The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1871-05-06 00:00:00

THE LICENSING BILL.

Lut Slturtiny afternoon a deputation, representing the
General Council end the van l coroml,ters ol the B,clety
Is the 0-sloisition of Charitable ltliei, welted upon Mr.
Bruce at the Hone Office, to urge upon his cenelderatton
entsGe,s relating to the I.2crusi. g Bill. Among thote orereht
were General Cavale,gh, Sir Charles Trevellan,'Sir Ituther•
foul A1,0,k, Mr D ',Hey Slh, the Itiv. Dr. alarnlng, C
the C.o. T. Wept, Mr. Itinton Turner, Mr. Aleagor Mil, Mr.
Hotchihsop, Mr. Bosanquek, and Mr. Aspinall

Gemral Cavanagh, who introduced the deputation,
dated that Lttera had been receind from Lord Derby
and th: Bishop of London, to' h of whom were coo-
with the Society, etating thet they word triable
to Le present or they would have bon with the
devr.nion:

kr Charles Trevelyan said the general obj 'ct of the
so i.ett, which the deputatien represented was to iin-
pr lye the centlition of the London poor, to redone and
reform the vect exceptional mass of ; auperirm and
deneinalisation ia London, and to render the poor of
L9afitAl, no for as posible, industrious, provident, self.
eupportine, noel eeif-reopecting. In the discharge of
this rlity the drinking habits of the Leaden poor had
conetently suet the society like a lion in the path, bre h
ii individual cairns and in more general sepeets. Ia
the caddy's report attention had been repeatedly
celled "to the excessive number of gin palaces, low
publichouees, and beerhuuses, which cense so much
trouble to our community by fostining intemperance
and crime, and by aggravating the poor rates, police
mime, and prison expenditure." Ad, again, "it Is a
significent fact that gin palaces and low pubachougte
most, abound in those parts of Loudon on behalf of
which the moat urgent appeals a'-e made for charitable
relief." If, said Sir Charlea, the places for the sale
of intoxicating liquors were too numerous elsewhere,
they were so in an extraordinary degree hi London,
and they were for beyond the largest estimate that
could be formed of the welds of the population ;
and they !Teethed to have been multiplied without any
idea of limitation. He pr iceeded to draw attention to
neighhourhoode in which there exist an overwhelming
number of publicthoueee. He pointed to the Knights.
bridge-road, between I.4l„zravia and Alberti*, as he
termed the new quaraer which arose under the awe Lea
of Prince Albert, and be enumerated particulars snow-
in; that the nun her of publichomes there was out of
all proportion to the wants of the locality. He then
referred to the still more striking instances of public-
-114.11,9 being in great abundance in districts where it
is well kuown exit poverty, crime, ignorance, and
idleneee, as the Seven Liebe Se Giles's, Bethnal-green,
as well &anther places at the East-cnd; and he peinted,
to', to Dunning' Wharf, Lower Tnames-street,
where six publichouses stand in a raw, four of them
actually next door to each other, as well as to
other placer, as gasworks and such like spots,
where there were working men, and where pub-
licheusea were superabundant. In the Seven
Diode there were no loss than twenty publichouses,
some of which were opposite to each other, and others
were et the ends of streets in the centre of the district,
and it had been ascertained that £52,000 was annually
spent in these Seven Dials' houses. causing indeectibable
misery in the district. Ihen, to look at the East-end
of London, a spot which has acquired an unhappy pre.
emin i ence n pauperism, in no spot in England was the
liquor treflic in a more flourishing state. Within one
square mile it had been found that there were 105
publiehouseeand the Fame number of beerhouree, taking,
on a veey moderate eetireate, £455,000 eeyear, while
the solinol fee of 2d. on every child amounted only to
1.:10,01et, or lees than 21 per cent, on the (trek account.
Anyone who went through the streets of the bleat-End
would see there the full effects of the national habit of
intoxication, and the sight was sufficient to make an
Emlishman &throned of his country. He mentioned
that at one part of Bethnal-green (St. Paul's) it was
proposed to build schools by public subscription, and
en examination of the plan showed that every corner
of the intended site was faced by a publichouse. The
condition of public morality among the "better"
class of the East-eud was a significant tact.
The communities of theme neighbourhoods seemed
to have lost all recuperetive power, and help must
come to them from without, but the degrading
yoke was being fixed upon their neck by the powerful
endeavours teeing made by the interested classed to pre-
vent the bill now before Parliament from paseing. Sir
Chores went on to plot out how the drink system and
poverty acted and re-acted on each other, the drink
causing the people bobs pauperiz ,d and the pauperized
population speeding their relief, whether charitable or
legal, in public-houses, the ielief in kind and in tickets
paining alike to the pub& home till, the publican
passing these again at a profit. The result of this
system was a laps-d, demoralized claw, deteriorate d
bath in mind and body, incapable of herd continuous
work, and the mortality set down to the account of
smallpox, fever, and other epidemics was in a great
deeree °wine to the predispesition miring from drink-
ing habits. The deputation gave their decided adhesion
the object of the bill, and they had come to express
their unanimous desire thet the bill should be effectual
UT its avowal end, and that without the delay of
another Session. The bodies+ and Houle of men were at
stake, and there could be no real hope of improvement
until this stumblingblock had been got out of the way.

Dr. Manning addressed himself t 3 the elucational
avect of the c_uestion, and be urged Mr. Bruce not to
relax his efforts bccause of the noisy clamour now being
rais,cl by the publicans. Those clamouring against the
bill formed a small portion of the community Com-
pared with those who desired to see a limitation placed
in the way of drinking, and none were more desirous
of seeing the law changed than those who suffered
from its present condition—the working classes, their
ives and children. This bill WM the first off ort to grasp
with a great evil, and they trusted Mr. Bruce would
not allow his constancy te be shaken by the interested,
noisy agitation out of doors. He suggested that the
ten }ears' &sore should give way to some speedier
means of extinguishing some of the superabundant
publichousev.
Mr. AH. Hill and Mr. Ve-ey spoke. The latter,
a public3n, exproosed the d,eire to Ste publichouses
dosed earlier on Saturday night. _ _ -

Other gentlemen desired to speak, but Mr. Bruce
spoke of his time being very limited then, and said
they were only spurring a willing horse. Be gave his
heartiest concurrence to every word which had been
sail as tl the neceonty for a metiaire of the character
of the Licensing BM, and they could not be more
desirous than he was himself to see the subject brought
to a successful issue daring the present Session. The

bill had been constructed with the special view of ob-
taining the objects rehired to—the limitation in the
number of drinking houses, and securities that such as
remained should be properly conducted. Though the
drawing up of the bill had involved a vast amount of
labour, both on his own part and on the part of those
who assisted him, be was not so wedded or committed
to the forms of the bill that he would not substitute
other provisions which would be more acceptable and
whit h would hasten the result he hopedto obtain. The
ten years' clause had not only met with a good deal of
opposition, and naturally enough,frotn the publicans, hut
it had also been opposed by theother extreme party, who
he thought, had failed to see the full effect which would
arise trim the working of the police clauses and the
clauses against adulteration, for with these workieg
the holders of a very large number of houses would
find it impossible to exist, and the registration on the
licences of all convictions would be a great guarantee of
good order. The advantage on the side of the depute.
tion of having the ten years' clause was that it gave the
Government of the country at the expiration of that
period, whatever that Governmentimight be, the power
of dealing at once with the question, without regard to
that most difficult of all questions called " vested
interests." At the same time he should be most
willing to consider any suggestions from any quarter to
attain the end by other effectual means. (Hear.) He
was constantly told in circulars and letters sent him
that the publicans were against the bill entirely, and
not only so, but the public also opposed it. He did
not believe that such was the opinion of the more
respectable publicans,, alai, though the "noisy
opposition" referred to would seem to indicate
that the whole powers of the body were to be
arrayed against the measure, he did not be.
beer that this would be practically the case,
for the respectable publicans would see that it was in
their interest that the number of drinking places should
bo limited, and that securities should be taken for the
good conduct of those which remained. He spoke
hopefully, therefore, respecting the passage of the bill
this Seseion. This was not a party question, and
although a notice of motion against the biU had been
given by a member of the Opposition, he could not be-
lieve that the Conservative classes, who took so deep
an interest in questions of the religious and moral
improvement of the people, would be found arrayed
against the Goverment in this honest endeavour to
meet a long-existing difficulty. The diffi *olden if this
Session were extremely great, as every one could see.
Circumstances had forced the Government to take up .
measures which had attracted a great deal of public
attention, and had occupied a great deal of public time.
But though the Government had this pressure upon
them, he could assure those before him that the Govern-
ment were most desirous of palming this measure this
Session, and they felt it was a neceesary supplement to
the Education Bill. (Cheers.)
The deputation thanked the Minister and withdrew.
_
LINES TO ROBERT LOWE.

',Mend Bob, with Budget Red,
vents, taxation spread.
Partially laid on, it galls
Those on whom alone it falls
With an incidence unfair.
Tax you but those whom you dare,
Currying favour with the Mob?
Nay ! To do that were, sweet Bob
For the sake of Place, to rob—Pum:h..