Star.
London, England, 1831-06-20 00:00:00

MEETING OF THE NEW NI
BIRMINGHAM.

.6. The New Beer Shops, as they are called, are as
displeasing to the "great unpaid," as they are to the °sue
mixwass ; while cheap beer is a mil blessing to labourers,
and cheap tea and coffee to thinkers.—That magistrates in
general are more at having the poor devils of beer sellers
withdrawn from their own tyrannical licensing rules, is suf-
ficiently shown by every police report.
Oo Thursday, the 14th Inst. a general wasq of the new
publicans was held at Northall and James's Room,
Temple-tow, which was completely filled. Mr. Thomas
Dawes was ;idled to the chair when he addressed the meet,
lag nearly as follows :—Gentlemen, we have called you to-
gether, that yen might bear the report of our delegates,
whom we sent up to London to advocate our cause, with
such members of Parliament, who might be thought most
eligible to bring our petition before the House.—. Our secre-
tary, Mr. Jones, will read to you what has been done by
your committee since we last met, and our treasurer, Mr.
Hodson, will inform you of the state of our funds. Before
those gentlemen give you these particulars, I beg leave to
say, that a few days ago, it was uncertain whether 1 could
attend this meeting or net, I therefore prepared a letter
which I intended to have sent to you : now, as I have the
pleasure of presenting myself before the meeting, I shall,
Irishman like, produce the letter, and reed it myself. Mr.
D. then read as follows t
Gentleroenemat appears to me of the utmost importance
to the Trade, that your attention should be called to a very
serious charge, which has been laid against you, by the
Grand Jury, at the late Warwick Assizes; which, if not
contradicted, may do us a serious injury.—The charge is
this—that the late Beer Act has bed the effect of incnasing
Drunkenness, Gambling, and Debauchety--three very se.
rious charges, if they were true ; but they are not true ; the
Magistrates have been very wrongly informed.—We will
examine each charge separately and distinctly ; and first,
as to Drunkenness, I would reply, that the more you en-
crease the houses, the more you divide the company ; and
consequently diminish the temptation to drink, by enticing
each other to stay.
Mathematicians always judge of the truth of any proposi-
tion by carrying the case to an extreme; let us follow the
same rule, with the increase of houses ; let us suppose that
where there is now one house there should be one hundted.
—Now as there are but a =talc limited number who fro.
.quent these houses, what, in such a case, would be the con-
sequence ? but that the company would be divided more and
more, according to the increase of the houses ; so that if di-
vided, there would be only one customer in each house, for
a certain number, and the remainder would have no cus-
tomers at all. When a person went into such a house so
'situated, he would call for his ale, but finding nq company
to his mind, he would go home, or if he went Into another
house he might find it just the same--and it is very unlikely
that any man will sit in a house and get drunk by himselL
—Now let us go to the extreme the other way, and suppose
there were very few houses indeed ; would not such houses
be crowded incessantly with company, night and day, and
that one would encourage another to drinks until-you could
I not enter a house but pm would find druntardo—Does not
this show how much the public have been deceived by false
representation, by the woos ides, that the inoteasing of pub-
, Be-bosses increased drunkenness, when it is directly the re.
verses—that this is the case, is exemplified by foreigners,
upon the Continent; of this I am bear testimony, by actual
ion, for there every one is allowed to sell wine and
spirits without licenses, and although these articles are very
cheap, drunkenness does not prevail to the extent it does in
this country; they do not congregate together for the purpose
t of drinkiog. The reasons I now give, end the early hour at
which the houses enclosed, are enough to convince any tea-
sortable man, that as far as relates to Drunkenness, the ma.
ghtrates have been wrong informed.
I admit there is more ale drank sines the passing of this
Act, but that is not owing altogether to the increase of
houses for the sale of Beer, but chiefly owing to the cheap-
mu, and better quality of the article. The agriculturists
will not find fault with this increase of the sale of malt, as it
has bad the effect of raising the price ofßerley, at lee; one
shilling per bushel.
Now as to Gaming, it isnot likely that poor men in these
times, will have much to hazard in gambling ; this sort of
business is more likely to be carried on in another descrip-
tion of houses. It is' met gambling when young men meet
to play fora pint of hie ; to plgy at ball or bowls, or sport
for liquor and recreation in any ether way, and call it gambl.
lag is very unfair, and what we an bear no longer ; it is con.
trary to nature, for every man stands In need of recreation
occasionally, and instead of disclaiming every species of in-
nocent sport and amusement, we ought to encourage them.
I love my Bible as much ae-iny man, and I all true
doctrine deduced from it, but I abhor and detest the false
sod fanatical notions, or religious pretensions, which are
aimed as gospel truths, that all sports and amusements are
allfid, that men should never congregate together for sport,
mid that it is better to be at prayer than to indulge in such
sports; now I contend it is not better to be always at prayer;
prayer is excellent in its time and place, but the Deity is
not inexorable, he is not deaf to our seen* and it is not
=lng to the Deity that man should be always his
oa ;
he has other duties to perform, and he has to re-
ceive and partake of other enjoyments and gifts, which the
Deity is well-pleased to bestow.
When the Prodigal Son returned bane to his Father, his
elder brother might have said, like our modern fanatics, It
would be better to go to prayer than to have all this music
and dancing ; but our great Lmd and Master taught no such
doctrine as our modern, stiff, unmerciful doctors teach; for
at a wedding in Cana, when they were short of wine, he
made them more ; thus showing that the animal part of our
nature will not be forgotten. This generation of leaders are
like the young Jews of old, when the boys piped, they
would not dance ; indeed our modern religionists will neither
pipe, nor dance, nor play ; neither would they, nor some of
the magistrates, allow the lower classes to pipe, or dance, or
play, if they could prevent it--but the time is fast approach-
ing, when every man will be allowed to enjoy himself, in any
way be thinks proper, provided he does no injury to his
neighbour ; and what injury is done to his neighbour, if he
plays for a prize of laurel, or for liquor ?—dlsappointed mats
may tall it gambling, but wise men know better.
To gamble at cock fighting, pigeon-shooting, bull-bait-
ing, and such like cruel sports cannot be vindicated ; indeed
to Brut with the lives of animals, or to put them to unne-
cessary pain and torture for our amusement or pastime, is
what no sincere christian can unction ;—but to deprive the
lower classes of society of all recreation and harmless amuse-
ment, by calling it gambling, is perverting the use of lan-
guage, and doing more harm than good.
I am with respect to the charge of Debauchery, not aware
there are any such houses as those described ; but should
there be. and they can be pointed out, I am sure the new.
publicans would altogether dimouncoance them.
I have yet another subject to mention, which is, that be-
fore you can fully enjoy the trade you have undertaken,
before it can be profitably followed, our fellow dtisens must
have a good trade, and money to spend, without injuring their
families ;-.1101, this, gentlemen, can never take place again,
until other people obtain a free trade as we have done, it
never an take place until all monopolies and exclusive pd.-
vi are abolished. Thank Goa the East India mono.
Poly is in a fair way of being crushed ; and the Banking mo.
petrol, sad late ibitions must follow ; bow easy Is it to
am that our t is cramped is this town, . for want of ca-
pital among small tredesmen and little marrufaet:erevltlisy
are kept down for want of money. Bankers in
ace dimmest their Bills when drawn, because they him little
or no interest in mains the sick of postings sinall,trades-
man two or three moths.; the jprodt ,ia.not &devote to the
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