Final report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the operation and administration of the laws relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on the Liquor Licensing Laws
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Final report of Her Majesty's Commissioners appointed to inquire into the operation and administration of the laws relating to the sale of intoxicating liquors. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![transfer, renewal, and removal, and Mr. Martineau, Chairman of the Licensing Justices 10,278. in the Tower Division of London, agrees in thinking quarter sessions an excellent tribunal if a sufficient attendance can be secured. The Reverend Peter Thompson, however, superintendent of a Wesleyan mission in 33,977. East London, complains of the frustration of efforts at reform by the right of appeal to quarter sessions. Mr. Davies thinks that the appeal to quarter sessions is as strongly disapproved in 11,352, some rural districts as the appeal from the city to the county justices, on the ground, 11,355. among others, that the same party who is admitted to the lower court has no locus standi in the appeal courts. In North Wales, too, the grievance caused by the court of appeal is felt, where, in George, a small village of 350 inhabitants with four public-houses, two out of the four being 30,431, objected to, and a strong feeling being entertained for their abolition, the local Bench 30,685. refused the licenses. It is alleged that there was a collection of justices at the appeal court who are not often seen there; but whether this was produced by Canvassing or no, the appeal was allowed, and the two houses continue, though every year the inhabitants continue their opposition. Objection may be taken to any court of appeal, but Mr. Roundel] does not share 21,077. this view, confining his objection to the present tribunal as a court of appeal both from petty sessional and from borough justices. In 1895 the decision of Cheshire justices in the court below were upheld in 32 cases and reversed in 23, out of a total of appeals of 55. He quoted Parliamentary returns showing the number and nature of the decisions appealed against in various counties for 1894, and the cases in which the ground of refusal in the first court was that the house was not required. Though it is within the competence of the justices to refuse a renewal on the ground of non- requirement, the quarter sessions overruled many cases in which this ground formed a more or less predominant element in the refusal to renew. Th9 Benches of Cheshire have been overruled to an extraordinary extent, to such an extent, indeed, as to stultify the magistrates and paralyse the police. It is not the case that here and there a wrong- headed or perverse Bench has met with a rebuff, but the same thing has happened all over the county, and the inference is either that the petty sessional benches must be unfit to exercise original jurisdiction or there must be something wrong in the consti- tution of the quarter sessions. The paralysing effect of quarter sessions upon the local benches is also spoken to by 22,949. Mr. Stileman Gribbard in Bedfordshire. 4. Conclusion, It is a remarkable fact that quarter sessions as a court of appeal finds very few supporters outside the representatives of the licensed trade. It is clear that the present system has not generally worked satisfactorily. 5. Suggested Eefdrms* We now proceed to consider some reforms which have been suggested on the Subject of appeal generally, on limitations to the liberty of appeal, and on the question as to what should be the tribunal to which appeals should lie. (i.) Abolish Appeals, By the Church of England Temperance Society Bill, as explained to us by one of Howard, its Vice-Chairmen, appeal would be abolished altogether, while the conclusion of 66,095. Mr. Davies (Liverpool) is either to have no appeal at all from the general body 11,535. of justices or to have no appeal to justices outside who are not competent to judge. Lady Henry Somerset, who regards the present system of appeal as most 31.597. deleterious, would do away with a court of appeal, or substitute some other body in place of the existing tribunal. There are opinions in favour of abolishing appeal on matters of fact, and of 33,977. reserving appeals for points of law. i 98549. T 1](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21365027_0153.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
