The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-11-02 00:00:00

HULL ELECTION

IT will be remembered that at the last election for Hull
the unexpected defeat of Mr. BRANILEY-MOORE and the
Hon. Mr. BUTLER was believed to be solely owing to the
gross and wholesale bribery practised by the Radical can-
didates, Mr. CLAY and Lord GODERICH. Since then an
inquiry has taken place, and the vast body of evidence
collected has been submitted for the careful consideration
of some of the highest and most experienced legal and
parliamentary authorities in the land. The result has
been that the eminent men thus consulted have given it
as their decided and unanimous opinion that there is quite
sufficient in the evidence collected to unseat both Mr.
Clay and Lord Goderieh ; and the Conservative party in
Hull, acting upon this opinion, finally resolved, at an in-
fluential meeting on Monday last, to present a petition
against their return. The Conservatives of Hull have but

done their duty in thus resolving to wrest the seats from
those who have so unworthily obtained them ; and we
look forward with confidence to the final result being the

award in favour of Mr. BRAMLEY-:MORE and his Con-

servative colleague

THE LICENSED VICTUALLERS' ASSO-

CIATION, AND ITS USES.

THE proceedings of the Licensed Victuallers' Asso-
cistion on Thursday last, attendant upon the addition,

through their exertions, of another valuable and be-
nevolent institution to those previously existing in this
Town, deserve more than a passing notice. There is a
meaning which lies beneath the surface on most similar
occasions. The demonstration, both at the laying of the
foundation stone of the intended Asylum and Schools, in
the morning, and at the Banquet in the evening, was most
gratifying, as showing that the countenance and aid of
the Clergy, the Mercantile Aristocracy, and the Trades-
men of Liverpool, are readily extended for the promotion
of every good work undertaken by any body of their fellow-
townsmen. Our business, however, is not with this
demonstration, merely, but with the objects and uses of
the Association itself, as ably set forth in the speech of
Mr. HENRY DANSON.

The business of the Licensed Victualler, notwithstanding
the prejudices which exist against it in many minds, is one
of very great importance, in whatever aspect it is regarded.
The Licensed Victualler is the medium through which a
large Customs and Excise Revenue flows into the Ex-
chequer. He is the dispenser to the great mass of the
community of articles the use of which, within the bounds
of reason and moderation, forms a portion of what are
regarded as the comforts and luxuries of the masses,
whilst their abuse is the fertile source of crime, disease,
and death. How important, then, it is that the class of
men, upon whom rests such a large amount of responsi-
bility, should possess high moral character, firmness, and
unswerving honesty ! Such men alone, so far as the
strictest care of the committee has been able to effect su',h
a result, constitute the present Association ; and their
business naturally is to raise to their own, or to a proper
level, the remaining body of the trade. In this sense,
although Mr. DANsoN objects to the term " Trade So-
ciety"—and properly so, if used in the ordinary sense—
the Licensed Victuallers' is a Trade Society. Its object
is the elevation of the character and the promotion of the
just requirements of all engaged in it. And, in the per-
formance of these functions, a vast field of sterling
usefulness is before the Association—a field more com-
prehensive than that of any Chamber of Commerce ; for,
as we have already stated, it has intrusted to its keeping
not merely trade, or individual interests, but the bodily
and moral health of a large portion of the public. It has
to protect an important class from that undiscriminating
persecution from men in power which is caused by the
offences of unworthy members of that class ; to vindicate
the character and objects of the deserving, whilst it re-
pudiates all participation by its members in the misdoings
of the undeserving ; to bring to bear the moral influence
which such a' society must ever command against the
morbid and sickly feeling which has too long existed in
influential quarters against the Trade. The Association
has a right also to assume deliberative functions ; and
will be enabled, from the large experience possessed by
its members, to solve many important questions, which
have thus far perplexed magisterial wisdom.

A proof of this was afforded on Thursday night by the
suggestions thrown out by Mr. DANSON, in rep!y to Mr.
TURNER'S exposition of the difficulty under which the
Magistrates of Liverpool at present labour with respect to
the Licensing system. The magistrates justly object to
that system, as heretofore carried out. It has long
fostered practices of gross favouritism, and, as many of
the public believe, of jobbing ; it has moreover led to the
creation of additional licenses, when those already existing
were far beyond the legitimate wants of the community.
Mr. DAMSON, and the Association, entirely concur in
these objections to the present system ; but they demur
to the Propriety of the local magistrates absolving them-
selves of their functions, and running away, as it were,
from the task of grappling with the difficulty which they
have themselves created. A portion of the difficuliy in
question, and a prime source of much of the itnmorality
existing within the town, is to be found in the low class
of men who have been, from time to time, entrusted with
licenses. Have the magistrates in past times exercised a
proper care in this respect ? No, they have not. The
alleged wants of a neighbourhood, the suitability of the
premises for which a license has been required, and
too often a brewer's or spirit merchant's influence,
have weighed more than any other considerations to
secure such license. The moral character of the party
benefited has been the smallest consideration. The
transfer of a license has almost invariably been regarded
as a mere matter of form. A dog-fighter, a low pugilist.
or a character lower still, if possible, in the moral scale,
has been placed in the important trust which every
licensed victualler holds, with scarcely an enquiry.

Mr. TURNER, for his own part, confessed candidly that
he did not see his way clearly to the adoption of a different
system—so far, at all events, as regards supplying the
new quarters of the town with such licensed houses as are
legitimately required by their population. Here again
the practical experience of the Association offered the aid
of its suggestion—and we feel ourselves justified in stating
that the same suggestion was made by us at the com-
mencement of this difficulty two or three months ago.
in fact we have advocated the course recommended by
Mr. DANSOIsT, from time to time during seven or eight
years past, before the Magistrates had discovered that the
present system was vicious at all. Had our advice been
followed, there need not have been an additional license
granted during this long period. The suggestion was
simply that a portion of the Licenses in the old and now
almost deserted streets of the town—at present only
affording to their holders the means of harbouring dis-
reputable characters, and promoting the habit of sly
drinking to the female portion, especially, of our working
population—should be dispersed over the new quarters of
the town, say, so many each year. Three-fourths of such
houses at present do no legitimate business. The licenses
attached to them only add a trifle to the rental exacted by
the owners of the property ; and in many cases their being
prohibited to be sold,—which they are by the existing
regulations of the licensing Magistrates,—prevents the
erection of a better and more comfortable class of work-
ing men's dwellings on the site where they now exist.

MEETING OF CONVOCATION.—The following petition
on the subject of Convocation has been forwarded to the
Queen from the congregation of St. John's Church, in
this town :—`! The humble petition of the undersigned
ministers, Churchwardens, and members of St. John's
Church, Liverpool. May it please your Majesty.—We
beg, with feelings of devoted attachment to your Majesty's
royal person and throne, to address your Majesty on the
subject of the convocation of our national Church. We
view with alarm the present agitation created by certain
parties, chiefly of Romish tendencies, to revive the active
functions of convocation. We believe that, as at present
constituted, the convocation does not fairly represent the
United Church of England and Ireland—the licensed
curates, the laity, who form the great body of the church,
and the entire of the Irish branch of the national estab-
lishment, being excluded from all share in its deliberations.
We do not enter upon the abstract question of the desi-
rableness of convocation in certain circumstances, and
under certain modifications; but we humbly conceive that
under existing circumstances, and constituted as it is, the
revival of its powers would be fraught with peril to the
peace and integrity of the Established Church, to the
religious rights and liberties of the laity, and to the har-
mony and well-being of your Majesty's realm. We, there-
fore, most earnestly pray that your most gracious Majesty
will not allow the revival of the active functions of
convocation."