The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-07 00:00:00

PUBLIC-HOUSES (SCOTLAND).

Report from the Select Committee appointed to take
into consideration the system of granting certificates for
public-houses in Scotland, and to whom a petition of the
ministers and elders of the Church of Scotland (Mode-
rator), for the better observance of the Lord's Day, was
referred (just laid upon the table of the House of Com-
mons):-
1. That the number of the houses in which spirits are
sold for consumption on the premises is excessive, and
ought to be restricted ; and in particular, that the num-
ber of such houses of inferior class is excessive, and pro-
ductive of evil, and that it would be expedient to repress
the evil arising therefrom.
2. That the facility with which licenses for the sale of
spirits to be consumed on the premises are obtained, is
one main cause of the excessive number of such houses,
and of their indiscriminate character.

3. That the combination of the trade of grocers and
vendors of other commodities with the trade of vendors
of spirits to be consumed on the premises, is, especially
in towns, productive of evil consequences to the working
classes.

4. That great inconvenience arises from the circum-
stance that the Excise licences are in force from October
to October annually, while the occupation of houses and
shops in Scotland is almost universally from Whit-Sun-
day to Whit-Sunday, and certificates are commonly
granted in May.
5. That with the view of diminishing the number, and
improving the character of houses for the sale of spirits
to be consumed on the premises, and with the view of
securing a better apportionment of the number of such
houses to the wants of each particular district, it is expe-
dient that the system of granting certificates should be
altered and amended.

6. That at their meeting on the 30th of April, the
Justices of the Peace of each county shoull appoint a
committee of their own number for the purpose of ascer-
taining and fixing the number of public-houses neces-
sary for the v►ants of each locality or district. That
this committee, after full inquiry, should fix the num-
ber for each district for a certain number of years pro-
spectively, and that such decision of the committee
should be final.

7. That at the same meeting the Justices of the Peace
should appoint local committees to act in the several
localities or districts, in granting or renewing certifi-
cates, and that the decision of every such local committee
should be final.

8
granted
. Th aut no n
tit t
he num certificateber to a
of
public ny
housesnew party should be
in
the
he
dist
district
iet
or locality shall have been reduced to the number fixed
by the general committee first mentioned, without a
special reference to and approval by the said committee,
and in no case should more than one such new certificate
be granted in any one district in any year.
9. That each local committee should fix the minimum
rent of houses to the occupants of which new licenses
may be granted, and the minimum rent havine, been so
fixed, the same should not be altered without the con-
sent of the general committee.

10. That there should be one certificate for keeping a
common inn, alehouse, or victualling, house, in which,
beer, cider, or perry shall be sold to be drank or con-
sumed on the premises, and a separate certificate for
keeping a common inn, alehouse, or victualling house, in
which spirits, &e. shall be sold to be drunk or einsumed
on the premises ; and that there should be separate li-
censes to correspond with the separate certificates.
11. That no certificate for keeping a common inn,
alehouse, or victualling-house, where beeror spirits are