a magisterial court of enquiry. In reference to 
 myselfi I am aware that it has been tauntingly 
 said by gentlemen to whom I am and ever must 
 be opposed, that I am afraid to attend my duties 
 and come among them any more. I certainly 
 did hesitate ; I know the helplessness of my posi- 
 tion, and the strength of theirs. My witnesses 
 cannot always be j)resent ; and it is not easy to 
 establish facts, and to keep clear of libel in writ- 
 ing a pamphlet on sujjjects of so grave a nature, 
 tliough with tlie most unoflending intentions. 
 Had the meeting in November been otherwise 
 constituted than it was, a \ ote might have been 
 passed, im])eachiiig jny accuracy, against which 
 
 G 2
 
 84 
 
 it would have been difficult for a stranger little 
 known in the county to contend. And I do see, 
 that, in order to give colour to the proceeding in 
 the dining-room, by which another chance was 
 given to a delinquent publican of transferring 
 after a complaint was formally entered against his 
 renexval, even the exalted character of our late 
 most excellent chairman Mr. Harrison would 
 have been blackened with the imputation of hav- 
 ing known and connived at Barton's non-resi- 
 dence, if by accident I had not happened to be 
 present at the licensing session in 1823, and 
 lived to vindicate his honour. With some de- 
 sire to be useful, I do not hesitate to say, that 
 no sense of public duty would have induced 
 me to accept a situation which would render 
 me liable to witness such a fact as the rescinding 
 of the decision in Barton's case, mth all its ac- 
 companying circumstances, without our possess- 
 ing the means of ascertaining, in a formal man- 
 ner, who were the authors of that act, and of 
 demanding that their conduct should be made 
 the subject of a solemn investigation before the 
 assembled magistrates of the county. The men- 
 tion of the case in any way in the court of ge- 
 neral quarter session was considered by some 
 gentlemen to be irregular, though erroneously : 
 but at all events it could only be made to stand 
 on mere assertion ; and the very peculiar nature 
 of the motion alone warranted the allusion to
 
 85 
 
 it which was made by Mr. Dnimmond. Such 
 an opportunity may never occur again. 
 
 It has been said, and with truth, that the re- 
 sohition voted at Kingston does not afford a 
 perfect remedy for the evil against w^hich it was 
 directed, as there will be a difficulty in prevail- 
 ing on gentlemen to attend at a distance from 
 home ; and that, after all, the greatest mischief 
 is done on the transfer days, of which there are 
 several in the course of the year. This must be 
 admitted ; for there is no perfect remedy but 
 that of separating the patronage altogether, in 
 the metropolitan divisions, from the magisterial 
 power by which the patronised are expected 
 to be controlled and prevented from driving 
 a profligate trade. But until that measure 
 is adopted, the order voted at Kingston must 
 operate as a considerable check on miscon- 
 duct. A few honourable maoistrates from other 
 divisions will, by their occasional presence, give 
 confidence to tlie advocates of correct prin- 
 ciples ; and their opponents will not be insensi- 
 ble to the reflection, that tliey are acting under 
 the eye of strangers, wlio will report tlieir pro- 
 ceedings in other parts of the county. 
 
 On these occasions we may look with pe- 
 culiar confidence to the sup))ort of our clerical 
 brethren, whose high sense of religious and 
 moral obligation is a sufficient pledge of liieir 
 sentiments on a subject which, like the touch 
 of Ithuriel's speai', brings men's principles to 
 
 G S
 
 8(i 
 
 the test, and compels every one to show himself 
 in his own likeness. It is true, that the police 
 reports exhibit one or two instances which show 
 that the church and the magistracy may some- 
 times be disgraced by individuals capable of 
 reviling and misrepresenting those who have 
 never given them any other offence, than that 
 of endeavouring to protect the public morals. 
 These are afflictions against which no human pre- 
 caution can entirely provide. Religion may 
 drop a tear over the unhappy flock, and the 
 enemies of national establishments may rejoice 
 when such instances occur ; but the friends of 
 the Church of England will find consolation in 
 the reflection, that they are exceptions which 
 excite attention by their infrequency, and be- 
 come glaring from the effect of contrast. 
 
 I make this appeal to our clerical brethren, 
 because it is natural to look to them for support 
 on any question affecting the public morals, al- 
 though I cannot conceal from myself, that there 
 is no perfect remedy for the abuses which the 
 police reports have shewn to be sometimes 
 prevalent in the metropolitan divisions, but that 
 of destroying the patronage and starving out 
 those who are alluded to in the evidence, by the 
 term " licence jobbers,'* a description of persons 
 who certainly will not be ambitious of the pri- 
 vilege of working for nothing. Under proper 
 securities from the publicans, (perhaps by the 
 deposit of a certain sum,) the metropolitan trade 
 I apprehend might be safely left to iind its own
 
 87 
 
 level, the licences being granted on application 
 at the excise office ; while the business of the 
 transfers and of hearing complaints, including the 
 last act of sending the delinquent before a jury 
 for the third offence, would be far more bene- 
 ficially, for the general interest, carried on at the 
 police offices where the proceedings are public, 
 where complainants are not likely to be brow- 
 beaten and insulted, and where the introduction 
 of false law and false principles cannot liappen. 
 If it is objected that this would throw additional 
 labour on the police magistrates, and create a 
 necessity for an additional police office, at least 
 in this county, I must be permitted to observe, 
 that all expences that tend to the correction, 
 and particularly to the prevention of evil, rapidly 
 repay themselves, as they are attended with in- 
 calculable benefit to society, and with savings 
 to the country infinitely beyond tlic cost. We 
 know, for instance, that the police departments 
 are as active as they were a few years ago, and 
 yet we find our prisoners regularly diminishing 
 at IJrixton : who then can doubt that the ex- 
 pensive contrivance of the Tread Mill, is already 
 redeeming its own cost to the county, by di- 
 minishing the general amount of })illage, taking 
 the variation in the number of prisoners, as the 
 measure of that diminution ? Of the destruction 
 of ))roperty by thieves and loose characters 
 who are the snj)porters of low ])nblic houses, 
 the .inioinit cannot be* estimated, on account of 
 the many instiuuw^s in wliich \\\c\ est-ipc de- 
 
 (; 1.
 
 88 
 
 tection, and tlie selfishness of individuals in not 
 coming forward to prosecute when detection is 
 practicable ; but the fact, that property to the 
 amount of millions is at stake, is a sufficient 
 answer to every objection founded on the ex- 
 pence of protecting the public from depredations, 
 of which one great cause has been the unprin- 
 cipled system of perpetuating disreputable public 
 houses, where, if, as is pretended, thieves are 
 more easily to be found, it is because they were 
 first formed there. The consequent expence is 
 out of the question ; but it is certainly possible 
 that there may exist objections to this total 
 change of system in the metropolitan divi- 
 sions, though I am not able to discover them ; 
 and therefore I have ventured to tlirow into 
 the Appendix, under the head of Observations, 
 some suggestions for the improvement of the 
 present act of parliament, in reference to the 
 present system, rather with the view of inducing 
 , others to direct their thoughts to this important 
 subject, than from the hope of suggesting any 
 very effectual remedies myself; for I greatly 
 fear, that while the patronage exists, the mis- 
 chief can only be palliated. 
 
 I have the honour to be, 
 
 "With the greatest respect, 
 My Lord, 
 Your Lordship's most obedient servant, 
 
 T. Edwards. 
 
 Tulse Hill, 
 March 23, 1825.
 
 89 
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Barton had oriirinally applied for a licence (of course 
 personal to himself) for a public house called the Horse 
 and Groom, on the faith of a certificate of character in the 
 usual form. Having thus obtained the licence on the 
 testimonial o^ his being a fit person to be entrusted with 
 It, he immediately put into the house, unknown to the 
 magistrates, a man of the name of Frampton, who was 
 regularly rated to the house in the parish books, and 
 acted as landlord ; Barton himself residinfr elsewhere, 
 and carrying on the business of an auctioneer and house 
 agent, thus rendering the provision of the act, which 
 requires a certificate of the character of the publican 
 who is to reside in the house, a mere dead letter. It 
 will be recollected, that such is the anxiety of the legis- 
 lature on this subject, that the magistrates' licence is 
 expressly granted to " Barton, to utter and sell in the 
 said house where Barton noiv dwelleth" and the excise 
 license is granted to " Barton 7iow residing in the said 
 house." * On the proper day for receiving complaints 
 prior to the general licensing, two complaints were en- 
 tered against Barton ; first, for this fraud on the certi- 
 ficate of character ; and, secondly, he was charged with 
 having again let another house, at no great distance 
 from the Horse and Groom, belonging to him, or for 
 which he was agent, to a brothel keeper, contrary to a 
 solenm promise given to Mr. Harrison at the licensing 
 session in the former year. Mr. Lawson, the com- 
 plainant, was informed that he nnist be ready with his 
 evidence on the cotnplaint-day. On tlie 3d of ISept., at 
 
 ♦ The 27tli of Aligns!.
 
 90 
 
 the Three Tuns in the borough, where the magistrates 
 met to renew the hcences of publicans not comphiined 
 against in that district, awd in which the Horse and Groom 
 is not situated, at the end of the business when several of 
 the magistrates had withdrawn, the clerk irregularly and 
 unexpectedly introduced the subject of the complaint 
 against the Horse and Groom, by stating that he held 
 in his hand a document by which Barton agreed to 
 sell the lease of the house, which was his own property, 
 to a person of the name of Clark, who would apply for 
 the renewal instead of Barton, and that if the licence 
 were delayed till the complaint-day, it would make a 
 considerable difference in the price. A magistrate then 
 present immediately observed, that although Barton 
 had misconducted himself, we were now to get rid of 
 him, as there was a new applicant in the case, and we 
 had no longer any thing to do with Barton's past con- 
 duct, — he was gone, — he was out of sight, — we could 
 not look at him ; and thei'efore it was proposed that we 
 should take that licence into consideration with the 
 other houses iwt complained against, on the 8th of 
 September, which was the day for granting renewals of 
 course, in Barton's district. This argument was founded 
 on a rule which formerly had been acted on in the 
 division, on the alleged authority of Sir S. Shepherd, who 
 it was pretended had said, that a transfer could not be 
 refused under any circumstances ,- and, consequently, it 
 would have been useless to wait for the evidence against 
 Barton. It happened that there were some young magis- 
 trates present, who felt it impossible to acquiesce in this 
 doctrine. They replied, that in the case of a transfer, 
 and especially in the case of a transfer of which no one 
 heard until many days after a complaint against the 
 renewal of the licence had been formally entered, if 
 magistrates were to shut their eyes against the mis- 
 conduct of the party transferring, and to look only at 
 the party coming forward to obtain the transfer, they 
 would, in effect, assist a delin(|uent publican in escaping
 
 91 
 
 from the legal consequences of his misconduct, and de- 
 prive themselves of all means of control, as a real or 
 pretended transfer would always be contrived when a 
 serious complaint was entered against a publican ; and 
 that, in fact, it was a common and notorious trick under 
 such circumstances.* It was added, that the alleged 
 offences in Barton's case were of a very grave nature, 
 and that by taking the case before the complaint-day, 
 there would be no evidence, and the licence would pass 
 of course. The discussion then dropped; but, on the 
 6th of September, wiien the magistrates had again met 
 on other business not connected with Barton's district, 
 the clerk again, in the same unexpected manner, brought 
 Barton's case forward ; and the proposal to take the case 
 before the complaint-day was again renewed, and again 
 successfully opposed. In the course of the discussion, 
 the clerk quoted the resolution of the year 1815, that 
 " when it shall be thought necessary to refuse the licence 
 where the complaint lies only personally against the 
 publican, the proprietor of such house shall be at liberty 
 to bring forward a new tenant on the day of adjourn- 
 ment appointed for the licensing of new houses." When 
 the 21st of ISeptember arrived, which was the day fixed 
 for going regularly into the cases of publicans against 
 whom complaints had been lodged, it was very easy to 
 foresee that the same arguments would be urged ; and 
 to put an effectual stop to a great deal of strange reason- 
 ing about the magistrates having no right to look at 
 the misconduct of the party j)roposing to transfer, and 
 
 • Although tlic application was supported by arguments 
 treating it as a transfer, and the authority of Sir S. Slicp- 
 herd was quoted, yet it is now prctcrjdcd that being biouglit 
 forward at the licensing linic, it was neither a renewal nor a 
 transfer, but an application ibr a licence on an assignment; 
 and, consefjuently, that the misconduct of the assignor was 
 out of the (pu^stion. I low are gcMillemen to meet such slii("t 
 ing arginneuLs?
 
 9!S? 
 
 that a transfer could not be refused under amj circum- 
 stances, the opi)osers of the grant took the objection 
 that there could be no renewal, even if there had been 
 no alleged misconduct on the part of Barton, as it was 
 evident, that although the house had been opened during 
 the past year, it had not been opcjicd in virtue of a licence 
 which the 17th clause of the act makes indispensable to 
 a renewal. * It was clear that Barton's licence, which 
 was granted personally to himself, had not been made 
 use of, for he had not been the residing publican. This 
 was conclusive, and the application for the grant of a 
 renewal, or rather of a renewal and transfer under one, 
 was refused by a majority of eight to seven. The ma- 
 jority were then requested to give their reasons in 
 writing, a request which was felt to be somewhat 
 singular, and those reasons were formally communicated 
 to Barton and Clark, who were called in for the express 
 purpose. The majority had to endure some vituper- 
 ation on the score of cruelty and hardship, accompanied 
 with certain intimations respecting the Court of King's 
 Bench, and the alarming responsiblity the majority had 
 taken on themselves. Not a word was said about the 
 intei'ests of the public. One worthy gentleman re- 
 marked with great naivete^ that if Barton had only 
 thought of getting himself rated to the public house 
 instead of allowing Frampton's name to appear in the 
 parish books, the majority could not have refused the 
 application, forgetting probably at the moment the com- 
 plaint respecting the brothel, which was very slightly 
 gone into as the legal point effectually disposed of the 
 case. The calling in of Barton and Clark to hear the 
 written reasons of the majority read, was not objected to 
 by the gentlemen who voted against the renewal, — it 
 
 * The application of Clark, tl)erefore, could only be taken 
 as an application for a new house, which requires three 
 months' previous notice.
 
 )3 
 
 ought to be the general practice, and not confined to a 
 particular instance. 
 
 The next day the majority who had gone home, and 
 some of them into the country, in the full belief that the 
 licensing session was at an end, were surprised by a 
 notice from the clerk, informing them that their de- 
 cision had been rescinded, and that Barton's case was 
 to be reconsidered on the 29th of September. It was 
 afterwards ascertained, that this extraordinary measure 
 had been adopted up stairs in the dining room, at a 
 dinner to which brewers and other visitors come to 
 celebrate the iainination of the licensing session ; and 
 that there was actually in the room at the time, persons 
 who ought never to be even heard of when licensing 
 business is under discussion. A brewer, who had sent 
 a turtle to the licensing dinner, and the high sheriff' 
 who was a brewer' s-back-maker, and whose son was, till 
 very lately, in partnership with the same brewer, being 
 understood to be present. These gentlemen must, no 
 doubt, have been somewhat surprised to find themselves 
 present at an adjourned licensing meeting. 
 
 In the case of Barton there is the peculiarity, that 
 Barton was not only the person licensed as the publican, 
 but he was also understood to be the owner of the 
 house ; and ilie following letter, which was circulated 
 among the magistrates by the person who came for- 
 ward as the new publican after the complaint had been 
 entered., will serve to shew the artificial value which is 
 given to a house, and the consequent increase of pa- 
 tronage by the scheme of annexing the licence to the 
 house in perpetuity : — 
 
 " Sept. 27th, 1825, 
 " Mount Row, Lambeth. 
 
 " SiK, 
 
 " Having been informed by Mr. Ware, that the 
 magistrates have been pleased to appoint another meet-
 
 94 
 
 iug for Wednesday, respecting the licence for the Horse 
 and Gi'oom public house, I take leave most respect- 
 fully to state, that before I purchased, I made due en- 
 quiries whether there was any matter affecting the 
 licence, and invariably I'eceived the satisfactory answer, 
 that the house was well conducted and no complaint of 
 any sort against it. 
 
 " Upon which I became the purchaser of the lease 
 and good-will, stock in trade, furniture and fixtures, to 
 the amount, m the whole, of near 3000/. I therefore 
 take leave most humbly to represent, that if the licence 
 be not granted, my loss will be most serious, inasmuch 
 as the lease will not be worth 07ie fourth of the purchase 
 money; for it and the other effects will be comparatively 
 worth but little, independently of the injury which must 
 follow such an event. 
 
 " Under such circumstances I rest satisfied, that in the 
 further deliberation on the subject, their worships will 
 not consign me to ruin on account of any irregularity 
 or misconduct on the part of Mr. Barton, if they, in the 
 discharge of their duty, can possibly avoid it. 
 
 " Trusting that the situation in which I am involved, 
 will be allowed as an excuse for this intrusion, 
 " I have the honour to be. Sir, 
 " Your most obedient and very hum. Servant, 
 
 *' John Clark." 
 
 This letter from a person who pays 3000/. before he 
 gets a conveyance, is liable to the observation, that if 
 the transaction were genuine, he must have discovered, 
 durino: the nesociation, that Barton was not the oc- 
 cupier of the house, and that it had been opened by 
 Frampton illegally ; consequently his solicitor would 
 have informed him that no renewal could be founded 
 on Barton's licence. The time for granting renewals 
 is not the most proper time for transfers; and it is 
 extremely difficult to believe that Clark's solicitor would
 
 95 
 
 allow him to pay over his money until he had seen the 
 licence renewed, and the transfer accomplished, when 
 he states, and therefore must have been aware, that 
 the difference in value depending on those contingencies 
 would be equal to three-fourths of the whole sura. But 
 this letter was addressed to magistrates among whom it 
 was probably hoped that there were some who would 
 maintain Barton's right to transfer and to become invi- 
 sible ; by which transfer it appears that he was to make 
 his escape from the consequences of a complaint actually 
 entered against his renewal, and at the same time was 
 to put into his pocket 2250/. above the intrinsic value 
 of his house and fixtures. It is tolerably clear that 
 Clark's loss is equal to nothing. When Mr. Ware, 
 our clerk, unexpectedly brought the subject forward at 
 the Three Tuns for the first time, he distinctly spoke 
 of only an agreement to sell, and produced the do- 
 cument; but the application of Clark was afterwards 
 attempted to be strengthened by a rumour that he had 
 subse(juently paid some hundred pounds on account, 
 which he could not get back, as Barton had paid the 
 money away to his creditors, and so on. Finally, the 
 above letter was sent round, which is so worded as to 
 imply that Clark had paid over the whole sum. It is 
 now understood that the agreement for the purchase did 
 not take place till after Barton had been furnished with 
 a copy of Mr. Lawson's letter of comj)laint, which was 
 entered on the 27th of August.
 
 96 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 Extract from the Minute Book. 
 
 East Brixtoii\ ^^ ^ Meeting of Magistrates lield at 
 and >the Sessions House, Newington, 21st 
 
 Souilmark. J Jay of September, 1824. 
 
 (Mr.Lett in the Chair.) 
 
 Mr. Smith, Upon apphcation beinfj made bv Mr. John 
 
 Mr. Nottidge, ^i , ^ ,. , tt i ^ 
 
 Mr. Holmer, ^l''ii'k lor a licence to the Horse and Groom, 
 Mr. Scriven, Lambeth, he having obtained an assignment * 
 
 Mr.Borrodaile, r- a T .^ c i i 
 
 Mr. Allen f, oi the licence tiiereol granted last year to 
 Mr. Rogers, Mr. John Barton, the following persons were 
 
 Mr. Forsteen, . , . ° '^ 
 
 Mr. Laing, examined ; viz. 
 
 Mr. Davies, Steer, the collector of rates for the parish 
 
 Mr. Lurhng, <? t i i i i 
 
 Mr. Gordon, «i Lambeth, produced a rate-book, whereby 
 Mr. Attwood, it appeared that I'rampton was rated as the 
 
 Dr. Ldxvards, . ^ 
 
 Gen.Thornton, occupier thereof, and Steer stated that he 
 Mr. Onslow. \^^^ been so rated for some time past. 
 
 Shergold, a constable of Lambeth, stated 
 that he frequently visited the house, and that 
 he never to his knowledge, saw Mr. Barton 
 there, but always Frampton, who he consi- 
 dered the owner and occupier; that the house 
 was orderly and shut up early at night. 
 
 * From this minute, in which it is assumed that the trans- 
 action between Barton and Clark was genuine, it is plain 
 that Barton ought to have come forward for the renewal, 
 and then have applied to transfer on the next transfer-day. 
 But it was attempted to do both acts in one, on the com- 
 plaint-day, when the opinion of Sir S. Shepherd, in support 
 of the doctrine that in the case of a transfer the magistrates 
 had no discretion, was cited. 
 
 f Mr. Allen was obliged to go away before the discus- 
 sion of Barton's case.
 
 97 
 
 John Barton stated that he had been licensed for the 
 house ever since the year 1818, and that he employed 
 Frampton to manage it for him ; that he paid him 305. 
 a week, and hired a boy and girl servants; that he was 
 at the house himself almost daily, paid for the beer and 
 spirits, and produced an account-book from Messrs. 
 Elliot and Co., in which he was made debtor from the 
 year 1818 to the present time, and a similar book for all 
 the ale had from Messrs. Wyatt and Co. wherein he was 
 also made debtor : he admitted he did not reside in the 
 house, but occasionally slept there, and was an auc- 
 tioneer and house agent, and resided at a short distance 
 from the Horse and Groom.* 
 
 Frampton stated that he conducted the business of 
 the house for Mr. Barton, and was paid a salary of 305. 
 a week; that he ordered the beer as wanted, but that Mr. 
 Barton went with him to order the spirits ; that he fre- 
 quently settled accounts with Mr. Barton, sometimes 
 weekly, and at other times once a fortnight or three weeks; 
 that Barton frequently came to the house and assisted. 
 
 Mr. Ware produced and read to the magistrates Mr. 
 Lawson's letter of the 27th of August last, as follows : — 
 
 " Surrey Lodge, August 27th, 1824. 
 " Dear Sir, 
 " I beg leave to state to you, for the information of the 
 magistrates assembled to license public houses in East 
 Brixton and Southwark, that John Barton who applied 
 last year to renew his licence for the Horse and Groom 
 public house in Mount Row, Lambeth, was opposed by 
 the gentlemen living in Durham Place, and myself, on the 
 
 • The clerk has licre omitted to notice, that when Barton 
 was questioned respectini; the Ijrothcl, he admittcil that he 
 had lately heard some things that were not (juite so pleasant, 
 but that the tenant i)ad re[)rcsented hiuiself to be a horse- 
 dealer. On being asked if tlierc was any stabling for such a 
 trade, he said there was not. Barton's residence is as near 
 to this house as it is to the Horse and (irooni. 
 
 II
 
 98 
 
 ground that he persisted, after repeated remonstrances, to 
 let a house in Mead Row, near our residences, for the pur- 
 pose of a brothel ; and that he only obtained his licence 
 on a pledge given to the late chairman, Mr. Harrison, Dr. 
 Edwards, and other magistrates, that he would remove 
 the nuisance complained of by the neighbours. This 
 pledge he never redeemed ; but continued, and still con- 
 tinues, to let his house for this nefarious purpose. — I 
 beg also to state, that although Mr. Barton is the person 
 licensed, a man of the name of Frampton, who formerly 
 kept a public house of his own, but lost his licence for 
 misconduct, has for some years resided in the house, and 
 is rated to and pays the poor-rate, and has the conduct 
 and management of the house ; Barton residing at the 
 corner of Frances Street, at some distance from the 
 Horse and Groom, and carrying on the business of a 
 broker and house agent. 
 
 « I am. Sir, 
 " Your obedient humble Servant, 
 
 " Charles John Lawson. 
 " George Ware, Esq." 
 
 Upon considering this statement and letter, the ma- 
 jority of the magistrates present considered the licence 
 granted last year to Mr. Barton void *, and refused to 
 grant a licence to Mr. Clark, who was called in ; and 
 the chairman read to him the following minute : — 
 
 " The magistrates have decided that the Horse and 
 Groom public house cannot be licensed under the ap- 
 plication made to them, as John Barton, to whom the 
 licence of that house was granted last year, was not 
 during that period residing in the house, within the mean- 
 ing of the act of parliament and the terms of the licence. 
 
 " Adjourned until five o'clock in the afternoon of this 
 day, at this place." 
 
 * This is not quite correct — the magistrates decided 
 simply that the Horse and Groom had not been opened in 
 virtue of a licence during the preceding year.
 
 99 
 
 Sessions House, Newington. 
 
 Same Day. 
 (Chairman's name omitted.) 
 
 Names of ma- Jf was movecl and seconded, and resolved, 
 sent,^ not^[n-That this meeting be further adjourned until 
 serted. ([^q 29th instant at this house, at nine o'clock, 
 
 to reconsider the application made by John 
 Clark, for a licence to the Horse and Groom, 
 Lambeth ; and in the meantime, a case be 
 laid before Mr. Gurney for his opinion. 
 
 Adjourned until Wednesday the 29th in- 
 stant, at nine of the clock in the fox-enoon, at 
 this place. 
 
 Sessions House, Newington. 
 
 29th September, 1824. 
 
 (Chairman's name omitted.) 
 
 Gen. Thornton This meeting being held by adjournment 
 Mr! Lett "'to reconsider the application made by Mr. 
 Mr. Davics, John Clark for a licence to the Horse and 
 
 Mr. Kogcrs, „ ^ , , i 
 
 Groom at Lambeth : — 
 
 Mr. Ware produced and read a case 
 which he had laid bclbre Mr. Gurney for his 
 opinion, respecting the conclusion the magis- 
 trates liad come to at the last meeting for 
 refusing such licence, and Mr. Gurncy's 
 (){)inion thereon; and lie being of opinion that 
 the magiblratcs had come to a right conclu- 
 sion, and acted correctly in refusing the licence 
 to Mr. Clark, 
 
 It was moved, seconded, and carried, that 
 this merting do ndjourn. 
 
 Adjouined. 
 H 2
 
 100 
 
 N. B. In the preceding statement marked A. it is said 
 that two proposals were made, viz. on tlie 3d and on the 6th 
 of September, to induce the magistrates to dispose of Barton's 
 case on the 8th, without waiting for Mr. Lawson's evidence, 
 who had been directed to be ready with his evidence on the 
 complaint-day, and had gone into the country in the mean 
 while : and it is further said that these proposals were 
 founded on an old misinterpretation of Sir S. Shepherd's 
 opinion. This was the impression certainly, for otherwise 
 these proposals to dispose of the case without waiting for 
 the evidence would be altogether indefensible : at the same 
 time it is true that this opinion of Sir S. Shepherd was not 
 referred to in direct terms until the complaint-day. Mr. 
 Harrison, of course, never sanctioned the misinterpretation, 
 but it is evident from Mr. Bowles's evidence that it had been 
 adopted either before Mr. Harrison's time or in his absence. 
 
 APPENDIX C. 
 
 Opinion of Sir S. Shepherd on the Clause for 
 protecting the Interests of Executors, in the 
 case of a PubUcan dying. 
 
 (C 
 
 The words shall and may, in the third section of the 
 act are imperative on the justices, so that, generallj/ s\)eak' 
 ing, I should be of opinion, that the justices were bound 
 to grant the licence Jbr the current year. And I am of 
 opinion, the justices cannot lay down any general 
 rule or regulation, except those contained in the statute, 
 for non-compliance with which they will refuse to grant 
 the licence. But I am of opinion that cases may happen 
 in which, if the justices should refuse, the Court would 
 neither compel them by mandamus, nor punish them by 
 information. If the person applying for the licence were 
 of such notorious bad character that it would be unfit 
 that he should be licensed, or if the house had been so 
 conducted as to be a common nuisance, I think in such 
 cases the justices might refuse ; but that would not alter 
 the general principle that the words shall and may are, 
 Yd general cases, imperative on the justices. 
 
 « May 1 7 th ISI 5. S. Shepherd."
 
 101 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Extracts from the iNIendicity Reports. 
 
 Mr. Hoklswoith, Senior City Marshal. — We proved 
 on an average, that a blind sailor, widi a dog who car- 
 ries his hat, <jot thirtv shillin'^s a day. P. 37. 
 
 The Rev. W. Gurney. — I found out afterwards 
 that she was a gin drinker ; she gets in debt here and 
 there, and is obliged to move about ; she has been down 
 in Kent street. P- 51. 
 
 There is a house in Kent Street, where I have seen a 
 fat man who moves himself about on a wooden board. 
 When I lived near the Kent Road, I have seen eight or 
 ten of these persons go into a miserable house at the 
 lower end of Kent Street. I have seen tables set; one a 
 very long table covered with a coarse cloth, but a clean 
 one; and there was something roasting. I was afraid to 
 go in on account of this man who was a very violent one. 
 
 When asked by the committee, — Of what description 
 are those beggars who migrate to the difterent races ? 
 this gentleman replies, " They are mostly, I believe, 
 connected with thieves, pickpockets, and others ; they 
 meet gentlemen who have got tipsy, and have gained at 
 the races, and way-lay them, and so on.'* P. 56. 
 
 Almost all these persons about the streets drink, and 
 they train up their children in ihinking. There are five 
 large gin shops, or wine-vaults as they are called, close to 
 Seven Dials, which are constantly frequented. A friend 
 of mine, who lived ojiposite, had the curiosity to 
 count how many went in in the comse of one Sunday 
 morning before he went to church, and it was 320. P. 59. 
 
 In Nicholas Court, Roscuiary Lane, there are about 
 twenty beggars, male anil I'enialc, of the very worst de- 
 tcription, great iiupobtors, tlrunkards, blasphemer^, 8lC. 
 
 H 3
 
 10'2 
 
 Their rendezvous is the City of Carlisle, Rosemary 
 Lane. P. 83. 
 
 In visiting George Yard, we learned from those we 
 had access to, that one half of the inhabitants subsisted 
 by prostitution and beggary. In Wentworth Street we 
 visited a house, and were not a little surprised to find 
 that it contained one hundred beds, which are let out by 
 the night or otherwise to beggars and loose characters 
 of all descriptions. P. 84. 
 
 The Rev. H. Budd, Chaplain of Bridewell Hos})ital, 
 says that the principal cause of mendicity is the facility 
 with which gin is acquired. P. 88. 
 
 Sir D. Williams. — There was in a situation called 
 Church Lane, Whitechapel, some years ago, a house 
 of resort for beggars, which was well known to all that 
 class of people in every part of the metropolis; the sign 
 of the public house was the Weavers' Arms, but its slang 
 name was the Beggars' Opera. At the period I am men- 
 tioning, these beggars used to resort there of an evening 
 and live well : they spent a considerable portion of 
 money, would have hot suppers dressed, and regale them- 
 selves with beer, punch, and often other liquor more ex- 
 pensive. Sir D. W. then adds, that these people never 
 apply for parish relief, because they can live in a man- 
 ner more congenial with their habits of profligacy ; they 
 therefore have no wish to be sent to their respective 
 parishes. P. 96. 
 
 Joseph Butterworth, Esq. — There are two public houses 
 in Church Lane, St. Giles's, whose chief support depends 
 upon beggars ; one called the Beggars' Opera, which 
 is the Rose and Crown public house, and the other the 
 Robin Hood. I know a sober hackney coachman, upon 
 whose veracity I can depend, who has frequently conveyed 
 beggars to their lodgings ; and formerly, when he plied 
 in St. Giles's, he has been called to the houses I before 
 mentioned to take them from thence, being so intoxi- 
 cated they could not walk home. P. 101. 
 
 16
 
 103 
 
 Mr. S. Stephenson, an overseer of the parish of St. 
 Giles, speaking from personal observation in a particular 
 public house, says, " They stop as long as the house is 
 open and get violently drunk, and quarrel with one 
 another, and very frequently fight." P. lO^. In another 
 part of his evidence he says, " Towards the evening they 
 get into the public house and begin to call for gin, rum, 
 beer, and whatever they like; and very frequently they 
 have some very comfortable food, perhaps they will go to 
 an eating house, and get ham, beef, and so on." 
 
 John Smith, beadle of St. George's, Bloomsbury, 
 says of a beggar whom he had in custody, " I went 
 into a public house with him, and he said, ' Ah ! you 
 search very well, but you have missed some point; now 
 let us have something to eat.' He called for a pound of 
 ham, and half a pound of beef; a pint of rum and two 
 pots of ale." P. 132. " We have frequently found eight 
 or ten shillings upon them, twelve shillings, and three or 
 four, and so on, that they have been getting that day." 
 
 S. Roberts, watch-house keeper of St. Giles's. — 
 There is a little black man who has frequently been 
 brought to the watch-house for begging ; and I have 
 been told, that at the public house he would spend fifty 
 shillings a week for his board: he would spit his own 
 goose, or his own duck, and live very well. I am posi- 
 tive that many of these beggars are in a much better 
 situation than any of the working people. I have seen 
 them at the end of Compton Street come out of the 
 houses where they have been, with a leg and an arm tied 
 up, and so on. Tlioy have had four or five glasses of gin 
 before they started, and have settled which way they 
 would go; then they meet again in the evening, and 
 cook their own geese or their own turkies: or they will 
 cook a turkey, and put sausages round it, and call it an 
 alderman hung in chains. 
 
 Have you any reason to believi; that they live well at 
 the public house where ihey ))ut up ? — i)h, yes ; better 
 
 11 1'
 
 104> 
 
 than any common tradesman ; they say it will not do 
 for them to buy fine clothes, so that they spend all in 
 eating and drinking ; and that fine clothes will not do 
 for them at all. 
 
 APPENDIX E. 
 
 Extracts from the Police Report, 181(3 and I8I7. 
 
 Townsend. — Lord Chief Justice Eyre went the 
 home circuit; and a singular circumstance occurred 
 that stands upon record fresh in my mind : there were 
 seven people convicted of a robbery in Kent Street, by 
 calling in a pedlar, and after robbing the man, he 
 jumped out of the window. There were four men and 
 three women concerned ; they were all convicted, and 
 all hanged in Kent Street, opposite the door. 
 
 Vickery. — The police get no information from the 
 publican ; for if we go to a public house, it is with the 
 greatest possible care we dare intrust what we want with 
 the publican. 
 
 They are more the friends of the thief than of the 
 thief-takers ? 
 
 Vickery. — They are so: and they are so from in- 
 terested motives ; they are better customers. I have 
 known instances where men have been transported for 
 seven years, and have come back to this country, and 
 have got licences for public houses. I knew one man 
 Virho had been fourteen years at Botany Bay, and got a 
 licence on his return. 
 
 I have received great assistance from the keepers of 
 the (flash) houses, but that is not general. 
 
 I have been totally foiled by being deceived by the 
 publicans.
 
 105 
 
 Mr. Beaumont. — Discharged sailors have latterly 
 committed many robberies. The interest of those poor 
 fellows has been sadly neglected; and with it the interest 
 of the public. Some thousands of these, when paid oif, 
 have received sums which, if rightly applied, would 
 have secured their remaining days from want : but, as 
 helpless as children in the use of money, they are imme- 
 diately stripped when they reach the shore which their 
 Talour has defended, and left to perish by distress or to 
 subsist by plunder. 
 
 I now come to a subject of universal influence on the 
 morals of the public : it is decidedly my opinion, that 
 low public houses, flash houses, and gin shops, compose 
 the foundation and hot-bed of nearly all the vices and 
 crimes which disturb the metropolis. In these, thou- 
 sands consume their time, money, and constitutions, 
 and acquire insensibility to all the moral duties. From 
 these places they sally forth to commit depredations on 
 the public, impelled by destitution and fired by burning 
 liquors. It is lamentable that public houses, which are 
 indispensable to public accommodation, should thus be 
 rendered public nuisances. The evil, however, is in- 
 separable froui the law whicii gives to certain individuals, 
 in their several localities, the power of setting up or 
 putting down such houses, subject to no other control 
 than that of their own private wills and unsearchable 
 motives. 
 
 It is capable of full proof that some brewers procure 
 licences for new houses at pleasure, whicli the right 
 owners have in vain apj)]ied for, and that they are able 
 to preserve licences to old houses of the most tlisorderly 
 kind ; whence the publicans arc taught to dej)end not on 
 good conduct, but on good interest, ior the preservation 
 of their licences. 
 
 Can you take on yourself to say, that it is the com- 
 mon fame of that district, that a connection exists be-
 
 tween Messrs niid the majristrales, so that those 
 
 who have the recommendation of Messrs. have 
 
 a preference over otlier persons in the licensing of public 
 houses? — Most decidedly so. 
 
 Do you know whether the near relations of any of the 
 magistrates are spirit-dealers, or hold retail s})irit-shops? 
 — Messrs. and , whom I have already men- 
 tioned, and Mr . 
 
 Have you ever been present when complaints were 
 laid before the magistracy as to the conduct of certain 
 houses? — Yes. 
 
 What was done? — The compkints were rejected. 
 
 Did a minute investigation take place? — No; it was 
 tendered but over-ruled. 
 
 Are there any houses that are technically called 
 "flash houses" in that district? — I believe there are 
 many. 
 
 Have repeated complaints been made against them ? — 
 Yes. 
 
 Within your own knowledge, do you know any in- 
 stance of licences having been refused on the licensing 
 day to persons who kept disorderly houses? — No; not 
 of my own knowledge. 
 
 Did you ever hear of that having taken place? — 
 Yes ; I have heard that it has taken place, but that they 
 •were aftei-v^ards revived. 
 
 Do you believe it was a mere fraudulent withdrawing 
 of the name, the old parties having a connection still in 
 the houses ? — From all I heard, I have no doubt of the 
 original parties connection with the house still sub- 
 sisting. 
 
 Did the same bad practice which had called down 
 the censure of the magistracy still continue ? — Yes, as 
 I am informed. 
 
 Do you know whether complaints were agam made 
 against those houses? — Yes, there were, at the licensing 
 in 1814.
 
 107 
 
 Do you recollect what took place then : I allude to 
 houses in the parish of Shadwell ? — Mr. Fletcher, the 
 churchwarden, accompanied by the other parish officers 
 and a large number of very respectable inhabitants, 
 attended in Osborne Street, on the adjourned day for 
 licensing. They had previously sent in a memorial, set- 
 ting forth the bad conduct of certain houses in that di- 
 vision ; and they then attended and tendered themselves 
 on oath to give evidence of what they had stated in their 
 memorial, and of other facts in addition : their oath was 
 refused, and their evidence repressed on points of form. 
 Mr. Fletcher proceeded to give evidence against the 
 landlord of a certain public house, 1 think the King's 
 Arms; when it was remarked that he was no longer 
 the landlord, for that a new man had been lately jyut in^ 
 and the complaints that applied to the former tenant could 
 not he heard against the ticw one. 
 
 The Reverend E. Robson. — Was it not stated to you 
 by the parish officers and other principal inhabitants^ 
 in their memorial ajrainst the re-licensinij of those 
 houses, that there was such a profusion of public houses, 
 that every eighth or ninth house in the street was a 
 public house ; and that the re-opening of those bad 
 houses could be no accommodation to the neighbour- 
 hood, and neither more nor less than a public nui- 
 sance ? 
 
 1 have been long of opinion, that there were far too 
 many public houses by the water-side, in \\'apj)ing and 
 IShadwell ; but those houses that were complained of 
 were ccrtainli/ not ivnrse than the rest. In one of the 
 houses there had been a galh;ry for music, where they 
 had what they call, in vulgar terms, a Cock-antl-llen 
 Club. 
 
 Is it not notorious that all llic houses, almost without 
 exception, in that neighbourhood, have large rooms at 
 llie back pari of the houses, oi- in the houses, which
 
 108 
 
 have been for many years past used as dancing rooms 
 for sailors and their girls ? 
 
 Far from large^ they are generally very small houses 
 in that quarter. 
 
 Are there not a great number of houses to which there 
 are such rooms ? 
 
 Certainly : and being so general, tot? thought it very 
 hard they should fail on these houses in particular. 
 
 Then you are of opinion Mr. Fletcher miglit, with 
 as much propriety, have made the same complaint 
 against six or twelve houses, as against those in parti- 
 cular ? — Oh, yes, against twenty at least. 
 
 What induced the magistrates to take away the li- 
 cence ? 
 
 It was taken away for one year, until the nuisance 
 was abated; and that being done, it was restored. The 
 pi'inciple on which the magistrates act is, that it is a 
 kind of mixed consider a tio7i : we conceive that the house 
 is property belonging to some person or other, not the 
 landlord, the property of some individual. The house, 
 therefore^ being brick and mortar, cannot he guilty of any 
 moral crime ; it is the landlord who is the person who is 
 guilty; and if we turn him out, and the house be li- 
 censed to another, the guilt is put an end to. 
 
 In point of fact, were they not re-licensed, in some 
 instances, to the same person ? 
 
 Oh, certainly : but the power of doing wrong was 
 taken away. 
 
 Do you think that the mere taking away of a place 
 where fiddlers sat, was a sufficient correction of bad con- 
 duct to warrant you (with the strongest evidence before 
 you, which was tendered in writing, and which was 
 given viva voce, of licentious company being assembled 
 there every hour of the day and night,) in Ucensing the 
 house next year, having refused it the year preceding? 
 
 We had evidence on the other side : we had evidence 
 in defence of these people, against the evidence "ockich had
 
 109 
 
 been adduced hy Mr. Fletcher ; but then it was not the 
 merely taking away, and the mere loss of the room with 
 the gallery; they had lost a great deal, for, being shut 
 up a whole year, thty had lost all the profit for the 
 whole year. (See the whole of the evidence of Joseph 
 Fletcher, Esq,, with the case of the parish of St. Paul, 
 Shad well, delivered in by that witness, and the corro- 
 borative testimony of Messrs. Darvel, Clark, Weston, 
 Williams, and Saunders.) 
 
 Mr. John Williams. — Can you give the Committee 
 any information as to the manner in which those houses 
 are /zoti? conducted ? 
 
 As to the Duke of York, not having been inside it, I 
 cannot speak as to its management ; but 1 have always 
 understood that the room which was considered so great 
 a grievance is taken down : but it is the contiimal resort 
 from the earliest in the morninfr to the latest at nvAxt of 
 prostitutes. 
 
 Do you know whether the system of congregating 
 loose people of both sexes still takes place in the houses 
 late at night and on Sundays ? 
 
 I believe in the White Hart it does: in the Kind's 
 Arms it does, and in the Paviour's Arms. 
 
 Is there not an impression generally among respect- 
 able persons filling the situation of Parish Ollicers, that, 
 after the impunity suflered by tliose people, your enter- 
 ing within the walls of those public houses would be of 
 no avail in putting down any of those evils, but would 
 only subject you to personal insult; and that, therefore, 
 you refrain from going within ihcni ? — That is the fact. 
 
 Mr. George Darvel. — Can you give the Conunittee 
 any information as to the present state of those houses ? 
 
 The White Hart, in my humble opinion, is carried on 
 exactly as it was when we first petitioned : the Duke of 
 York is converted into a gin-shop, where prostitutes are 
 going in and going out, and assembling round the door 
 the whole day long.
 
 no 
 
 The Committee are then to understand from you as 
 a house-keeper and the father of a family, that scenes 
 are daily and hourly taking place before your eyes, that 
 you consider as destructive of the morals of all around 
 you? 
 
 So much so, that if I have a friend dininff with me, I 
 am absolutely ashamed that he should go to the window. 
 
 Do you know the present state of the interior of the 
 Duke of York ? 
 
 I have never been in it; I should be sorry to go: 
 there are the same practices outside the door. 
 
 None of the Parish Officers have lately examined the 
 interior of that house? 
 
 Not one of them I believe.
 
 Ill 
 
 OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 1. Although gentlemen of the highest cha- 
 racter for honor and integrity are to be found 
 among the brewers and distillers in this kingdom, 
 the legislature, which cannot make distinctions, 
 has justly deemed it expedient to exclude them 
 from the licensing sessions, on the principle, 
 that Magistrates ought not to act where tlieir 
 personal interests may be concerned. But the 
 fact has been overlooked, that there may be 
 other Magistrates so circumstanced as to render 
 their presence on such occasions infinitely more 
 objectionable on the same principle ; and, con- 
 sequently, as the law now stands, the exclusion 
 of brewers and distillers, however proper in 
 itselfi is certainly invidious and may be useless. 
 A brewer or distiller might be liable to the sus- 
 picion of promoting the interests of his own firm ; 
 but other brewers and distillers have opposing 
 interests which would in some degree operate as 
 a check upon his movements. But a brewer's 
 backmaker, or other tradesman, mIiosc business 
 wiioliy dej)ends on that of brewers and distillers, 
 is as deeply interested in the consumption of 
 liquors as tlie brewer or distillcj-, whose bread 
 is Ills bread: with tliis diflerence, that instead of 
 being interested in the prosj)erity of" a single
 
 brewery, he may have, or may hope to obtain, 
 a connection with every brewer that owns pubhc- 
 houses in his division. On general principles, 
 therefore, an invidious distinction is made when 
 it is assumed, that a brewer or distiller would be 
 biassed by his own interest, and that a brewer's 
 backmaker, or other tradesman, entirely iden- 
 tified with them in interest, is necessarily so 
 much more virtuous. On general principles it 
 is also said, that a brewer or distiller might give 
 an interested vote in the case of a licence for a 
 new public house, in which his firm might happen 
 to have an interest, but in this case also the 
 interest would be limited to his own house, and 
 would be counteracted by the opposite interests 
 of other brewers and distillers. But this is not 
 the case with brickmakers and timber mer- 
 chants, whose business chiefly depends on the 
 speculating builders. Magistrates so connected 
 may have an interest in licensing all the houses 
 in the list of applications, as they may belong to 
 their own customers, and the payment of their 
 bills may depend on the money to be raised by 
 the successful application for licences ; or tliey 
 may have an interest in discountenancing the 
 applications of those who do not choose to deal 
 with them. Looking to general principles the true 
 rule seems to be, that if brewers and distillers 
 are excluded, those who are identified with them 
 in interest by trades which depend wholly on 
 their prosperity ought also to be excluded ; and
 
 113 
 
 the same rule necessarily applies to speculating 
 builders, and to those tradesmen who depend 
 principally upon them. The spirit of the act 
 always implied the absence of Magistrates from 
 the licensino- sessions who are so circumstanced, 
 but it is evidently requisite that the act should 
 speak in direct terms. Experience has shown 
 that too much reliance ought not to be placed 
 on delicacy of sentiment. 
 
 '2. To those who value men not by their wealth 
 and hospitahty, but by the effect of their prin- 
 ciples and conduct on the welfare of society, it 
 will appear that the term " licence jobber," 
 which is made use of in the evidence before the 
 police committee, very inadequately describes 
 tlic Magistrate, who inxents, maintains, and acts 
 on false principles for the purpose of protecting 
 and pei-pctuating the interests of owners of in- 
 famous pu1)]ic houses. Each of these houses is 
 j)roductive of as mucli positive evil to the com- 
 munity as a shop for receiving stolen goods ; 
 and it is dillicult to imagine by what kind of 
 reasoning a Magistrate, who by sucli means pro- 
 tects sucli houses at a licensing session, can be 
 shown to be more ies])ectal)Ie or k'ss cTiminnl 
 than the unprincipled publican or llic recei\er. 
 The corrupt Magistrate, whose conscience is the 
 same, whose sordid motives are the same, and 
 the consequences ol" whose misconduct are the 
 same, is only a more degraded being, and a 
 greater pest to society, inasmuch as his opcr- 
 
 I
 
 114 
 
 ations are more extensive wlien lie l)cconies tlie 
 guardian genius of these seminaries for " black- 
 guards, vice, and plunderers ;" and yet from 
 Townsend's blun uncourtly evidence before 
 the Police Committee, it does seem that such 
 Magistrates have existed in times past, and 
 that they have had the assurance to seat them- 
 selves amona: honourable men. This is an evil 
 for which, as it may again occur, a remedy should 
 be provided. A few severe examples, whenever 
 such instances of misconduct present them- 
 selves, would purify the magistracy and raise it 
 to its proper elevation in the public opinion, by 
 depriving the haters of authority of a fertile 
 and favourite theme. If there are persons who 
 believe that tiie public respect is best secured 
 by hushing up the misconduct of individual 
 magistrates on any occasion, they discredit the 
 commission of which the authority and dignity 
 are to be upheld, by means widely differing from 
 the expedient of base connivance ; and they 
 evince a total ignorance of the actual state of 
 things, if they imagine that victualling houses 
 can be protected from the legal consequences 
 of misconduct without exciting the marked at- 
 tention and reprobation of the public, and 
 bringing disgrace on the magistracy. The esta- 
 blished church of England loses no portion of 
 the public respect by having its peculiar courts, 
 in which enquiries respecting the alleged mis- 
 conduct of its ministers are publicly carried on :
 
 11.5 
 
 the army and tlie navy have their pubhc courts- 
 martial. But the magistracy possesses within 
 itself no means of protecting its own honour ; 
 for every one must be aware that the proceed- 
 ing by criminal information is rarely practicable, 
 and only under very peculiar circumstances, 
 from the difficulty of clearly establishing the 
 corrupt motive, and the shelter which may be 
 found in the pretences of honest ignorance, mis- 
 apprehension, or the neglect of a clerk. It 
 would be manifestly inconvenient to give the 
 Court of General Quarter Session the power of 
 revising every licence decision ; but that Court 
 might, and ought to have the power of appointing 
 committees to enquire into, and report on the 
 general principles by which the decisions are 
 regulated, es})ccially as it is obvious that the 
 ?,^V[\Q fundamental principles ought to govern 
 the decisions in every division of a county. To 
 this should be added a power to ascertain the 
 inventors of false principles, and the authors of 
 disgracefnl proceedings in any particular division, 
 with a view to their being reported to the proper 
 quarter, in order that the guilty may be struck 
 out of the commission, if the i-ircumstances 
 should require it. Such an encjuiry caiuiot be 
 condncted in tlie division in which (he abuses 
 take place, as their existence implies generally 
 a majority determined to supjjort them in that 
 division, and the individuals of the opposing 
 
 I '2
 
 IIG 
 
 party are more proper to be made witnesses 
 than judges on such occasions. 
 
 3. The proofs disclosed before the poUce 
 committee, of the determination of certain Ma- 
 gistrates to protect certain houses, although 
 notoriously infamous, and the candid avowal of 
 an eminent brewer, that his firm retained li- 
 censing clerks as their agents to protect their 
 interests at licensing sessions, make it evident 
 that the eleventh clause of the act, which is 
 about to expire, requires some alteration when 
 it leaves the proceedings against the recog- 
 nizance for the third offence in the discretion of 
 the licensing Magistrates, and declares that their 
 clerk shall conduct those proceedings. It is 
 evident from the police reports that the parish 
 officers ought to possess a similar power to pro- 
 ceed independently of the licensing Magistrates 
 or their clerk, as in the case of brothels ; and if 
 they establish their facts, the expence should be 
 thrown on the county and not on the parish, for 
 it is quite certain that the thieves and vaga- 
 bonds who are formed and cherished in infamous 
 public houses do not confine their depredations 
 to the parish in whicli their haunt is situated. 
 An infamous public house extends its malignant 
 influence to society at large, and parish officers 
 may be deterred from coming forward if the ex- 
 pence is to be borne by their individual parish. 
 
 4. The discussions and proceedings of li- 
 censing Magistrates should be public, and their
 
 117 
 
 reasons for granting or witlihohUng licences 
 should be stated openly : for it may be taken as 
 a certain nde, that a Magistrate who is capable 
 of protecting particular interests, is equally ca- 
 pable of oppressing individuals who are not con- 
 nected with those interests. 
 
 5. Tliere can be no doubt that tiic conse- 
 quences of the first and second offences against 
 the " tenor of the licence," were intended to 
 follow and attach to the licence until its expir- 
 ation at the end of the year; and that the 
 scheme of obliteratinc; the efllect of antecedent 
 offences by a transfer, is a mere artifice to defeat 
 the intentions of the legislature. But it might 
 be useful to state in direct terms that the first 
 and second offences follow the licence, notwith- 
 standing a transfer, and the convictions should 
 be reported to and recorded by the clerk of 
 the licensing Magistrates, for the inspection at 
 all reasonable times of persons intending to pur- 
 chase a transfer to j^rotect them from imposition. 
 Magistrates and courts of justice should be di- 
 rected to certify to the licensing clerk any in- 
 stance of misconduct in a publican that may 
 transpire in the course of a trial or examination, 
 who should record the same. 
 
 ('). Complaints for the first and second offences 
 should only be heard at the public police offices, 
 and magistrates should be prohibited from hold- 
 ing private pelly sessions in the mdropolilan 
 divisions lor such purposes; 1 lie complaint for 
 
 1 3
 
 the tliirtl ollencc should also be carried to lite 
 magistrates at the police offices, who should be 
 authorized and directed to bind over the parish 
 officers to prosecute. 
 
 7. The act declares that the production ol" 
 the recognizance before a jury in proceeding lor 
 the third offence, shall be sufficient evidence of 
 the party being a licensed victualler, but it does 
 not say whether general notoriety, or what other 
 evidence is to be considered sufficient in pro- 
 ceedings for the first and second offences. A 
 certificate from the clerk of the peace would be 
 good evidence on these occasions. 
 
 8. Care should be taken to limit the power oi' 
 two magistrates to re-open an house on its be- 
 coming unoccupied (which is given by the 6th 
 clause of the act), to cases where there appears 
 to have been no misconduct on the part of the 
 former tenant, otherwise in desperate cases the 
 publican will abscond, and leave the house un- 
 occupied, in order to give an opportunity for 
 the obtaining of a licence to a new tenant, on 
 pretence that the house has become unoccupied. 
 Indeed, as the clause now stands, it would be 
 almost useless to send a publican to the sessions, 
 lor the owner of the house, on its being shut up 
 and becoming unoccupied, could immediately 
 bring forward another man to go on as before ; 
 a practice on the part of owners which is proved 
 in evidence before the police committee to be 
 very frequent in the metropolitan divisions. An 
 
 »7
 
 Ill) 
 
 owner of tiiis description will not even nicur the 
 expence of defending his former man of straw ; 
 and he will be amply compensated for the short 
 time the house may be unoccupied, by the su- 
 perior profits of a profligate public-house. 
 
 9. The Magistrates should be obliged to visit 
 and view all new houses before they are licensed, 
 and all the houses in each division should be 
 visited once e\ery year. And the clerk of each 
 metropolitan division should be directed to pro- 
 vide for the use of all county Magistrates who 
 may require it, a printed book containing a list 
 of all the public-houses in the division, specify- 
 ing the sign of the house and situation, with a 
 blank column for remarks, the expence of print- 
 ing the same to be paid out of the county rate. 
 
 10. The right of Magistrates to attend licens- 
 rng meetings out of their divisions, is indisput- 
 able, but it should be expressed in direct terms. 
 A doubt has been raised, whether more good 
 than evil might not arise from the exercise of 
 this right, as it has been said tliat brewers and 
 builders might bring up a majority of interested 
 Magistrates, and overwhelm an honourable bench 
 weak in numbers ; and it is certainly true, that 
 while the patronage remains in the metropolitan 
 divisions, in the hands of Magistrates, the task of 
 attemjiting to prevent abuses is almost hopeless. 
 I5iit the fruits of the old plan are sufficiently 
 disclosed in the police reports, where an inlcl- 
 ligent Magistrate declares in lii> evidence, that
 
 120 
 
 " no cliaiige can be for the worse ;'* anil the 
 experiment is wortli trying. Tlie presence of 
 a few county Magistrates, although in a mino- 
 rity, would operate as a check ; and the patro- 
 nage is so enormous in the metropolitan divi- 
 sions, that it never could have been intended to 
 be reserved for a few individuals. Besides, the 
 practice already obtains in a partial extent ; 
 it will be seen by referring to the Minute of the 
 proceedings in Barton's case, that there were 
 present on that occasion three or four Magis- 
 trates who do not even reside in the county. 
 These gentlemen, it is understood, receive re- 
 gular notices of the Newington licensing ses- 
 sions. It should be provided, however, that no 
 Magistrate should be allowed to vote for the 
 grant of a new licence, unless he had gone 
 round with the Magistrates on the previous view 
 day, to ascertain the wants of the neighbour- 
 hood. The month of September is by no means 
 a convenient month for this' important business, 
 when so many independent Magistrates are 
 absent on excursions. 
 
 11. The evil of allowing public-houses to be 
 open until church time on Sunday mornings, is 
 incalculable ; but if that practice is to be con- 
 tinued, as the house must be cleared suddenly, 
 a serious penalty should attach to any refusal to 
 withdraw on the request of the publican, who 
 is frequently defied by his half-intoxicated 
 guests. The ])ari,sh officers with the constable,
 
 1'21 
 
 or witliout him, should be empowered to enter 
 victualling houses during the church hours, to 
 see that there are no guests in back rooms, &c. 
 But these and all other regulations will be of no 
 avail, unless the coffee shops and places for the 
 sale of British wines, are subjected to the same 
 penalties as public-houses. At present the pro- 
 fligate only withdraw from victualling houses 
 during church hours, to revel with impunity in 
 those retreats. 
 
 12. The obligations imposed on a victualler 
 are recited in the Magistrate's licence, but this 
 is taken away from him at the excise office; 
 and there may be objections against altering 
 that practice. The Court of General Quarter 
 Session should be empowered to draw up ge- 
 neral rules and regulations for the conduct of 
 public-houses throughout the county, and to 
 order them to be put up in the tap room of each 
 public-house, and also in the bar, in the most 
 conspicuous places. There should be a penalty 
 for defacing or hiding them, and when defaced 
 the pubhcan should be bound to renew them. 
 They should be given with the licence, at the 
 expence of the publican. These rules should 
 be directed to be settled at the Midsummer Ses- 
 sions, and annually confirmed or revised there. 
 The hours of shutting up, and such other re- 
 gulations as vary according to the local circum- 
 stances, might be left blank, to be filled up by
 
 12'i 
 
 the M agist rates asscmhlccl in the division where 
 the licence is granted. 
 
 1^. The word " sedentary'* should be struck 
 out before the word " games,'* in the recog- 
 nizance and licence. Public-houses are in- 
 tended for rest and refreshment, and they should 
 not be allowed to attract and detain labouring 
 men and mechanics by games of any descrip- 
 tion. The skittle-grounds in London and its 
 neighbourhood, attached to public-houses, have 
 ruined thousands of the lower class of trades- 
 men and journeymen, who there fall into the 
 worst of company, and are drawn away from 
 their families and from industrious habits. It 
 is true, that some Magistrates interested in the 
 imlimited consumption of intoxicating liquors, 
 have been heard to vindicate these sources of 
 temptation by the cant phrase, that '* the upper 
 classes have their amusements, and that it would 
 be hard to deprive the poor man of his j'* and 
 have wished on this plea to leave the poor heed- 
 less mechanic to tipple and waste his time among 
 thieves and sharpers, not for his benefit, cer- 
 tainly. It is also true, that sordid men, who are 
 willing to grow rich by inducing the poor man 
 to neglect his home and to starve his wife and 
 children, by placing temptation in his way, have 
 been known to represent those who are anxious 
 to preserve the morals, the health, and the hap- 
 piness of the lower classes, as their . greatest
 
 enemies ; but the plain tact is, that although 
 these amusements may be harmless and proper 
 for those who are at leisure, in places wholly 
 unconnected with public-houses, they become, 
 when so connected, in the highest degree in- 
 jurious to society, and they are altogether fo- 
 reign to the intention of a victualling house. 
 
 14. Any engagement by which a publican 
 is directly or indirectly bound to take his liquors 
 of a particular person, should be declared null 
 and void ; and the Magistrates in all such cases, 
 on proof of the fact, should be compelled to 
 remove the licence to another house. 
 
 1.5. The Magistrates should enquire of the 
 })ublican on oath, whether he is or has been 
 under any such obligation, before they grant a 
 licence or renew^al. 
 
 lO. The person who applies for a licence 
 should be made to state w^hether he means bond 
 Jide to keep and continue in the house : it is 
 a common practice to take a house and force a 
 trade by iniquitous means (even that of giving 
 prostitutes gin gratuitously, on condition of their 
 bringirfg men to drink), with a view to make a 
 profit by selling the good-will, as it is termed. 
 
 17. No clerk to the licensing Magistrates 
 should be allowed to be in any way concerned 
 in the obtaining or transferring of licences ; this 
 is a great abuse, and converts the clerk into an 
 atrcnt, to blind and misltaci, instead of assisting; 
 and niformiiig the licensing magistrates.
 
 124 
 
 18. The act should be limited to three years 
 duration, as it will probably be found neces- 
 sary to remove the licensing patronage altogether 
 out of the hands of Magistrates in the metro- 
 politan divisions, which is the only effectual 
 remedy. Tlie above suggestions are merely 
 offered as palliatives.
 
 1^25 
 
 May 14, 1825. 
 In consequence of the assertion of a Magis- 
 trate at the late Reigate Session, that the observ- 
 ations made on Barton's affair at Kingston, im- 
 phed a reflection on the late Mr. Harrison, the 
 public miglit be led to suppose that Mr. Har- 
 rison had connived at Barton's non-residence. 
 To meet this attempt to shift blame from the 
 living to those who can no longer speak for 
 themselves, this pamplilet has been altered and 
 reprinted ; and as it was reported that a similar 
 insinuation had been introduced into the case 
 laid before Mr. Denman, that case has been 
 sought out, and a copy of it is subjoined, with 
 a few remarks. 
 
 T. E. 
 
 CASE. 
 
 For the last six years Mr. John Barton has 
 been licensed to keep a pubHc-liousc, known as 
 the Horse and (iroom. Mount Row, Lambeth, 
 he having purcliased tlie lease, goods, fixtures, 
 &c. in 1818, and no coinj)l;unt lias at any time 
 been preferred respecting the conduct of the 
 house. 
 
 Tlic Magistrates having ap))ointed the 11th of 
 the present month lor a general meeting to re-
 
 1 en; 
 
 )ie\v licences, kc. Mr. Barton (as lias since been 
 tliscoveretl), had an intimation, tiiat an objec- 
 tion wonld be urged to liis having tlie Hcence 
 renewed, wliicli determined him to sell the 
 house, and a Mr. Clarke being desirous to pur- 
 chase, treated for it, first making inquiry wlie- 
 ther there was any objectionable matter likely 
 to affect the licence. And being uniformly as- 
 sured that the house was most orderly managed, 
 and that there was no complaint of any kind 
 against it, he became the purchaser at 20001. for 
 the lease and good-will, and to pay additionally 
 for the goods, fixtures, &c. amounting altogether 
 to near 30001. ; and on Mr. Clarke's taking pos- 
 session the licences were duly transferred into 
 Mr. Clarke's name. < 
 
 Mr. Clarke attended the Magistrates' meeting 
 on the 8th ; and having procured the requisite 
 certificate of his being a fit person, &c. he ex- 
 pected to receive a renewal of his licence as a 
 matter of course. But to his great mortification 
 and surprise, he found an objection had been 
 raised *, as if under the act of the third of the 
 present king, cap. 77* all the licences granted 
 to Barton since its passing, as well as previously, 
 were a nullity, upon the alleged ground, that 
 Barton at no period resided on the premises, and 
 consequently that no right could pass to Clarke 
 
 * This objection was not raised until the Silst. On the 
 8th there was no discussion.
 
 127 
 
 by Barton's transfer, altliougli Clarke was a bona 
 jide purchaser. And upon this objection the 
 Magistrates suspended the Ucence, and appointed 
 the 21st instant as an adjourned day, to hear the 
 parties, and determine on the subject. On 
 which day Barton, CU^rke, and a person named 
 Frampton, (Barton's deputy or servant), at- 
 tended, and they were respectively heard before 
 the Magistrates ; and after a lengthened discus- 
 sion, it is understood the majority of the magis- 
 trates retained an opinion that Barton's licence 
 was not a legal licence, he not living in the 
 house ; and, therefore, that no valid licence 
 could be granted to Mr. Clarke. Mr. Clarke 
 was called before the Magistrates after they had 
 deliberated, and informed that he could not have 
 the benefit of the licence, as Barton had not 
 resided in the house within the meaning of the 
 act and the licence. The form of the licence 
 is set forth in the schedule B. in the last page of 
 the printed act herewith left. 
 
 Since that resolution Mr. Clarke has been 
 officially informed by the clerk to the Magis- 
 trates, that some of the gentlemen having doubts 
 on the point, and being desirous that the matter 
 should be furtiier investigated and considered, 
 another meeting has been appointed for Wed- 
 nesday the 2fHh instant. 
 
 As far as Mr. Clarke has been able to dis- 
 cover, the loilowing is a correct statement of 
 facts, and sucii as it is ])elie\ed the Magistrates 
 liave acted upon.
 
 Barton is an auctioneer residing about one 
 hundred yards from the house in question, and 
 where he, with his famiK', have resided for the 
 last fifteen years and upwards. On completing 
 his purchase in 1818, he agreed with a person 
 named Frampton, who had been a publican 
 many years in the neighbourhood, to manage tlie 
 business, allowing him a certain weekly sum for his 
 trouble and exertions. Barton has occasionally 
 slept in the house, though not very often, thougli 
 he has daily visited the house, and has constantly 
 waited upon the excise officers on their attend- 
 ing to take stock, &c. All the beer, spirits, and 
 wine, &c., had from first to last, have been de- 
 bited to Barton by brewers and distillers, &c. 
 But Frampton by some means has been rated to 
 the poor assessment as the actual occupier of the 
 house : but whether such rating has been at 
 the instance of Barton or Frampton, or whether 
 the parish officer has inadvertently inserted 
 Frampton's name, is not known, nor has it trans- 
 pired how long Frampton's name has appeared 
 in the rate books. It is grievously hard on the 
 part of Mr. Clarke that his property should be 
 all put to hazard, and himself ruined by any ir- 
 regularity or misconduct of Barton or Frampton, 
 of which he was wholly ignorant ; it is at the 
 same time a most favourable feature and evinces 
 great consideration, that the Magistrates should 
 concur in holding another meeting within the 
 time limited by the act ; but the case is a novel 
 one, and tlie objection, if it be an objection, ex-
 
 istecl Jive years since wilh as much force as 7iow: ; 
 and if it now prevail it is feared Mr. Clarke will 
 be without remedy ; his i^rotection has been 
 'virtually guaranteed by the Magistrates them- 
 selves, by their grant or renewal of the licence, as 
 well since as previous to the existi?ig or governing 
 act. The act itself does not enjoin personal 
 residence, unless the form of the licence, Sche- 
 dule B, warrants such an interpretation by the 
 words, " that the person licensed shall sell in the 
 house wherein he now dwelleth, and not else- 
 where.'* In the present case there is no charge 
 for selling elsewhere, and as to residence, the 
 question is, whether, if it be indispensable, it has 
 not legally taken place by Barton, by his ap- 
 pointnig Frampton his general servant in the 
 business, by Barton's constant daily attendance 
 at the house, his sole liability, his occasional 
 sleeping there, and his general place of abode 
 being so contiguous, notwithstanding Framp- 
 ton's being rated. 
 
 It is observable that the first section of the act 
 expressly excuses the personal attendance of the 
 victualler, in case of ill health, although the 
 prior i)a]t of the clause as expressly requires 
 personal attendance. And the sixth section not 
 only authorises the continuing licences to exe- 
 cutors, &c., but also to persons holding transfers 
 of licences from the persons licensed, (and it is 
 submitted Clarke does in this case,) on removal 
 from or yieldijig up possession of such house, &c. 
 
 K
 
 180 
 
 As to executors, they are generally engaged in 
 different occupations, and reside at a consider- 
 able distance from each other, as well as from the 
 licensed house. 
 
 Your opinion is therefore requested whether 
 under the particular circumstances stated, what- 
 ever may be the general construction on the 
 point of non-residence, the purchaser, Mr. Clarke, 
 is not under the sixth clause, or otherwise le- 
 gally entitled to a renewal of the licence ; and 
 if so, and the magistrates at their approaching 
 final meeting determine otherwise, what remedy 
 may be open to Mr. Clarke for redress. 
 
 I am of opinion that the licence granted to 
 Mr. Barton was valid, considering residence as 
 no indispensable requisite to its validity, but a 
 part only of the description, which is complete 
 indeed without it, when the situation and sign of 
 the house licensed have been already set forth. 
 But even if the licence was de jure insufficient, I 
 am of opinion that as it existed de facto no en- 
 quiries into its legality can be now made, and 
 that the provisions of the seventeenth section 
 would be perverted to an oppressive purpose, 
 never contemplated by the legislature, if such a 
 claim as Mr. Clarke's were liable to be defeated 
 by the subsequent discovery of facts which might 
 have been known when the licence was ori- 
 ginally granted. 
 
 Lincoln's Imi, T. DenmAN'. 
 
 Sepfemhrr 28, I 824,,
 
 131 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 It" residence is unnecessary the same man may 
 be licensed as a publican in every county in 
 Encfland. How it could have been known when 
 the licence was originally granted that Barton 
 would not reside docs not appear. This opinion, 
 which is dated only the day before the meeting 
 on the 29th, appears to have been obtained at 
 the last moment on a statement wholly different 
 from that which it was resolved should be fairly 
 prepared and laid before Mr. Gurney, and Mr. 
 Gurney alone ; on which condition it is under- 
 stood, that one or two gentlemen were drawn in 
 at the dinner session to acquiesce in the mea- 
 sure. Who introduced this opinion at the meet- 
 ing on the 29th, or who was the chairman that 
 allowed it to be introduced and opposed to 
 the opinion of Mr. (nirney, is yet to be ascer- 
 tained, as the chairman is not named in the mi- 
 nute of that meeting. Whoever he was, it is not 
 easy to suppose that he was ignorant that the 
 case laid before Mr. Den man is a complete 
 tissue of falsehood, excepting that part which 
 states that Barton atl()i)tcd tlie expedient of a 
 sale in consecjuence of his own renewal being 
 objected to. The complaint was entered on the 
 27tli of August, and when Barton was ini()rmed 
 
 K 2
 
 of it, lie was probably told that the case, would 
 be heard on the 13th of September, as the day 
 was atlerwards altered to tiie 21st of Sejiteniber, 
 for the convenience of some of the Magistrates. 
 The general licensing was a])poiiited lor the 3d, 
 ()th, and 8th of September. Mr. Denman is 
 misled by the rej)resentation that Clarke was in 
 possession, and had obtained a transfer of the 
 licence into his own name before Mr. Lawson's 
 conii)laint was entered. If Clarke had obtained a 
 transfer irom tiie Magistrates on a previous trans- 
 fer day, it is obvious tiiat Mr. Lawson's complaint 
 against Barton's renewal would have been nuga- 
 tory, and our clerk wonld have stated the fact, 
 when the com})laint was received and entered. 
 When our clerk, Mr. Ware, brought on the subject 
 at the Tlnee Tims on the 3d of September, audit 
 was j)roposed to hear tlie case on the uth, with- 
 out waiting for Mr. Lawson's evidence, he pro- 
 duced and referred only to an agreement to sell. 
 The same scene took place again on the ()th of 
 September, and it now comes out that Clarke, 
 who it is pretended is in possession on a transfer, 
 never hears of these singular efforts that are 
 making on ///\ behalf, and is cpiite surprised 
 when he applies on the 8th for what is termed 
 his renewal, to find that ♦* his licence is not to be 
 •' renewed as a matter of course." Our clerk, 
 Mr. Ware, it seems is taking all this trouble, and 
 exposing himself to censure, for a man who lends 
 him the draft agreement on the ^d of Sep-
 
 133 
 
 tember, witliout being conscious of having done 
 so, and wlio until the 8th of September is igno- 
 rant of a complaint entered so far back as the 
 ii7th of August. Barton, it is pretended, is so 
 far away, that it can no longer be ascertained 
 how Frampton's name got into the rate book. 
 It is plain, that if this were true and Clarke were 
 any thing more than a man of straw set up by 
 Barton, he must have been in communication 
 with our clerk, Mr. Ware, at least as early as 
 the 3d of September, in order to put the agree- 
 ment into his hands, and he would then at all 
 events have had some intimation of the com- 
 plaint. But the fact is, that Barton was not far 
 away ; he was on the spot ; and the ignorance of 
 Clarke about all that was passing up to the 8th 
 can only be explained by the supposition that he 
 had very little interest in the matter. In the 
 next place, in order to account for the drawing 
 up of this case, our clerk, Mr. Ware, is repre- 
 sented as officially informing Mr. Clarke that 
 some of tlie Magistrates were doubtful of tlicir 
 decision, and it is further stated that they concur 
 in hohiing anotlicr meeting. The Magistrates 
 who reiiised tiie renewal did not concur in any 
 such stej) ; and if they had doubted and con- 
 curred, it wouhl have been quite time enough 
 after they had privately met and determined 
 that they were wrong, to have made the change 
 of oj)inioM known to Mr. Clarke: they certainly 
 could not want his assistance to enable them to
 
 131 
 
 read Mr. Ciunicv's opinion. But in iact tliere 
 is no trace of the clerk luiving been directed to 
 make any such premature and extraordinary 
 official communication. The statement that 
 Barton was in constant daily attendance is 
 contrary to the evidence before the Magis- 
 trates, and would lead Mr. Denman to imagine 
 that Barton did the constant daily duties of 
 the public house, and that he only did not 
 sleep there. * The lines printed in italics 
 imply that the Magistrates had been in the pre- 
 ceding year apprised of the non-residence of Bar- 
 ton. This is a foul calumny on the Magistrates 
 who refused the renewal, and on the memory of 
 our late most upright chairman, Mr. Harrison, 
 for which the introducer of this case and opinion 
 at the meeting must be held responsible, as much 
 so, as the gentleman who at the late Reigate 
 Session stated in direct terms that the observ- 
 ations made at Kingston conveyed a censure on 
 Mr. Harrison, Surely, Barton's affair was quite 
 serious enough, and did not stand in need of 
 this aggravation : it had been already observed 
 that no man's honour is safe under the present 
 system ; but this misrepresentation of one who 
 lies silent in his grave was not expected. Why 
 
 * Barton, of course, had his own business to attend to. 
 The evidence was, that he often went to the public house 
 in an evening, and sat with other persons in the parlour — but 
 sometimes in the bar. Frampton, who Mr. Lawson states 
 has lobt his own licence for misconduct, was the acting 
 publican.
 
 135 
 
 should Mr. Harrison, who lived at Streatham, 
 even imagine the non-residence of a man in 
 Mount Street, who, it appears always con- 
 trived to show himselt" to the excise officers, and 
 who would, no doubt, have done the same if 
 the magistrates had been accustomed to make 
 formal visits to the old public houses? Why 
 should Mr. Harrison conceive the thought that 
 among 830 publicans, Barton in particular was 
 deceiving the bench ? No doubt Mr. Harrison 
 relied on the clerk of our division, who lived on 
 the spot, to make these discoveries, and report 
 them to him ; and as it is clear from circum- 
 stances that he received no such information 
 from Mr. Ware, it is but candid to suppose, 
 ^ until the contrary can be shown, that our clerk 
 himself was not apprized of the fact. While 
 Mr. Harrison lived, no man would have dared 
 to venture an insinuation to which his whole 
 life was a contradiction ; and even now that he 
 is dead, it is to be hoped that many yet remain 
 among us, who will not allow his unblemished 
 reputation to be cut up and converted into a 
 shield for his opponents. 
 
 THE END.
 
 London : 
 
 Printed by A. & U. Spottibwoode, 
 
 New- Street- Square.