The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-21 00:00:00

LLOYD'S SHIPPING.—(This Day.)

LON-DON, Oct. 21.—Wind this day at noon, N.E.;
moderate breeze, and dull hazy weather.
DOVER, Oct. 20. —Wind N.N.E. to N.--Sailed—H.M.S.
Banshee, for Woolwich.
COWES, Oct. 20. —Wind N.N.E.—Arrived—Undaunted,
from Callao. Sailed—Dauntless, for Bombay.
SOUTHAMPTON, Oct. 20.—Wind N.E.—Sailed—lndus,
(s.), for Alexandria.
CARDIFF, Oct. 20.—Wind N.E.--Sailed—Anna, for
Sierra Leone.
OFF QUEENSTOWN, Oct. 19.—Arrived—Demerara, from
Demerara, and sailed for Liverpool.
HULL, Oct. 20.--Wind E.—Sailed —Elizabeth Yea, for
New Orleans.
OFF WORTHING, Oct. 20.—Arrived—York, from
Madras.

(PER ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH•)
SOUTHAMPTON, Wednesday, 10 a.m.

Wind N. E.
Arrived-- Arago, steamer, from Havre. She proceeds
to New York at two o'clock full of passengers.
Sailed—Atalanta, steamer, for Jersey.
LIVERPOOL, Wednesday Morning.

Wind N.
Arrived—Richard, from Uleaborg ; Lady Duffus, Dun.
kirk ; Villa Nova.
QUEENSTOWN, Oct. 20.

Wind N.
Arrived—Asia, from River Plato ; Canada, Demerara ;
Marinus, Callao ; Canopus, Labrador ; Julia, Galatz ;
Lord Althorpe, Pernambuco.
Off—Lady Hilda, from Barb idoes ; Edmiston Brothers,
Richibuctoo ; Demerara, Demerara.
WATERFORD, OCT. 18.

Wind N.N.E.
Arrived—Duke, from Odussa.
DUBLIN, Oct. 2

Wind N.W.
Arrived—Lady Buller, from Dunkirk.

(BY SUBMARINE AND BRITISH TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Wednesday, 9.30 a.m.
Wind N.W. ; tide last hour's ebb ; hazy.
Arrived, Oct. 20.—Laura, from Cullenborg ; Jane, from
Memel ; Sunshine. Mauritius ; Furet, Gravelmes.
Arrived, Oct. 21—Franken, from Memel ; Batavier,
steamer, Rotterdam ; Schiedam, steamer, Schiedam.
Sailed, Oct. 20—Arab, for Patras.
Sailed, Oct. 21—Lord J. Russell,
,W steamer, for Dunkirk.
DEALednesday, 9.N.

iWind N.W. ; light and fine.
Passed—Sidon, from Buenos Ayres ; Thomas and John,
Riga, for Bridport ; London, Newcastle, Guadaloupe ;
Margaret Knight, brig, Newcastle, Havre ; Edmund,
bark, north, for the west; Dolphin, Africa, London.

THE QUARTER SESSIONS 4ND THt

ARGYLL ROOMS.

In the year 1747, upwards of a century ago, in the
21st year of the reign of George the Second, a reign
signalised by factious conspiracies and open rebellion—
before popular education had aided to humanise and
elevate the minds of the people, and social and political
reforms had ameliorated their physical condition, before
gas was invented, or oil was put to use—in the times of
dark streets, footpads, and highwaymen, when no
system of police opposed restraint to disorder and pre.
vention to crime, an act was passed entitled "An
Act for the Bitter Preventing Thefts and Robberies,
and for Regulating Places of Public Entertain-
ment, and Punishing Persons Keeping Disordettv
Houses." The second clause of this statute pre-
mises—" Whereas the multitude of places of en-
tertainment for the lower sort of people, is another
great cause of thefts and robberies, tempting them to
spend their small sule,tance in riotous pleasure e, and
putting them ou unlawful methods of supplying their
wants and renewing their pleasures ; " and after stating
these reasons, provides that "any house, room, garden,
or other place kept for public dancing, music, or other
entertainment of the like kind, in the Cities of London
and Westminster," without a license had for that pur-
pose from the last preceding Michaelmas Quarter Ses-
sions of the Peace, granted in the discretion of the magis-
trates, ball b 3 deemed a disorderly house or place.
The third chose provides that in case of breach of
either of the conditions of the licenses, it shall be for-
feited ; and empowers the magistrates to revoke th:.
same. Introducing our observations with thus much of
the wisdom of our ance t)rs—and perhaps they were
wise in and for their day and generation—we propoi-e
to consider a case in which the wisdom of 1747 has been
committed for purpose and fulfilment to the discretion of
1857 —we mean the case of the Argyll Rooms.
Th s most p )pular of all the places of public resort and
entertainment in London was licensed by the insgi,tratet,
at the Michaelmas session of the year 1850, p.ncl from

__ ...._ .............
that period until the sessions just terminated the license
has been from year to year renewed—that is to say, for
the period of seven years. Taking the sta' ements of the
proprietor, upwards of a million and a-halt of visitors
have attended his entertainments. Not a single case of
riot, disturbance, or even intoxication, has been wit.
neesed within the walls of his establishment; nor has a
single charge of a criminal nature, not even a case of
common assault occurred. In fact, no charge of any de-
scription has ever been made against it.
We speak of our own knowledge when we say, that it
has always been frequented by as good male society as
London, or even England can furnish ; and that it has
been, with such a class of gentlemen, the favourite eveniog
resort and promenade. That the females we have seen
there have been respectable both in appearance an•t
behaviour; and that we never saw the slightest inde-
corum committed in the place. ' That so far a 9 our
knowledge extends the public' reputation of the
establishment fully corroborate it—the nighty enter-
Latin:mats are conducted with as much propriety as in
any private ball-room. Indeed, in private bells we have ,
seen far greater cases of intoxication, which imputation
against his establishment the proprietor of the
Argyll Rooms repels. Under these circumstances
we insist, that no person can for a moment be
justified in denouncing, indiscriminately, the females
who are to be seen in the Argyll-rooms as a bevy of
prostitutes,
Relying on the high and well-merited reputation of
his establishment, the proprietor applied at the late
sessions for a renewal of the license, and the board re-
jected his application. Oa what grounds ? Not that
music and dancing are improper amusements ; because
the same board granted licenses to about fifty other
inferior places in London, including many new ones, for
the express purpose of enanl,ng the public to be provided
with the same recreation. Not that any csnditions on
which the license was granted had be, n violated ; be-
cause .the facts stated, in relation to the perfect
propriety with which the entertainments have always
been conduoted, stand admittol. It may be un-
necessary to state, what is already well known,
that the music of the Argyll•rooms is excellent,
and the orchestra the first of its kind in
London ; that the rooms themselves are the most spaci-
ous, the most elegant, the best fitted for the entertain-
ments given in them, and, without exception, the finest
in the metropolis, and, we may say, in Europe ; that
the proprietor must of necessity have expended a very
large sum of money in making them what they are ;
that they are moot conveniently situated in a bye-
street, where the occasional and unavoidable impedi-
ment of a concourse of perarns going to, and returning
from, a place of public amusement is not felt, and
has never been complained of; that they have kept
in permanent and profitable employment something
like a hundred respectable and industrious persons,
and must, therefore, have contributed largely to
the business interests of the community ; awl
that they are the only West-and place of public
amusement, where the entertainment of mu-icand danc-
ng w. s provided. 10n what grounds, then, did the
Board of Ssoeions exorcise this extraordinary instance of
discretion ? Let us see if, in the opposing evidence,
anything can be found to justify it.
On the hearing of the case, a portion of a report made
by one of the inspectors of police, Inspeo:or O'Brien we
believe, was introduced, and its author put into the
witness-box. That report stated, that from five to seven
hundred prostitutes nightly frequented the Argyll
I Rooms ; which statement was supported by the vs, b ..I
evidence of the author, and two other inspectors, Tester
and Webb, who were called for that purpose.
._

Now, in the absence of all cross-Lximination to sift
and shake that testimony, we insist that its unsparing
and iudiscr.mir a!-.e character,to any one gifted with ordi,
nary perception, disproves itself. Had these witnesses
personal knowledge of each and every one of the large
number of females whom they thus atiginati i.d ? Were they
prepared to prove, we will not say acts-of prostitution, but
the reputation of a prostitute again•t each and every one
of them ? Dal they watch them from their homes ? Did
they track them back again ? Did ti-oey play the spy to
detect each and every one of them in her imputed voca.
tion ? Did they know each individual na ae, each in-
dividual residence, of the whole number I Did they wii.
Dell each and every one of them riotous, disorderly,
intoxicated, indecorous in speech or action, either iu
going to or returning from the Rooms ? Were they in
the Rooms, and all over the Roans, these uliquit3us

inspectors, every and each succeeding night, toascer-
tain that thcre were always there,ithe same,," from five
to seven hundred females," and not only in numbers,

but in identity also ; and to satisfy themselves by irre-
fragibls proof of the truth of what they stated. Did
they see at any time ten, or twenty, or fifty, or even a
hundred prostitutes there, and connect with them in the
common estimate the remaining tour to kis hundred ?
Then did they see such acts of familiarity,
common acquaintance, common and complete know-
ledge of each with the other and with all
as to justify such a universal acausation. Because Tray
must be is bad company before he can be pelted as a bad
dog, and being in bad company mean, not in a world
which contains bad doge, nor under a roof where Soule
may have congregated ; but actually associating, frater-
Meing, and in act and dee(l'making himself one of them.
In brief, what was the specific and exact knowledge,
either as regards common reputation or personal con-
duct, possessed by these inspect-rs in regard to each
and every one of this large number of females ? Teat is
the question, for specific and exact knowledge must be
the bases and the essence of every statement to give it
weight as evidence. Finally, do police inspectors take
upon themselves, in detail and minutiae, the dutie•--
otfices, we should rather say—which could alone had to
such knowledge? We all know that they do uot, and
we know simply that the thing is impossible.
Such thtngs have been heard and read of as swearing
do en a fact, and all round a fact—dodges of all kinds
where the 01.3-ct has been to evado or conceal the truth
—for there are consciences which at their convenience
will no more take hold on verity than a hand can grasp
a ball of ice larger than the compass of its grasp—
prejudices which add to it or take from it in proportion
with the force and bias of those prejudices—many modes
of testifying which are not truth, nor legal falsehood
either, because the malice is wanting, but grit,' tut e ors,
and this testimony is of the last description. It was
not fact, nor conclusion, nor inference, for no premises
were stated or existed from which suce a conclusion or

inference could be drawn. It was simply a broad, gene-
ral, sweeping, uncharitable, impossible, and unsupport-
able assertion, which could not have stood the test of the
weakest analysis. It is probable that counsel enter•

tamed this view of it, and therefore considered it un-
worthy the pains of sifting by cross-examination. We
wish it kad been otherwise—we wish that the witnesses
had been compelled to admit ignorance, if of only one in
the from " five to seven hundred," so that the poor
Argyll Rooms should not have stood an utter Gomorrah
in the eight of the three inspectors.
And this evide ce was hi screw of the lever which

lifted the discretion of the Board of Magistrates to such
a pitch of enlightenment that they could see nought but
darkness and infamy in the favourite resort of aristo-
oracle St. James's. What was the other consideration
weighing with the Court—the point of support to the
lever ? The character of the Haymarket. -
It was stated by the witnesses that at the time of the
breaking up of the Argyll its visitors distributed them-
selves about the Haymarket and neighbourhood, and
became a public nuisance. Was there on the bench no
one gentleman who in his day had sown wild oats, or
who, perhaps, yearning for the wisdom which should in
due season mature into the discretion of the Quarter
Sessions, had, peradventure, looked' on while others
pursued that unprofitable course of agriculture I Was
there, we ask, no such one gentleman on the bench not
ignorant of the fact that the Haymarket, for years be-
fore those witnesses put on public livery, was the
same nuisance that it is at present ? And for the
neighbourhood in years long gone—Panton-square,
Coventry - court, Oxenden - street, Panton - street,
James'-Street—what old perambulator of London does
not remember them as they used to be? Fro n time
immem nal the Haymarket has been the chief m aket
overt of those unfortunate women. They have esta-
blished themselves there by ancient custom, toiphich "the
memory of man runneth not to the contrary.* The facts
we state aro patent, known to every one who knows
the West End of London by night, and its traelit.mn
Then there are the Haymarket Theatre and the ItaliaB;
Opera, and not far distant, before fire consumed i
'
Covent-garden Theatre • and sill Drury lane, rnd
th
Lyceum, and the Adelphi, and the 1:Iolbor; Casino, a
many other places of public amusement, each of which
contributes its quota to swell the number of the promo
naders of the Haymarket. Of night-honsest cafes,
divans, supper-rooms, and other places of
cresort, we say
nothing. In the name of comm
have the Argyll Roams been sinjendjuostiticetOthbeena; why
obloquy I Were they fOradconed pre judged,
andpre-
, condemned ?—for against them appears'
pnothing directly
but evidence crumbling from its own unreasonableness;

and indirectly, consequences, to meke it responsible fee
whioh is the consummation of icjustico and absurdity.
The effect of this dec,aion must be ruinous to the
proprietor, and it is greatly
to be regretted that the cage
which he was prepared to prove before the court, wait
not fully shown and proven. It would have sufficed, at
any rate, to place his establishment perfectly right in
the judgment of the publio, wha's ieverdecision the board
may have given on the qaestion of the license. The proof
by his books, kept regularly and constantly, that the
whole average number of persons vigiting the rooms,
both male and female, is 600 nightly, and the proportion
of males to females being about ten to one ; this proof,
4upported by the members and officere of the police,
eho have been constantly on duty at the rooms, would
.lave settled the z ;al of the three inspect:Av. super.
lidded to this proof, that females of unimpeachable re-
spectability do visit the place, and we think the inspec-
tors would have felt ashamed of themselves ; indeed,
if the case had been carefully nursed and pertinaciously
defended with the materials on hand, and for that pur-
pose ready in the court, we think they might perhaps
have been led to retract and apologise, after the fashion
of well-meaning ne-.n, who, having committed an error
tnd inje4ice, are prompt and ready to acknowledge and
redress it.

Recurring briefly to the statute—questions plain
enough perhaps to lawyers, but to our apprehension no
less complex than apt., force themselves upon the mind.
In what sense is a statute, which p!ainly states as the
reason for its enactment that it was to withhold tempta-
tions from the lower sort of people, and ptevent their
congregating in disorderly houses, applicable to the
Argyll Rooms ? Have the lower sort of people ever
frequented that establishment ?—Never. Quite the re-
verse. It is the resort of great numbers of the higher
.ert, and the great majority of its visitors are of the
better sort. Clearly law is not reason ; or rather, what
night have been both law and reason in 1747, hate
in 1857 become gressly at variance with each other.
We simply rase .the question, for we have me-, room for
present argument, sufficient 'to note the utter inap-
plicability of the statute to the present case, and to the
present daY, Again ; in case
`° shall be forfeited, and of violation of the rendi-
tions of the statute, the license
shall be revoked by the justices, &c. See." Suppose
none ,of the conditions have le?en violated. What then
Suppose, on t'ee contrary, they have been most scrupu-
lously and emscientiously observed and maintained, so
that the licensed place of entertainment gains a high
and almost world-wide reputation for the propriety and
excellence of its management. Shall it be forfeited and
revoked all the same ? Does the statute empower the
magistrates to commit so manifest an injustice I To
encourage a man during seven consecutive years, trotil,
confident in the reputation of his place, confident in the
ecrupuleus care he has taken to act up t r the law in its
letter and its spirit ; he has gradually expend, d
the sum of 30,0001. (which we understand to be the fact)
upon his es,,ahhisti,nent ; and then suddenly, Without a
Angle cause, r,fuse the license,, render his property
valueless, or comparatively so, and turn him upoo the
%eerie a ruined mart Is this jest*? if it be, Heaven
preserve us from the C)urt of Sessious, and the Statute
of 1747 1

Na hat means discretion ? By the second clause of the
statute the Sessions may "grant such licenses as they
in their discretion shall think proper." And what
means discretion 7 That they may co as they see fit, one.
way or the other, with regard to nothing but their will 1
Certainly not. Discretion means a reasonable, sound, .
and just exerci. ei of their judgment. Here has been a
perkct observance of the law, a scrupulous regard 'to
property, an orderly assemblage of the higher an i better
classes for the purpo es of innocent recreation, and a
large fortune invested under the long and continuous
sanction of the Sessions, and all disregarded. Let the
public judge if this be the discretion which the law
means—a reasonatls and jest exercise of judgment,
not only has the essence of the law been disregarded,
but the principle on which the Coast is supposed to
act, "never to ii,jure property without good cause,"
has been cast aside in tA i+ case. Of course, the nu;.:
ance of the Haymarket will be act up as the justifica-
tion; whereas, fur this nuisance, the Argyll Rooms are
not, and, before a court of law, could not, b 3 made
responsible. In plain truth, the arbitrary powers con-
ferred by the proviri ins of an absurd law, hostile to
the rights and feeling; of Englishmen, have been per-
verted to the commission of a grave and signal injustice.
Why were Crem: roe Gardens licensed ? Why the
Holborn Casino ? Why the fifty other places ? It can-
not be pretended that the Argyll Rooms had less pre-
tensions to respectability in any particular than any of
these. We put these questiens to test the "discretion "
of the Sessions in its aiplieation to the Argyll Rooms.
In considering this 'vase, we place entire reliance
upon the statements o . the proprietor ; and to those
who are disposed to do otherwise, we say that great
credit is due to him. If, as the iospectrr stated, his
eroabliehment has been the nightly resort of from 500
to 700 prostitutes, en 1 be has so entirely succeeded in
subjecting such an °nor/lion mass of profligacy to
decency, order, and propriety for several hours every
evening, in the gay autusement of without in-
curring a solitary charge of disturbance, istoxica,tion, or
impropriety of any de oription, then, we say, he is, in
his sphere and station, a talented and beneficial reformer
—that he deserves well iy? the public, and is just the
roan to be. encouraged and not smitten with ruin.
Tnere are many gradations between the two extremes
of the highest good and thebwest evils, and he who can
stand on tiny one of the multi'udiuousinterrned ate steps
and do his share of even comparative good, does well.
Prostitution has existed in all ages and in all nations of
the world. Harlots hid the spies in Jericho, and lie,
front whom many a professor of sanctity woulA do well
to take closer pattern, has ncorded his judgment on
anott,er, taken in the Toy act. At the mine time, we
utterly leny that the Argyilißeems are any more a resort
f +r females of this clescriptiou than any other place for

(lancing or than any theairs in the tne7ropolis. 'And we
also deny that the proprietor is in anywise responsible
for their attendance at his rums.

Much as the aet of injustice cainmittod at the Sessions

is to be deplored, and particularly in reApect to the
ruinous and u.deserved weight with which it tails on the
owner of the Argyll Rooms, good will grow out of it.
Public hynepatby invariably fillows an act df gross and
manifest oppression, and suceeels eventually in righting
tLe oppre.,sed. Attention will ba directed to the statute
of 1747.

Tlle magistrates of the Court of See/dons are, for the
most part, ignorant of the law, and were created, many
of them, to meet the exigencies of the Chartist agitation.
The propriety of conferring on these men arbitrary
powers unlimited, or limited only by a discretion totally
misconceived, will be fully disco sed. Toe great
personal interests at the mercy of such a tr:bunal, give
to this case an importsnce and prominence which cannot
be too seriously considered, and which we feel confident
must lead to a change in the law.