The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-20 00:00:00

rut SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 20, 1869.

PRINCE OP WALES'S ROYAL THEATRIt.
under the Management of Miss Marie Wilton
Tins EVENING, SCHOOL: Messrs. Hare, H. J. Montague,
Addison, a-lover, and Bancroft: Mrs. Buckingham White, Miss
C. Addison, and Miss Marie Wilton . After which, A WINNING
HAZARD. And A LAME EXCUSE

CHRISTY MINSTRELS, St. James's Hall, Every Night, at S
Wednesdays and Saturdays, at 3 and 8 all the year round.

ZOOLOGICAL G NROENS, Regent's-pttik, OPEN daily (ex-
cept Sundays). Athaission, Is.; on Mondays, Gd. Children
under twelve, Ca

•
lic-‘-4.711-tzj • Sill

house Act rectifies is the granting of licenses by the
Excise. • That department looked solely to the
revenue. The greater the number of licenses
granted the larger the revenue. Consequently no
inquiry was made into the character of the applicants,
and we could mention instances in which persons of
notorious disreputability, and even convicted felons,
have been allowed to open beershops. Over these houses
the magistrates had no control, and, consequently,
they became too often sinks of abomination.
' Although irresponsible persons are not the best
licensing tribunal, and it would be wise to transfer
the jurisdiction from the magistrates to the rate-
payers, yet magisterial supervision is manifestly better
than none at all. That supervision is now partially
secured for the next two years. We say " partially "
because the power of the magistrates is a good deal
restricted. Prompted apparently by a respect for
vested interests, they are not allowed to refuse the re-
newal of old licenses, even though they should be far
beyond the wants of the community, unless the
holders are unable to produce evidence of good cha-
racter, or their houses are frequented by thieves and
prostitutes, or their licenses have been previously
forfeited for misconduct, or the house is not duly
qualified. With regard to the granting of now
licenses, or, more strictly, certificates of license, the
power of the magistrates is the same as in
the case of spirit-shops. They may exercise
their own discretion ; they may take into account
the alleged wants of the neighbourhood, and the
fitness of the applicant. No doubt they will find in
most cases that the want does not exist,and that there-
fore they had better refuse the application, even
though he who makes it be the incarnation of all the
virtues. By the exercise- of this discretion, and by
rigorous use of the depriving power against offenders,
they may render the recent Act not wholly ineffi-
cient, and do something, though it must be but little,
towards staying the plague which infests the land.
The minor provisions of this measure are of the
ordinary kind. Previous Acts of Parliament are re-
pealed, including the famous Beerhouse Act of 1830.
The licenses granted are to last for one year. Due
information is to be given by applicants of their in-
tended application, in the shape of a notice to the
parish overseers, and of another to be affixed to
the church doors on two consecutive Sunday
afternoons. A certificate may be transferred
to a new tenant in respect of a license under
the old Act, and holds good until the next Brewster
Sessions. A penalty of twenty pounds or six months'
imprisonment attaches to the offence of forging a
certificate. In the case of a house licensed only to
sell drink not to be consumed on the premises, the
police may enter at all times to see that there is no
evasion of the law. In such a case it is not necessary
to prove that there has been an actual payment; it
is sufficient that the liquor has been drunk on
the premises by persons not belonging thereto.
Evasions of the law, sinli as the carry-
ing of the drink to a ten', or oLher erection
adjacent, will not be cuff ,red. A fine of
40s. is inflicted for sale at unlawful hours.
Previous convictions are to be considered as a first
or second offence if committed within five years. In
a word, the low-class beerhouses are now brought
under the same supervision and similar regulations
as the higher class gin-palaces. Hitherto the
magistrates have been powerles3 sl far as the first
are concerned. They have 11,w the autLority to
repress vice and breaches of the law. It remains to
be seen how they will exercise it. If they wish to
retain their powers two years hence, they must not
be laggard in the use of them.

Mn. BRIGHT deserves much commendation for
stimulating the energies of his department to a, long-
neglected duty. For many years the practice of
collecting stones or shingle on the shores of harbours
and at the entrances of ports has bear carried on
unchecked, to the great detriment of navigation.
This depredation is common along the cx st, Lut
nowhere is it so extensive and systematised as on the
Yorkshire shore, especially at the mouth of the
number. There the collection of shingle from
the coast round about Spurn head h:
been a regular trade, furnishing employment
to a large number
,of men, who, until re-
cently,
were in all probability ignorant that
the practice was in direct'contraventien of law. For
a small charge the privilege of collecting was
obtained from tLe landowner of the district ; small
vessels were regularly employed in the business, and
thousands of tons were every year brought into the
port of Hull and disposed of at a remunerative price
for ballast. The injury wrought by this removal of
stones has been very great. A. few tons, more or less,
might make little difference ; but a regular deporta-
tion of immense q lantities tended seriously
to deteriorate
.the value of the Humber as
a harbour of refuge. Spurn Head, as a
glance at the map will shew, is the natural barrier
against the encroachments of the sea upon the
Humber mouth. Indeed, without the protection
, afforded by the long line of land which runs into the
sea across the entrance to the river, the Humber as a
harbour of refuge would cease to exist, and thus the only
asylum of the kind between Essex and the Frith of
Forth would be destroyed. Put the preservation of

the [lumber as a shelter against bad weather was, 01
course, of no interest to the owners of small vessels
and the seamen who made a livelihood by carrying
off gravel and stones. For years they have indus-
triously exerted themselves to destroy the harbour
formed by the Humber Estuary and Spurn Head.
About 35,000 tons of shingle have been taken from
the Yorkshire coast about that cape every year. The
collectors were not content with gathering the
stones and gravel off the surface ; they excavated
the shore and riddled the fine deposits, in order to
get whatever was useful to them. The sea has
gradually made progress upon Spurn Head. About
thirty acres at this part of the coast disappear yearly.
Mainly owing to the removal of shingle two
lighthouses have been swept away. And
not only must • the consequence of this
destruction, if continued, be the ruin of the Humber,
as a harbour of refuge, but the best authorities
pronounce that the channel leading to Hull, which is
now deep, would be so affected as to impede navi-
gation. •
It is in the interests of the public at large that the
Board of Trade have interfered to prevent this
wholesale depredation. The integrity of the channel
up the Humber, as leading to one of the first Eng
ports, is of more than local importance,
importance,
.and not less
so is the preservation of the harbour of refuge
formed by the long tongue of land at the
entrance to the estuary. 'That the department has
the power to interfere is 'as certain as that its
interference must prove of public benefit. The juris-
diction of the Board of Trade rests on no doubtful
point of law, but on a plain statute provision
which has not, indeed, been properly enforced, but
which has never been, nor is it likely to be, repealed.
The fourteenth section of an Act passed in
the latter portion of. the Third GEORGB'S
reign stipulates that no person shall be allowed to
take shingle from any harbour or shore, provided
that the Lords of the Admiralty publicly for-
bid any such collection. Now, in the case of
Spurn Head, this depredation had been forbidden.
It was necessary only that the prohibition should be
published in the London Gazette; but the Board of
Trade, anxious to avoid inflicting penalties on men
who neither knew the law nor saw the Gazette,
caused the notification to be posted about in the
neighbourhood where the shingle was gathered. But
the practice did not cease, and accordingly the depart-
ment has been obliged to have recourse to law.
Several men hare been prosecuted by the counsel for
the Board of Trade, and a mitigated penalty—the
full infliction being ten pounds—has been awarded.
It is to be hoped that these examples will tend to
put an end to a system which is as indefen-
sible at law as it is mischievous in its
effects. There is no plea worth calling even plausible
which can be urged in justification of this shingle
gathering. It is true that many things are done
contrary to law, and are yet tolerated because the
law has long been inoperative. But this plea of long

custom cannot be put in to defend a practice which is
so greatly detrimental to the public interests. The
shingle collectors have, indeed, been neglected far
too long; but the omission of one Administration is no
argument against the activity of another. The custom
plea cannot justify continued impunity; it is only
matter of regret _that the interference has come so
tardily. At these cases tried at Hull, it was
argued that the power to permit the gathering of
shingle lay with the Lord of the Manor, who
had, in fact, long sanctioned the practice
and derived a substantial revenue from the
collectors, who paid about £1 for each vessel-
load. - The counsel for the Board of Trade, however,
soon disposed of this claim. Whatever rights the
local laodowner play liave, they cannot prevail
against an Act of parliament. The taw gives the
Admiralty power to forbid the removal pf PhiPgle at
any point of the coast. If the rights of territorial mag-
nates arc to take precedence of the Admiralty, the,Act
becomes a dead letter, for everywhere there is a lord
of the manor 04? hap claims of greater or less
extent. The Act is supreme over any local fights,
' and it is well that it is so. It is scarcely possible to
' over-estimate the ill-effects of this devastation if it
had been permitted to continue,

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