The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1869-03-23 00:00:00

erorrtsponbenct.

HISTORY OP THE LICENSING SYSTEIL

To the Editor.

Perlienmeet is span amkel to revise the
Liesester Systems ; the Fremont time is, themetome,
galtablis lot rseeming this sketch al retsiish liquor
laws.

• In the reign of Charles I (1685), Lord Coventry, in
addressing the Indigos, said :—" 1 aeons* sle.boitase
sod tipplies•booms the grimiest pests in the kingdom.
Phlairrhoesee are the public st.gee of drunkenness tied
disorder." Correstive insainure were tried, but they
were partial and powerless.
The Perlin= and the Long Parliament did not mood
matte's when, in MIA they enforced the Act of
Junes 1, requiring a quart of Wong ale to be sold ter
• penny. lb. Btete beam farther compromised by
keying excise ditties apes intoxicants.
Daring the Restoratade (1860) the drinking dens were
the stones of shameless profligacy; yet Parliament did
nothing. Ooe member (Mr. Stevens) advocated a law
" againet drinking of healths" ; but he foun3 no
supporter.
Times of wit and NI et 11411117110114 exchequer are
tudaronrable to amid reform and the reduction of
taxation. In the reigns Of William and Mary, then of
William slope, and afterwards of Anse, the making
and selling of ardent spirits was ethoulated in order to
Immo, the revenue. 'Metals++ were permitted to sell
spirita withont a Baena, if they did not permit
"titivate on their premises. Vaudois iamossed it in
amain rate. Maitland, in 1125, estimated that gin
woe sold at every sixth hones in Loodon. The eon-
emotriian of this Ilery drink increased In forty yaws
(WM to 1724) from 634,000 pillow to 3,590,000 gallons.
'Horrible abase/Wry molted, and higher duties were
thee imposed, with farther netriotivirjegialation. .
amparth, in his " Gin.lans" end '' Baretresk,
taught that fermeeled liquors were comparatively
Wonder, and this popular delesioe led to that Im.
portal', altereSies of the Lieeesing System, the Bess
Ad, whisk was pawed in the soppieed Interests of
sobriety. but Ilea boded Baglaod and Wales with
Intumescence. This Act wee weed in 1830, and for
' more than a leisoralioo it has been • übiquitous tempts.
i Moe to mama The Beer Lot now is universal
i coodemool, and is codein to be ROOD repealed or
modified. Lord Brearhant, one of its promoters, in.
trained a hill to stop driakios "on the premien" :
but the meows did not reach the House ef Commons.
Mr. Gladstone's Wine License Act of 1880 was
hawked a another improvement of the Lioltinl
System; it is believed, however, to have
, mischief; so have the "occasional Uoencea." 7%0
Niche Claim AP of 1864 A ham worked well.
The Alia sufferers from the present licensing MIKA
are the working sham ; and eoesequestly. they ire
WO lo Ateear of Sir Wilfrid Lawson's Permian,
pivki
Liquor Bill, the aim Rik* is
aimed reeding of '
Azad fee. This s wears Is epplisoblo _te
/itici Mntif
the whole the United Kispdom, sad it "US
Mess% by scapeweeing • majority of tereatirds
of the inhabitants ef say parish or district to step the
lane of Baleen for the sad of Littozientiog drinks; in
short, it catboat* Mr. Gledskom's Idea of "lend
option."
Manobeeter. HENRY PITMAN.