The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-26 00:00:00

BLEB BILL.

The Bishop of BATH andWELLS presented a peti-
tion, praying for the repeal or alteration of the Beer Bill.
In case it should not be thought proper to repeal the Bill,
the Right Rev. I'relate suggested that the beer-houses
should he placed under certain regulations, such as that
the new beer-houses should not be allowed to have the beer
consumed on the premises, and that they should be placed
under the superintendence of the Magistrates and Police.
Ile supposed that there would be no serious objection to
preventing the beer being consumed on the premises, as
the Noble and Learned Lord bad not proposed originally
that the consumption on the premises should be allowed.
The LORD CHANCELLOR repeated what he hal
before stated, which was, that he had not originally pro-
posed in his Bill to allow the consumption of the beer on
the premises ; but that he had given up his own opinion
to that of the Committee, which had taken evidence on
the point. He did not agree with the Right Rev. Prelate
that there would be no objection to put an end to the
consumption of beer on the premises. On the contrary,
he thought that this would be the principal point of dif-
ference. The Bill, however, as it at present stood, had
not got a fair trial, and this being the case, it certainly
was not fitting that the Bill should be repealed or altered
in its principle for the present. But he had the satisfac-
tion to inform their Lordships that the Noble Secretary of
State for the home Department had prepared a Bill to
add souse regulations to the Beer Bill, which it was to be
hoped would remove all reasonable objections to it.
Lord BEXLEY—The Bill had been of the greatest ad-
vantage to the public, for the public had had the whole
benefit of the reduction of the duty, which was not the
case with respect to the repeal of the duty on leather. The
amount of tax taken off was about three millions ; but
owing to the reduction in the price of beer, the saving to
the public was at least five millions per annum. With
respect to the consuming the beer o❑ the premises, it had
been the practice in Rome, previous to the time of Pius
the Seventh, to consume the wines sold in shops of this
kind on the premises. But that Pope put an end to the
practice, on account of some irregularities with which he
conceived it to be attended ; and by that act he made
himself exceedingly unpopular. His successor altered the
plan, and allowed the wine to be consumed on the pre-
mises; but in order to prevent any bad consequences ft oni
this indulgence, he added, by way of regulation, that there
should be no seats on the premises; and consequently the
successors of these wine shops were obliged to remove all
their seats, so that the guests who chose to drink their
wine there were forced to drink it standing. The result
was, that the Pope was almost as ❑npopular on this ac-
count as his predecessor Pope Pius had been.

. .
The petition was laid on the table.
Lord FALMOUTH gave notice that he would move
the second reading of the Kennet Navigation Bill to-mor-
row week. _

Counsel were beard, and evidence taken, on the second
reading of Kinnaird'e Divorce Bill. Mr. Kinnaird was
described as a page of the back-stairs', to his Majesty, who
resided with his wife at Windsor, and the alleged offence
was said to have been committed by the wife with a serjeant
of the Guards.

Further proceedings to-morrow.
Evidence was then heard on Lefevre's Divorce Bill.
The evidence related chiefly to the terms in which the
husband and wife lived, and how he had received the in-
telligence of his wife's misconduct, in order to guard
against collusion.
Mr. Serjeant Mereweather, in answer to questions by
the Lord Chancellor, stated that he had further evidence
as to the adultery, but that he was not prepared to prove
that the damages had been levied or execution taken out.
The reason was that Sir John Myles Winnington had gone
to Scotland, and that on inquiry it had been found that
the office was full of judgments against him. It was there-
fore thought useless to take out execution.
Further proceedings to-morrow.
The Mint Salaries Reduction Bill was committed, and
the Lord Steward's Oaths Bill was read a second time.
Some Private Bills were brought up from the House of
Commons, and read a first time.--Adjuurned.