The Sun.
London, England, 1818-03-11 00:00:00

bit'able to the Monopoly witich the great hirewirs have es' a
bliShed.
9. That this Monopoly is produced and upheld by the un-
constitutional' poWer given to Justices of the Peace, in their
. respective localities, to prevent any persohs from vending
• beer excepting end) persons and in such houses as they
please; a power which being subject to no human control,
and being exercised in many instances by needy or avaricious
Torn, is naturally applied by them in pkaventing competition
in trades in' which they or their friends or patrons are in-
terested.
• In. That a delire to prevent an unnecessary number_ of
the reason generally assigned for refusing permission.
to epos houses, built for public-houses, where the et:asonable
saants athe publ4yeettaire then, insincere; be-
attse the shine -licensers-grant licences-to public-houses in•
'clusters where the interest of their friends is thereby upheld,
although such houses can only be supported by allowing 01141
_ encouraging bad practices.
I I. That the similar pretence, that competition is prevent-
ed in order that the laridlords of the favoured_ houses may
fleurish, and not he induced .through necessity to suffer this-
orderly.conduct -oo then' premises, is equille'fallaciimi; be-
cause the ownersof--the favoured houses, who are generally
brewers or spirit-dealers, always requite premiums of their
tenants, equal to the value of the Monopoly to them, or an
additional rent, thus keeping the tenants profits dea; how:.
ever valuable, the,license :nay he to the principal.
12. "chat the stippositiosi of correcting the licentiousness
encouraged at• some public-limises by 'denying, licenses for
others,ls out). calculated to benefit the Monopoly System; it
. being evident, in principle, that men will not drink less of be
less d""rdevi'.. "hel dt,mll text:tiller is onehouse than they
would be if diss:iled among two or three ; and notorious in
- practice that some of the houses which valiantly! a superior
''share of cu tom and profit, are among. those which are most
injurious to the
.public.health and morals.
13. 'that suck is the valtie, however, of the prohillifitin of
. competition., that thousands of inntini9 are frequently given
for the eonsitleetvion of a license to a house, in other words,
fur permission to tr.:ele, a hich expence, together with the
extra profits secured by ; the• Monopoly, hill upon the con-
tainers, and hecunie a grievous burtlien to the lower classes
of the counonnity. ' - -
14. that it is unreasonable to invest Justitats of the Peace
with the right of issuing exclosiye Tioa'ees for trading in vie-.
thals„when the issuing of such powers by the Sovereign him-
self is declared to'he void iii saw.,
k% That itis eqoalky unreasonah!e to ainhorize the said.
Jitetices " dissent• men of their ti!ierties and ft re outruns,"
at their own will and plraytnr, withont tieing accountahle to
any bonsai) beieg,, thut King, on his throne. is. intCr-
clic'ed from " hurting or injuring" pie nieattest subject, on
less by due eeurse of tau'; and is answerable fur hiss acts in
the persetil of his Ministers.
IG. That these extraordinary and unconstitutional power.;
evea.in the purest hauds, are wholly ineificicet for the object
of keeping victualling' houses its good orders because they are
Only in action out otie day in the year, when punishment, as
regards the etast, is easilyarofrid of-by shifting-the tenant,
and as regards the figure,
.it is as impossible for the licenser's
to know that suet, houses as they patronize will•be .Well con- .
eincted, as it is that those which they refuse to licence would
, be di sorties t'.
17. That it-is therefore_ qually in rain to expect an effec-
titaC over public-houses, .or a, termination of the'
wrotigs'infi eted on-the owners elf houses, on victuallers, avid
. on the public at large, under the pre'sein, liecusirosystein—a
system which is ,proved to be all-impotent for good purposes,
and all powerful for bad ones—erecting a despotic control
over the comforts, the property, and the rights of the subject,
which is anomalous in the conStitutissiial gove.rument of this
country, and which is believed to be tiuknown in' any
other. .

is. That-to prilAnce a 'remedy, it'is necessary forThe•Magis-
trates' power to be removed frourthe patronage of the trade
of victualling, to the correction of the disorders which some-
times arise outof it—from the exercise of • their own uncon-
trollable wills, to the administration legislative rules equaly
applicable-and extending to ali, and in which the penalties
are proportioned to the offences, and arc operative imme-
diately. _
to. That in as far as it is deemed expedient to restrict .t lie
number of public-houses, that 'end v ill lie most fairly and
beneficiallyaccOmplished by _imposing a large duty ori th,e
li-
cense to open any new horse, thus divert in:; the value of the
eestriction'from the pockets of the license-jobbers to the use's
of the State, --
2Q. That with a largc'duty imposed.on leave to open a new
house, and Inci weans provided-for immediately stopping a
trade—conducted in a disorderly manner, no person would
• risk the 'capital necessary to establish a new trade., unless he
,could do it upon. safe grounds, and therefore' no good reason
can be advanced .agaiost restoring to the public the benefit
of a free cOmpetition, and to victualleis the, common rights
of_their cimutt-ymen—namely, the liberty to carry 011 their
trade in such places as they and most'Eligible (not being lo-
cally offensive), and to purchase their goods of such manu-
facturers as offer to supply them oo the best
Your-Petitioners itutUbly submit the above propositions to
the wisdom and paternal care of your Houourable House, in.
the hope that your- Honourable House thav restore to the'
public generally the right of a free trade in !seer, and to the
eietnAler iii particular the pi-otection of the bias, instead of
the-wills of itidividuals, subject to sue', • legislative ,regula-
tions for the trade as shall be deemed conducive to the public
welfare.

And your Petitioners will cser pray, &c.
Mr. BARCLAY claimed the attention of the
House, while he answered the petition which had
been presented by 'a statement of facts. He
could have wished some of his Majesty's Minis-
ters to be present to hear the explanation he was
'anxious to offer. Though 'the question was one
which deeply affected the Brewers awl a large
body of respectable men who were connected with
them, yet he considered it to be 41W one in which
all the Members of that House must take a lively
interest, and Ministers were hound to give their
• atteution to. that (torn neatly a fiftieth part
of the whole revenue of the -country was derived,
namely, the snot 01 900,0001: Ile wished to
make souse observations on the manner.in which
this petition had been produced. The 1-I(.moncable
Member then gave the history of the publication'
of Mr. Beaumont's Resolutions in the Newspapers,
the substance of which were embodied in the pre-
sent petition, and of the- meeting subsequently
called totake them into consideration at tbeCrown
and Anchor. At that meeting,which he had under-
stood was nut very numerous, those Resolutions
woe proposed and of course passed unanimously. lit
such an assembly, it was impossible to suppose that
any person who might speak on behalf ofthe brewers
could,obtain, a fair bedring. This was not, to be
expected, after the Chairman, in opening the bu-
siness, had pronounced .t he bitterest-Thillippic that
could issue from the lips of matt,•'against a class
of persons of whose conduct he • cituld positively
know nothing... The Resoltitions of the Meeting
were published in all the Pape rs, and after a sufficient
time bad elapsed, this petition was produced. Qt'
this he had only to say, that large as-it was, he
Was astonished that it had tiot double and treble
the number of signatures attached to it, that had
actually been procured. He had expected mute,
as ;he knew that the petition. had been left in
shops, tvhere those who went in were requested to
sign it : and this had been done not only in the
city, but in the environs, while men were sent
about bearing large boards, inviting the public
to it, and inscribed ''a tree trade and a fair
trial„" 'Mr. Be.aumont, after the Meeting, had
published his speech, which he (Mr. Barclay)
now held in his hand, and to which he should
presently have occasion to refer. He should -first
eply to what was said of the Monopoly of the
eleven London Brewers, for against theth the
charge was directed, as there was a marked dis-
tinction between these and the brewers' in the
country., though the latter had public-houses of
their own. as , well 'as. the Brew:rs' iu town.
ihe Metropolis there were three breweries
which brewed more than half of the beer con-
-111114-'d. Now, what bad beeu proved in cvi-

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