The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-04-24 00:00:00

• The Annual Amu'

TO TIIE EDITOR 01")

HE BRITISH PRESS.

SIR.— It gives me unfeigned pleasure to see liberalism
takit,g its seat in the Cabinet, in the persons of Mr. Can-
Mug and the Chancellor of the Exchem r, to whom I may
add the Earl of Liverpool. I hail this as the harbinger of •
a happier as in the history of the country, and as the
auspicious dawn of a brighter period of prosperity, than we
have hitherto experienced. In the conduct of human af-
fairs, I would rather Iyhold the superior intelligence of the
4:averment illuminating the people, than the illumination
of the people slowly and laboriously insinuating itself into
the measures ot• the Gov( milita. The present Session of
Parliament, as far as it has hitherto proceeded, has exhi-
-I•itesl the majority of the English Cabinet, not as the per-
tinacious devote, s to the system of commercial monopoly
and restriction, Lut as friends to the most enlarged and un-
restr tied intercourse between man and man in all parts of
the world.

In the mixed state of human affairs it is hardly possible
to change from a bad system to a better, or from a nai row-
minded muse of policy to one of a more generous kind,
whether at home or abroad—whether in our domestic or our
foreign relations, without producing much partial calamity
sad inflicting much individual injury.
Under the syst:m of monopoly and privilege, great in-
terests will be fostered that are at variance with those of
the public ; anti where these interests have been nurtured
by the law, or have derived a sort of sanctity from long
continuance, they ought not to be rashly disturbed or in-
considerately violated. Though they may in reality be
public wrongs, yet, if legislative protection or long ac-
quiescence have convert-II them into individual rights,
they ought to he approached with a considerate tunic:-
new ; and, if the general peal requiesu their destruction,
the great rules of distributive justice ought to he observed,
and comp-its:diem awarded whim comp, nsation is due.
In the language of Parliament, public grievances have
sometimes been called "sided rk-hts," and though 1 UM
no friend to this kind of pliraseady, yet there are few of
these grievant.' a which I would destroy, or few of these
rims, if they are no styled, which I would abolish, with-
out indemnifying the individuals.
Great prejudice at pre sent exists against the licensing.
system ; and a strong desire has been manifested to throw
open the heir trade. The Ministers seem willing to -
ply with this wish, or at hast to adopt some regulations in
confomiity with it. lint, while they are disposed to sa-
crifice the interest of the brewers to that of the pu'dic,
they appear to forget that the beer-duty itself is a sacrifice,
of public into rest, to that of a comparatively small portion
of the community. The large properties arc benefited at
the expense of the small. The rich pay one tax upon
malt, while the poor pay two upon beer.
The brewers, who constitute altogether a considerable
interest in the State, instead of making common cause
with the people, in order to obtain some mitigation of the
beer-duty, have been truckling to the Minister, in order to
preserve the invidious boon of the lirensing system. But
the Minister has, in the new Beer Bill, in deference to
public opinion, which is gradually becoming the high-
est authority in the State, made an advance towards the
opening of the trade to genti al competition. According to
the present Bill, any person may became a vendor of beer,
as long as the beverage is not cousumed upon his premises.
The sale of beer, which has hitherto been confined to a
chosen few, is thus remitted to the many. The only dif-
ference is, that the new retailers of beer mutt pay a
higher sum for a lie nee than the old.
But the great question to be considered with respect to
the Bill is, how will the public Le benefited by the
result ? Do the new regulations remit any part of the
duty ? Do they lower the price of the article? Du they
make beer cheaper to the poor? The answer to these
interrogatories must, unfortunately, be in the negative.
The duty has not been diminished; it has rather been
increased by the new scale of taxation. This I shall prove.
The poor will, therefore, drink beer of a higher price, and
probably of a worse quality, from the premium which the
Bill virtually offers upon the adulteration of the article.
The duty upon beer Lrewed for sale, which was begun
at an early period, was cttenthsl by Cromwell, who was
no great remecter of perrons, to beer brewed for private
use. In the year limn the duty was fixed at Is. :tel. per
barrel, and it was subs- quently advanced to 2a. ; and, after
sonic intermediate atignientatiors, it was raised to Ls. per
barrel in 169..2. It is of importance to remark that, while
the beer duty was in this state of progrtssive increase, some
drawbacks were allowed as a c pensation for the malt
duty and for waste. Thus, in IStI, the nominal beer duty
was Ss. a barrel, but the actual duty, after the above-
mentioned reductions, was only 3s. 74d. This coutinued
the maximum of the duty for inure titan half a century ;
but, in Ism?, the nominal duty was augmented to Its, a
barrel, while the drawback for the malt duty and other
previous allowane:s were. diminished; and thus, a net duty
was levied of !Is. a barrel, which has remained unaltered
up to this :in e. When the beer duty was raised, during
the Addington iolininistretion, in I,tez, when the malt duty
was raised Irmo ins. cll. io ISs. stl. a quarter, this Tel -
detest the Mere.' eal be r duty less obieetiom.ble ; but the
inequality was sill so apparent, that Mr. Addington made
an effort to extend the duty to private ntilits,s, and thus to
equalize the prison upon all classes of the co 1111 l omits.
But Mr. Adilington's nerves were not of the same iron
fabric as dies, of Olive r Cromwell ; and he had not the
hardihood to persist in a measure, %Welt, though equitable
in itself, was by no Ineails palatabk to the aristocracy.
In the New Her Bill the Ministers have adcpted a pro-
gressive scale of duties, :teem:dim: to which the duty on
table beer will be 3s. 41 bat re. ; un porter and beer of that
quality, Hs. ; on I.olllloa ale, and such ale as is consumed
in a large part of the country, ; and on good Scotch
Ale, it sc Thus, according to the new Bill, the advance of
duty will be' «msidcrable on three, while there is only a
small reduction of about Is. a barrel on one of the four
above-mentioned sorts of beer. lk this justice? Is it po-
licy? For can policy and justice ever be considered a part
in any Ivgislativo enactments, that profess to have the
public good for their origin and their end? In order to
secure a little popularity to his new Bill, the Minister ap-
p ors to have slighted the interest which the brewers have
in ;.he present lieciisim; system. That system is indeed so
far from faultless, that it has, in many instances, been
perverted to the most a.lflsh purposes, and the most si-
Metier ends. INt, pedlar, the general operation, by

mut of (;rent liritain, prior to the Union, were made tip to the Nth October in melt Year.

checking the multiplication of public-houses, has, not-
withstanding its occasional abuses, bet ti favourable to the
best interests of the community. As far as my own obser-
vation has extended, I have found those parishes the best
regulated in a moral point of view, in which there were
the kwest public-houses.
In a country village, the standard of temperance, and
consequently of many other virtues, will be found to be
seriously Alai d by the establishment of a public-house
where it was previously unknown. But whatever may be
the real quantity of good or evil at ising out of the licensing
system, it should never be forgotten that it has its origin
so early as in an Act of the sth and sth of Edward the
Sixth, and that it has existed for nearly three centuries
without any rnat..rial alterations. It has, therefore, for
several generations, been ratified by the law, and cherished
by the tiovern anent; and hence, property to the amount
of several millions has been invested in the security it
sal-mil to afford. Ought this system to be rashly dis-
turbed, or wantonly overthrown, without some great and
preponderating advantage to the community? But I have
shown that the community will he rather injured than
bent fited by the operations of the New Beer Bill. It is a
mere measure of revenue, contributing nothing either to
tirephysical comfort, or the moral welfare of the people.
I may, probably, soon resume my pen on this and other
sujbects; and I am, in the mean time,
Sir, )our constant reader,
KRITIIOPHILUS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

.9,-Eriscx-Rtreet, Strand, April 23.

Stn—Voice article. headed "Statement of Crane," comparing
the increase. of it fiir the last 14 Tears, in England and \Vides has
induced me to send you the following Coiled statement, which 1
extracted from the Public Records of the Old Bailey, during the
lime of the late Recorder, Silvester, who, though a Dutchman,
was elected (as they call it) City Judge in 1790, and continued to
labour hard in his vocation till his death, in 1821, and during
which period he tried 33,751 persons:—
The number of those convicted for forgery, from 1797, when the
Bank Restriction Art was passed, till 11121, was 677, of whom 1110
were to be hanged. The whole number of persons condemned to
death, during ;•ilvester's career, was 1,1;00; of which 125 were for
murder_ and 27 for cutting and manning, under land Ellen-
borough's Ail, which was passed in 18114 : of the murderers, to the
credit of the British inhabitants of London be it said, a compara-
tive propor ,of full ten to one, were Irishmen and foreigners,
as per official documents in iiiy possession. These curious facts
arc at your service, for the information of your readers.

1 remain, is.
J. IV. PARKINS.

DEATH OF THE lIISIIOP OF BATH AND We: et.a.—Ex-
tract of a letter (land Bath, April 21:—" The melancholy
knolling of the muffle(' Ahiky hull announces the death of
our venerable Mecum, the Bishop of Bath and IVells,'
who departed this life la:e last night, or early this morn-
ing, at his house in the Circus, at the advanced age of
nearly &I."
Monday the Mayor of Bristol gave a grand dinner at the
Mansion-house. to Baron liithird, the Banisters, Nobility
and Gentry of that neighbourhood, of whom upwards of
a hundred sat down to a very sumptuous entertainment;
and on Tuusilay the Sheriff's of Bristol gave a splendid
dinner at the M rchants' Ilall to upwards of one littiirts!
and fifty grothenen, among whom were his Lordship and
all the distinguished charaet:n at present in that city and
neighbourhood.

A Paris journal says—The diftl.lences between Brazil
and Portugal are going to be arranged by the mediation of
England. Baron Neumann, Ultarge d'Affaires of Austria,
is Arbiter fur Brazil. Viscount I /Oen sets out very shortly
for Madrid. Letters fron Augsburg say, that a report is
generally spread that the King of Prussia and the Emperor
Alexander will arrive at Prague in the second fortnight of
May, there to have an interview with the Emperor of
Austria. It is supposed that they will turn their attention
both to the attitirs of I lreec:. and those of Brazil, and that a
notification will be made in consequence to the Euglish
Government and to the King of Portugal.
A French paper of NVedntsday contains a report from
the commander of the ihsleur, stationed at Grandville,
stating that the whole of the vessels in that port, '2OO in
number, have hail a narrow escape from destruction. A
tire broke out on the 15th, in the Maria, of 100 tons, laden
with tir planks, the flames 11.0111 which, fur some time,
threatened to co ttttt innicate with the other craft; but by
the exertions of the crew of the Rodeur, the tire was got
mule r without other drana,ge than the partial destruction of
the Maria. One man, howev.r, was burned to death.
LA N CASTER ELECTION.—This looming came on the
election of a Representative for this anc,ent Borough, ocea-
siened by the decease of General I hereto!), u hen Thomas
Greene, Esq. of Felyne and of Whittington !tall, was pro-
posed and seconded, in neat and appropriate speeches, by
Charles Gibson, Esq. of Quernmore Park, sod Richard
Atkinson, Esq. of Stodday Loelge. No other candidate
being proposeal, Mr. Greene was unanimously elected.—
Mr. Creene returned thanks. At a quarter past twelve
o'clock he was chaired noel borne in triumph through the
town, amidst the plaudits of an immense: crowd. A large
dinner, provided at Me. Greene's expe use, most copiously
supplied with every rarity, was after wards partaken of.—
!Vetch burn ,Uri!.

tictectetsm AN!) ( .1. RIOS! TY.-Chi n"rs ae nienh, no,,
dubita di niente. 6` Ile who knows nothing, doubts of
nothing," says an Italian prt'vt rb. Selpticisni and curiosity
are the t 'lief springs of knowledge. Without the first we
might rest contemcd with prejudices and false informa-
tion ; without lie seceml the mind would become Mail-
let en t and turVt!.

A mowr owe essirn At tins NT.—As a gentleman,
named Patten, Will, had lately it tired from his professional ditties,
was driving his lady towards his residence on Eghain Hill, last
Wednesday, in attempting to pass Brown's Taunton waggon,'
between the twin), LA thirteenth mile-stone on Ilininslow Beath,
on the near side, with a view, it is presumed. to avoid the dust,'
but there was not sufficient room. he barked. end attempted
to ',merit] oo the off-side; in doing which, by some accident, the
gig became entangled with the chain tracts of the waggon, and
unfortunately overturned the gig, whet., dre.dttil to relate. the
holy was precipitated under the waggon, and the wheel passing over
her head, caused instant death. The gentleman was also thrown
underneath the waggon. but Mrtunately mimed from persom.l in.
jury ; but his state it mind may be more easily conceived than de-
scribed—to behold his wife a lifeless corpse. The remains of the
lady were conveyed to the Waggon and Horses public-house, Bed.
font, about a nude further on The waggoner is detained, in cm-
sequence el some alleged negligence. until the result of the Coro-
ner's inimest b. known, whidi will sit thin day.