The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-17 00:00:00

markable degree, and holding out a I righter promise
of general good to the community than any scheme
of social and political reform that we have ever read
or heard of. Of course the Conservative Herald can-
not see the matter in this light, and, accordingly, our
Contemporary taunts " Young England " with being
fantastic and unintelligible in its views. " What the
principles of this party are," he observes, " or whence
their designation as a body, we are unable to say ;
and we doubt very much if they could themselves
explain." This taunt comes with exquisite propriety
from a journal that advocates Conservatism in the
most accommodating and latitudinarian sense of
the term. If the principles of " Young England"
be enigmatical, will the Herald condescend
to inform us what is the character of those
maintained by the majority of Members who adorn
the back seats of the Treasury bench by their presence
—who to-day vote that black is white, and to-morrow
that white is black—who defend the harshest provi-
sions of the New Poor-law on the score of humanity
—and propose to ameliorate the social and moral con-
dition of the labouring classes by continuing their sup-
port to the Whig system of union workhouses ? It would
puzzle our Contemporary, we suspect, to define exactly
the principles of these accommodating Members, whose
policy he honours with his approbation ; and yet, like
Parson THWACXUM, he presumes " to saddle Young
England with a judgment," because in the mysterious
character of her principles she approximates too closely
to his own favourite creed of Conservatism ! People
who live in glass-houses• should never fling stones!!

From our report, published last week, of the pro-
ceedings at a sessions of the Middlesex Magistrates
(assembled for the purpose of determining upon appli-
cations for licenses under the statutes regulating the
grant, renewal; or refusal of the same, to lic ensedvictu al-
lers and others, the owners or lessees of houses, &c., de-
dicated to purposes of public amusement), it will be
seen that their Worships—some of them, we mean—
are actuated, at these hearings, by very extraordinary
notions as to the merits, moral or logical, of the cases

submitted to them. The general policy of the law,
and the express design of the Act of GEORGE 11.,
obviously are to consult, to the greatest practicable
extent, the interests of public morality and order, in
investing a particular body of men pith powers of
control so stringent—not to say invidious—over the
property, actions, and fortunes of a large class of the
community. The general principle, therefore, which
both the theory and the practice of this branch of
domestic legislation recognise is—that the grant, the
renewal, or the refusal, shall be determined by the
certified character of the applicants; or the proof of
their good conduct and deportment during the term
of their previous license ; or, the opinion of the
Bench, in those instances where the application is
made for the first time, or for an original license, as to
the tendencies of the amusements sought to be
authorised under it, to produce good or evil conse-
quences in the district. Now, we do not at all pur-
pose to discuss the soundness of this principle ; or
even to inquire into the expediency of confiding its
application to the hands which at present administer
it. But it is evident that the power of granting, or
withholding, or confirming such licenses, is a very im-
portant one. In all systems of State policy, that is
an important element which regards the amusements
of the people ; their provision being of primary, their
control of secondary—importance. In any scheme
of mere municipal regulations, this character of
importance is even more tangible and evident.
All modern and all ancient history are full of
examples that attest this truth. Could the two co-
lour factions of " Blue" and "Green" which distracted
the Byzantine empire have been kept in good humour
by timely concessions, to the wishes of one, and the
demands of the other, a cabal which, from the original
centre of its production—the theatre—diffused its
baneful influences to the furthest limits of the Eastern
empire, and greatly precipitated its destruction, might
have been averted, and the downfal it entailed upon
the throne of CONSTANTINE thereby postponed for a
long course of years. The recent tumultuous era of
the French Revolution was not wanting in instances
to show how an explosion of public feeling, awakened
by incidents occurring at some theatrical representa-
tion, may be productive of consequences the most ex-
tensive and eventful. Is there anything in the density
of the population cooped up within the limits of Lon-
don and Westminster and the metropolitan suburbs,
at the present day (in a manner not paralleled within
the sphere of European States or civilisation)—is

there anything in this case of modern London to take
it out of theoperation of similar influences, if, by injudi-
cious management, their bad activity should ever be
awakened among us ? This is a question not un-
worthy of grave consideration. There are few
matters, to any arbitrary or vexatious intermeddling
with which—men, individually, or in their social rela-
tions—are more sensitively alive, than their ordinary
amusements. It is, indeed, to be regretted that they
are so prone to sacrifice interests and objects of a
much higher and ordinary character to the cause of
those more trivial, but by no means less interesting
occupations. Holding these views upon this curious
subject, we should like to be instructed upon the real
meaning or motives of the course which was taken at
the Middlesex Sessions in question, by Mr. GIBBONS,
one of the licensing magistrates, under the following
circumstances.

The landlord of a long-established and remarkably
well-conducted house applied to have it licensed, in
the usual manner, for private concerts, and, we be-

lieve, dances. Mr. GIBBONS complimented the appli-
cant on the excellent reputation of his establishment
(always accepted as the strongest possible plea of
qualification for such an indulgence). He said that
he himself had known the house for sixty years; that
it had been so well managed, and had prospered so
well, he could not believe the landlord " needed" any
such license, and he, for one, therefore, would re-
fuse it. With the exception of Mr. FRESIIFIELD, the
other magistrates concurred in this view, and the
license was refused! Mr. FRESHFIELD, contra,
argued, with all the sagacity and good sense and
feeling which are habitual to him, that the applicant
had laid the best possible case for his application, and
that the worthy magistrate had supported it by a
statement which supplied the strongest argument to
confirm and maintain it. But Mr. FRESHFIELD
could adduce no higher authority for his opinion than
common sense and common law. Mr. GIBBONS had
a sort of magisterial quasi wisdom, and a species of
hereditary prestige as a sessions SoLoN in his favour.
The publican was ousted of his appeal. Now, the
deductions we arrive at from this decision, though
strictly consequential, are remarkable. A long course
of good repute in past years, and unimpeachable
conduct in its present management, disqualify a
house for a license, enjoyed, probably, by the very
next inn in the same street. Mr. GIBBONS is not
hardy enough to propose to turn back the tide of
popular taste, and reclaim the people from the mad-
ness of " music for the million." He is not quite so
Quixotic as to attempt to prescribe the Polka, and de-
nounce dancing. He merely undertakes to know better
than the applicant, himself, for a license to afford these
diversions in his house, whether he is, or is not, in
such a condition as to need the resort to this mode of
supplementing the receipts of his business. Mr. GIB.
BONS admits everything in favour of the publican, and,
therefore—determines against him! It follows, that
had the man enjoyed the equivocal reputation attaching
to some of the " leasehold property" tenants of the
Dean and Chapter of Westminster, in the Almonry
—had his establisbitent, which enjoys this sixty-
years' character of re4ciability, acquired the noto-
riety of some of the saloons in the vicinity of the
Theatres Royal ;—had only a brother magistrate or
two of Mr. GIBBONS got up to bear a frowning wit-
ness against the applicant himself as one of those

" licentious-licensed victuallers" who had been too
frequently reported upon to him by the police of the
vicinity ; in any such case the poor man would have
obtained his license ! Verily, this may be sessions
practice ; but it is neither law nor reason, common
equity, nor common propriety. Altogether, the case
is one of those which will greatly strengthen the
growing demand to have the "Licensing Jurisdic-
sion" transferred to some more competent tribunal
than that which wields it at present.

The late adjudications of the lines of railway from
Orleans to Bordeaux and Vierzon continue to be dis-
cussed by the entire French press. For the information
of our readers we publish elsewhere some significant
extracts from the papers, both Ministerial and Oppo-
sition. It appears that the boldness of the tender of
MACKENZIE'S Company for the Bordeaux line has
astonished not only the Government, but the financiers,