The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-27 00:00:00

FREE TRADE IN REFREBIIMENTV.

There is not a more important or valuable article
in the Budget than the 15th, on the subject of
houses for the sale of refreshments, the present law
relating to which violates every principle of political
economy, and is so oppressive to the community at
large that it is atuszing how long it has been en-
dured. Talk of the old borough-mongers, talk of
the extinct corn-monopoly, talk of the French iron-
masters, the world has never witnessed a more

flagrant sacrifice of the interests of the many to the
few than in the case of trade in public refreshments

n this country. If Mr. Gladstone's great scheme

contained no other clement of good but his propo-
sitions to liberate the community from the extor-

tion of publicans and tyranny of brewers it would.
be claim enough to the national gratitude. Can
anything be more monstrous than the present
system? The great brewers through the unpaid
magistrates monopolise the publichouses, and the
keepers of these houses through the brewers mono-
polise the supply of some of the most important
articles of general consumption. The great suf-
ferers are, of course, the middle and poorer classes,
who are absolutely dependent upon these houses for
everything they drink, except cold water. It is idlo
t.) consider malt liquors in any other light but as
the necessaries of English life, especially to the work-
ing classes; and ghat is the result of hindering
competition in the sale of them ? There is no fact
more notorious than the execrable quality, of the
beer, or by whatever other name it goes, in nine-
tenths of the houses that vend it. Pure malt drinks
may be had from the brewers by those who can
affurd to deal with them, but not from the crea-
tures of the brewers, from whom the poor are com-
pelled to buy them. The publicans having a mo-
nopoly, and being no purer than their liquor, make
the most of it, and their iniquitous profits are the
daily poison that washes down the poor man's
daily bread. He pays a monopoly price for the un-
wholesome stuff which the existing state of the law
or the licensing system brews for him. Our readers
hardly require to be told how this system works,
but it may be explained in a very few words. The
brewers set up or help to establish the alehouses,
every house being bound to retail the beer or ale
produced by its founder orpatron. Honest men will
have nothing to do with a business thus created.
On the other hand, it holds out the strongest temp-
tations to needy and disreputable people to engage
in it, and this would of itself be sufficient to explaia
the systematic frauds with which no other branch
of trade is disgraced to the same degree. But we
have described only half the monopoly. A certain
number of houses having been thus established in a
perish or district, are licensed by the great unpaid,
who take it upon them to determine how many the
district requires, and refuse to license any more.
Owing to this arbitrary power, and the influence
of the mighty brewers, the publican's trade, which
ought to be as free as any other, becomes the
closest and vilest of all monopolies. Au honesatlme
of
proposing to enter it, and hoping by the s f
byr e with
genuine commodities to compete suctroshfuel
the existing establishments, has both
d so hopeless
and the magistrates against him! act
.ivoenr
i s
thatt the e
fews struggle uggl:byneye oonnieb
cin of the existing
the public, as if it
undertakeewih it, suchanad fl°rarmrdildy•
known to succeed. Eveit•eyrepsrtosvoisfi
haw tells against the in
had been expressly framed
vefroyr tkhienpduropfospea.rtila'lhietyre.
is the athplest scope for
both personal and apolitical. Mr. Gladstone will do
than accomplish a financial reform if he
much more m
guts an end to this system—Examiner.