The ancient regulations which the aleconners were appointed to carry into effect appear to have been dictated by a regard to public health; but in modern times, when ale and beer had become exciseable commodities, the restrictions and provisions introduced from time to time had for their object principally the security of the revenue and the convenient collection of duties. [ADULTERATION.] ALE-FOUNDER. [ALE-CONNER.] ALEHOUSES. By the common law of England, a person might open a house for the sale of beer and ale as freely as he might keep a shop for the purpose of selling any other commodity; subject only to a criminal prosecution for a nuisance if his house was kept in a disorderly manner, by permitting tippling or excessive drinking, or encouraging bad company to resort thither, to the danger and disturbance of the neighbourhood. But in course of time this restriction was found to be insufficient; and in the eleventh year of the reign of Henry VII. (1496) an act was passed "against vacabounds and beggers" (11 Hen. VII. c. 2), which contained a clause empowering two justices of the peace "to rejecte and put awey comen ale selling in tounes and places where they shall think convenyent, and to take suertie of the keepers of ale-houses of their gode behavyng by the discrecion of the seid justices, and in the same to be avysed and aggreed at the tyme of their sessions." This slight notice of the subject in the statute 11 Henry VII. c. 2, seems to have been entirely disregarded in practice; and a statute passed in 1552 (5 & 6 Edward VI. c. 25) recites that "intolerable hurts and troubles to the commonwealth of this realm doth daily grow and increase through such abuses and disorders as are had and used in common alehouses and other houses called tipplinghouses," and power was given to two justices to forbid the selling of beer and ale at such alehouses; and it was enacted that none should be suffered to keep alehouses unless they were publicly admitted and allowed at the sessions, or by two justices of the peace; and the justices were directed to take security, by recognizances, from all keepers of alehouses, against the using of unlawful games, and for the

maintenance of good order therein; which recognizances were to be certified to the quarter-sessions and there recorded. Authority is then given to the justices at quarter-sessions to inquire whether any acts have been done by alehouse-keepers which may subject them to a forfeiture of their recognizances. It is also provided that if any person, not allowed by the justices, should keep a common alehouse, he might be committed to gaol for three days, and, before his deliverance, must enter into a recognizance not to repeat his offence; a certificate of the recognizance and the offence is to be given to the next sessions, where the offender is to be fined 20s. This statute formed the commencement of the licensing system, and was the first act of the legislature which placed alehouses expressly under the control and direction of the local magistrates; and alehouses continued to be regulated by its provisions, without any further interference of the legislature, for upwards of fifty years.

In 1604 a statute was passed (2 Jac. I. c. 9) expressly, as the preamble states, for the purpose of restraining the “inordinate haunting and tippling in inns, alehouses, and other victualling houses." This act of parliament recites, that "the ancient, true, and principal use of such houses was for the lodging of wayfaring people, and for the supply of the wants of such as were not able, by greater quantities, to make their provision of victuals, and not for entertainment and harbouring of lewd and idle people, to spend their money and their time in lewd and drunken manner;" and then enacts" that any alehouse-keeper suffering the inhabitants of any city, town, or village, in which his alehouse is situated (excepting persons invited by any traveller as his companion during his abode there; excepting also labourers and handicraftsmen, on working-days, for one hour at dinner time to take their diet, and occasional workmen in cities, by the day, or by the great (by the piece), lodging at such alehouses during the time of their working), to continue drinking or tippling therein, shall forfeit 10s. to the poor of the parish for each offence." From the exceptions introduced into this statute, and also from the preamble, it is

clear that, in the time of James I., it was common for country labourers both to eat their meals and to lodge in alehouses.

The operation of the last-mentioned statute was limited to the end of the next session of parliament, in the course of which a statute (4 Jac. I. c. 4) was passed, imposing a penalty upon persons selling beer or ale to unlicensed alehouse-keepers; and by another statute (4 Jac. I. c. 5) of the same parliament, it was enacted that every person convicted, upon the view of a magistrate, of remaining drinking or tippling in an alehouse, should pay a penalty of 3s. 4d. for each offence, and in default of payment be placed in the stocks for four hours." The latter statute further directs that "all offences relating to alehouses shall be diligently presented and inquired of before justices of assize, and justices of the peace, and corporate magistrates; and that all constables, ale-conners [ALE-CONNER], and other officers, in their official oaths shall be charged to present such offences within their respective jurisdictions."

The next legislative notice of alehouses is in the 7 Jac. I. c. 10, which, after reciting that "notwithstanding former laws, the vice of excessive drinking and drunkenness did more and more abound," enacts, as an additional punishment upon alehouse-keepers offending against former statutes, that, "for the space of three years, they should be utterly disabled from keeping an alehouse."

The 21 Jac. I. c. 7, declares that the above-mentioned statutes, having been found by experience to be good and necessary laws, shall, with some additions to the penalties, and other trifling alterations, be put in due execution, and continue for ever.

A short statute was passed soon after the accession of Charles I. (1 Car. I. c. 4), which supplied an accidental omission in the statutes of James; and a second (3 Car. I. c. 3) facilitates the recovery of the 208. penalty imposed by the statute of Edward VI., and provides an additional punishment, by imprisonment, for a second and third offence. At this point all legislative interference for the regulation and restriction of alehouses was suspended for more than a century.

The circumstances which led to the passing of the above-mentioned statutes in the early part of the reign of James I., and the precise nature of the evils alluded to in such strong language in the preambles, are not described by any contemporaneous writers. It appears, however, from the Journals, that these statutes gave rise to much discussion in both houses of parliament, and were not passed without considerable opposition. These laws rever appear to have produced the full advantage which was expected. During the reign of Charles I. the complaints against alehouses were loud and frequent. In the year 1635 we find the Lord Keeper Coventry, in his charge to the judges in the Star Chamber previously to the circuits, inveighing in strong terms against them. (Howell's State Trials, vol. iii. p. 835.) He says, "I account alehouses and tippling-houses the greatest pests in the kingdom. I give it you in charge to take a course that none be permitted unless they be licensed; and, for the licensed alehouses, let them be but a few, and in fit places; if they be in private corners and ill places, they become the dens of thieves-they are the public stages of drunkenness and disorder; in market-towns, or in great places or roads, where travellers come, they are necessary." He goes on to recommend it to the judges to "let care be taken in the choice of alehouse-keepers, that it be not appointed to be the livelihood of a great family; one or two is enough to draw drink and serve the people in an alehouse; but if six, eight, ten, or twelve must be maintained by alehouse-keeping, it cannot choose but be an exceeding disorder, and the family, by this means, is unfit for any other good work or employment. many places they swarm by default of the justices of the peace, that set up too many; but if the justices will not obey your charge herein, certify their default and names, and I assure you they shall be discharged. I once did discharge two justices for setting up one alehouse, and shall be glad to do the like again upon the same occasion."

In

During the Commonwealth, the complaints against alehouses still continued, and were of precisely the same nature as

those which are recited in the statutes of James I. At the London sessions, in August, 1654, the court made an order for the regulation of licences, in which it is stated that the "number of alehouses in the city were great and unnecessary, whereby lewd and idle people were harboured, felonies were plotted and contrived, and disorders and disturbances of the public peace promoted. Among several rules directed by the court on this occasion for the removal of the evil, it was ordered that "no new licences shall be granted for two years."

During the reign of Charles II. the subject of alehouses was not brought in any shape under the consideration of the legislature; and no notice is taken by writers of that period of any peculiar inconveniences sustained from them, though in 1682 it was ordered by the court, at the London sessions, that no license should in future be granted to alehouse-keepers who frequented conventicles. Locke, in his Second Letter on Toleration,' published in 1690, alludes to their having been driven to take the sacrament for the sake of their places, or 66 to obtain licences to sell ale."

The next act of parliament on the subject passed in the year 1729, when the statute 2 Geo. II. c. 28, § 11, after reciting that "inconveniences had arisen in consequence of licences being granted to alehouse-keepers by justices living at a distance, and therefore not truly informed of the occasion or want of alehouses in the neighbourhood, or the characters of those who apply for licences, enacts that "no licence shall in future be granted but at a general meeting of the magistrates acting in the division in which the applicant dwells." At this period the sale of spirituous liquors had become common; and in the statute which we have just mentioned a clause is contained, placing the keepers of liquor or brandy-shops under the same regulations as to licences as alehouse-keepers. The eagerness with which spirits were consumed at this period by the lower orders of the people in England, and especially in London and other large towns, appears to have resembled rather the brutal intemperance of a tribe of savages than the

habits of a civilized nation. Various evasions of the provisions of the licensing acts were readily suggested to meet this inordinate demand; and in 1733 it became necessary to enforce, by penalty, the discontinuance of the practice of "hawking spirits about the streets in wheelbarrows, and of exposing them for sale on bulks, sheds, or stalls." (See 6 Geo. II. c. 11.) From this time alehouses became the shops for spirits, as well as for ale and beer; in consequence of which their due regulation became a subject of much greater difficulty than formerly; and this difficulty was increased by the growing importance of a large consumption of these articles to the revenue. Besides this, all regulations for the prevention of evils in the management of alehouses were now embarrassed by the arrangements which had become necessary for the facility and certainty of collecting the Excise duties.

In 1753 a statute was passed (26 Geo. II. c. 31) by the provisions of which, with some trifling modifications by later statutes, the licensing of alehouses continued to be regulated for the remainder of the last century. This statute, after reciting that "the laws concerning alehouses, and the licensing thereof, were insufficient for correcting and suppressing the abuses and disorders frequently committed therein," contains, among others, the following enactments:-1. That upon granting a licence to any person to keep an alehouse, such person should enter into a recognizance in the sum of 10l. with sufficient sureties, for the maintenance of good order therein. 2. That no licence should be granted to any person not licensed the preceding year, unless he produced a certificate of good character from the clergyman and the majority of the parish officers, or from three or four respectable and substantial inhabitants, of the place in which such alehouse is to be. 3. That no licence should be granted but at a meeting of magistrates, to be held on the 1st of September in every year, or within twenty days afterwards, and should be made for one year only. 4. Authority is given to any magistrate to require an alehousekeeper, charged upon the information of

any person with a breach of his recognizance, to appear at the next quartersessions, where the fact may be tried by a jury, and in case it is found that the condition of the recognizance has been broken, the recognizance is to be estreated into the Exchequer, and the party is utterly disabled from selling ale or other liquors for three years.

By a statute passed in 1808 (48 Geo. III. c. 143) a difference was introduced into the mode of licensing, not with a view to the internal regulation of alehouses, but for purposes connected with the collection of the revenue. The licence, which was formerly obtained from the magistrates, was, by that act, to be granted by the commissioners, collectors, or supervisors of Excise, under certain specific directions, and upon the production by the applicant of a previous licence or allowance, granted by the magistrates, according to the provisions of the former statutes respecting licensing.

The next act of parliament upon this subject was passed in 1822 (3 Geo. IV. c. 77), but as that statute continued in operation for only a few years, it is unnecessary to specify its provisions further than to notice that the preamble states the insufficiency of the laws previously in force respecting alehouses, and that one of its provisions is considerably to increase the amount of the recognizances required both from the alehouse-keeper and his sureties.

1.

In 1828 a general act to regulate the granting of alehouse licences was passed (9 Geo. IV. c. 61), which repealed all former statutes on this subject, and enacts a variety of provisions, of which the following are the most important: Licences are to be granted annually, at a special session of magistrates, appointed and summoned in a manner particularly directed, and to be called the General Annual Licensing Meeting, to be holden in Middlesex and Surrey, within the first ten days of March, and in every other place between the 20th of August and the 14th of September. Any person who is refused a licence may appeal to the quarter-sessions; and no justice is to act in an appeal who was concerned in the refusal of the licence. 2. Every person in

tending to apply for a licence must affix a notice of his intention, with the name, abode, and calling of the applicant, on the door of the house which he wishes to open as an alehouse, and on the door of the church or chapel of the place in which it is situated, on three several Sundays, and must serve a copy of it upon one of the overseers, and one of the peace-officers. 3. If a riot or tumult happens, or is expected to happen, two justices may direct any licensed alehouse-keeper to close his house; and if this order be disobeyed, the keeper of the alehouse is to be deemed not to have maintained good order therein. 4. The licence is subjected to an express stipulation that the keeper of the house shall not adulterate his liquors; that he shall not use false measures; that he shall not permit drunkenness, gaming, or disorderly conduct in his house; that he shall not suffer persons of notoriously bad character to assemble therein; and that (except for the reception of travellers) he shall not open his house during divine service on Sundays and holidays. 5. Heavy and increasing penalties for repeated offences against the tenor of the licence are imposed; and magistrates at sessions are empowered to punish an alehouse keeper, convicted by a jury of a third offence against the tenor of his licence, by a fine of 100l., or to adjudge his licence to be forfeited.

Under the Metropolitan Police Act (2 & 3 Vict. c. 47), which under certain conditions may be extended to within fifteen miles of Charing Cross, all publichouses are to be shut on Sundays until one o'clock in the afternoon, except for refreshment of travellers; and publicans are prohibited from supplying distilled liquors to persons under sixteen years of age, under a penalty for the first, second, and third offences of 20l., 40l., and 50%. This latter clause does not appear to be enforced.

The closing of public-houses on Sunday mornings within the metropolitan police district has met with general approbation. Taking the average of the first five months in the years 1838-39, the total number of drunken persons apprehended on the Sunday by the police was 2301, and in the first five months after the new act

H

came into operation the number was 1328. The decrease was most marked in the police divisions situated in the centre of the metropolis. In the Holborn division it was 48 per cent.; in the Covent Garden division, 52 per cent.; and in the St. James's division, 79 per cent. (Statement of the Commissioners of Police, vol. iv., p. 268, of Journal of London Statistical Society.)

The next act of parliament which relates to the regulation of alehouses is the "act to permit the general sale of beer and cider by retail in England." (1 Will. IV. c. 64.) The following are the most material provisions of this statute:— 1. That any householder, desirous of selling malt liquor, by retail, in any house, may obtain an Excise licence for that purpose, to be granted by the Commissioners of Excise in London, and by collectors and supervisors of Excise in the country, upon payment of two guineas; and for cider only, on payment of one guinea. 2. That a list of such licences shall be kept at the Excise Office, which is at all times to be open to the inspection of the magistrates. 3. That the applicant for a licence must enter into a bond with a surety for the payment of any penalties imposed for offences against the act.

4.

That any person licensed under the act, who shall deal in wine or spirits, shall be liable to a penalty of 201. 5. That in cases of riot, persons so licensed shall close their houses upon the direction of a magistrate. 6. That such persons suffering drunkenness or disorderly conduct in their houses shall be subject to penalties which are to be increased on a repetition of the offences, and the magistrates before whom they are convicted may disqualify them from selling beer for two years. 7. That such houses are not to be open before four in the morning nor after ten in the evening, nor during divine service on Sundays and holidays.

The effect of the above statute is to withdraw the authority of granting licences to houses opened for the sale of ale, beer, and cider only, from the local magistrates, in whose hands it had been exclusively rested for nearly 300 years, and to supersede their direct and imme

diate superintendence and control of such houses. It creates a new class of alehouse keepers distinct from those who are licensed by the magistrates, and who only are called licensed victuallers. The consequence of the facility of obtaining licences upon a small pecuniary payment, and without the troublesome and expensive process directed by former statutes, was, as might be expected, a rapid and enormous multiplication of alehouses throughout the country.

But whatever might have been the state of these houses under the first Beer Act (1 Wm. IV. c. 64), there is no reason to believe that under existing acts they are now any worse than the licensed public-houses. By 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 85, the preamble of which recited that much evil had arisen from the management of houses in which beer and cider are sold by retail under 1 Wm. IV. c. 64, it was enacted that each beer-seller is to obtain his annual Excise licence only on condition of placing in the hands of the Excise a certificate of good character signed by six rated inhabitants of his parish, none of whom must be brewers or maltsters. Such a certificate is not to be required in towns containing a population of 5000 and upwards; but the house to be licensed is to be one rated at 107. a year. This act makes a difference between persons who sell a liquor to be drunk on the premises and those who sell it only to be drunk elsewhere.

By a Treasury order, beer sold at or under 1d. a quart may be retailed without a licence: the officers of Excise are empowered to enter such houses and to examine all beer therein.

The act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 61, amends both of the above acts. It provides that a licence can only be granted to the real occupier of the house in which the beer or cider is to be retailed; and it raises the rated value of such house to 157. in towns containing a population of 10,000 and upwards; in towns of betwixt 10,000 and 2500, to 117.; and in towns of smaller size the annual value is to be not less than 8l. Every person applying for a licence is to produce a certificate from the overseer of his being the real occupier of the house, and of the amount at which it is rated. A refusal