The licensing laws and proposals for their amendment : (from "Meliora," April, 1869).
- Date:
- [1869]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The licensing laws and proposals for their amendment : (from "Meliora," April, 1869). Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![all persons, that laws which permitted such evils to exist as were seen in Liverpool, required amendment, and a joint committee of the borough magistrates and town council prepared a bill which was introduced, as we stated above, by the local members, but, meeting with Govern¬ ment opposition, based on technical grounds, it was with¬ drawn, on an implied understanding that the ministry would take up and deal with the whole question as soon as possible. The Liverpool Licensing Bill, which the Licensed Victuallers’ Guardian described as f seeking the hateful condition of Liverpool all over the kingdom, and making unusual efforts to swamp the respectable tradesmen, to ruin their property, and lower them in the social scale, as [sic] to convert the whole country into a similar fearful Eblis of misery and crime/ would perhaps meet with more lenient criticism at the hands of less interested critics. Its chief objects were to secure uniformity in the issue of licences, combined with restrictions that should by degrees lessen the number of houses and at once diminish the hours during which the sale could be carried on. The advantages were to be obtained by the immediate repeal of the Excise licensing powers, and by making the magistrates the sole licensing authority. The varying manner of the exercise of their discretion was to be put an end to by making it obligatory upon the bench to grant licences whenever certain conditions were complied with by the applicants. In order that the number of houses might not under such a rule be too much increased, a high rental was demanded for every house seeking a licence, and a largely increased fee was required, a certain amount of which was to be paid to the authorities ol the locality, in aid of police expenses. A local veto was proposed to be given, by which three-fourths of the inhabitants and owners of adjacent pro¬ perty would be able to prevent the issue of new licences. A small reduction in the licence fee was to be made to such publicans as would consent to keep their houses closed on Sundays, and various increased restrictions were to be imposed upon the dealer in intoxicating drinks. One clause in the bill was inserted to quieten the fears of the present holders of licences,—they were to have fourteen years' grace before the increased fees were to be demanded of them, but they were immediately to come under the police regulations imposed by the bill. There can be no doubt that a system such as that sketched in the Liverpool bill would in very many places be a vast improvement upon the present chaos. The increased rating or rental demanded would amply counteract the evil caused by](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30569588_0010.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
