Star.
London, England, 1818-03-11 00:00:00

price of any article of provision to the public was
contrary to law, most injurious to the community,
and likely to produce the most dangerous conse-
quences, ho should hope the charge could not be
just, and that no Gentleman of character, honour,
and fortune, would take part in any meeting called
for such a purpose. The Petitioners proceeded to
stateo that the monopoly of which they complained,
was produced and fostered by die existing laws with
respect to licenses. By the law as it stood. at present,
the Magistrates were invested with the power of say-
ing who should and who should not carry on the
trade of a victualler. They could, at any time, force
a man to leave his house, and it was for them to de-
termine when and where he should follow the calling
of a publican. This would not be a great evil if a
sound discretion were exercised by the Magistrates,
but the Licensing Magistrates, in deciding on cases'
of this description, it was said did not exercise -a
sound discretion. Licenses were withheld, or given
by them with a view to the profit and advantage of
certain brewers who were their patrons—(hear.)-1
They further complained of the power given to the
Magistrates to take away the licence of any victualler
for alleged misconduct without any kind of trial.—
This, they contended, was inconsistent with the prin-
ciples of English law, as it enabled a Magistrate, at
his pleasure, to deprive an individual of his calling,
and perhaps of his property, and thus not unfre-
quently to involve him in unmerited ruin. Some in-
stances were stated to have occurred in which this
power had been used in a most arbitrary and unjust,
manner. The remedy which the Petitioners sugges-
ted for these evils was an open trade. They recom-
mended that a licence should be granted to any per-
son wishing to carry on the business of a Victualler,
on his paying a duty which might be imposed to be-
nefit the revenue, without the intervention of the Ma-
gistrate. When a licence should be taken away, they
wished it to be withdrawn on some known legisla-
tive rule, and not at the pleasure, or on the indivi-
dual opinion of a Magistrate. This the Petitioners
were satisfied was the only ratnedy that could be ap-
plied to the evil of which they complained, and this
they thought would speedily remove the grievances
of excessive price and great deterioration of the qua-
lity of that necessary article, Porter These were the
facts of the case ; for the truth of them he could not
pledge himself, but he had thought it his duty to
lay this very important Petition before the House, in
such a manner that it should attract their attention.
He might, however, he allowed to recommend it, as
it went againit an alleged monopoly, and a mono.;
poly to advance the price of provisions was abhor-
rent to all law, and opposite to every principle of
good commercial policy, as reasonable prices were
only to be expected from an open trade and free
competition. The Petition too, he would say, was in
several particulars borne out by the Report of the
Committee on the Police of the Metropolis. The
most eminent men in the brewing line were examined
before that Committee, and it had appeared to the
Committee, as might be seen from their Report, that
within the last few years the practice of purchasing
public-houses by Brewers had greatly increased.
Nearly one-half of the public-houses in the Metropo-
lis had. thus become the property of the Brewers.
This system it condemned, as most injurious to the
public at large. It would thus be seen that the Peti-
tioners had not come to the House on slight grounds,
since the system which they desired to put down had
receivzd the strong condemnation of a Committee of
that Douse.--The Petition was then brought up
and read.
To the Ifoxotoiastr the COMMOVI of the Therein Ktecnon
Of Gassy BLITAPIand 1111CLANDiti Parliament assembled,
the humble P/71I1OS of the WWII/ANT* of LAMDON and
its V 1001177,
1. That your Petitioners are much aggrieved by the high
price and inferior quality of the Beer which is obtruded upon
them in consequence of the supplying of that necessary of life
being confined to certain privileged individuals and places.
2. That high lerl authorities have declared all Monopolies to
be against the ancient and fundamental laws of the realm, and
injurious to the public—first, by raising the price of commodi-
ties; secondly, by diminishing their quality; thirdly, by impo-
verishing poor manufacturers.
3. That the Legislature has passed numerous statutes to pu-
nish such as are guilty of creating Monopolies—particularly rt,o-
nnpolies of the necessaries of life; and so early as the ad and 3d
of Edward IV. very heavy penalties were imposed on victual-
lers who combined together to raise the price of victuals, extend-
ing upon a second repetition of the offence to the pillory, to the
loss of an ear, and perpetual infamy.
4. That, notwithstanding the illegality of such conduct and its
injury to the public, a Monopoly in tee supply of Beer has of
late years been raised in various parts of England ; insomuch,
that nearly the whole custom of the metropolis is engrossed by
eleven great breweries, whose principals act in combination—
meeting together like the partners of one concern, and fixing the
price at which beer shall be sold.
5. That when the reduced price of malt and hops, of horses'
provender and labour, the lessening of the tax on malt, and the
subsequent abolition of the Property Tax, enabled the brewers
to make great reductions in their accustomed charges, they did
not make such reducdons, but kept up their prices, until after
their conduct had excited animadversions in the House of Com-
mons, alleging as a reason for their doing so, that their stock in
hand must be first disposed of.
6. That so soon as the failure of the harvest in 1811 caused
the price of malt to look up, and while their stock in band was
wholly unaffected by the rise of the materials, they revived the,
high prices of beer to the consumer, which prices they have
lately still further advanced.
7. That beer as now made is so void of the nourishing and in-
vigorating qualities which it formerly possessed, and is often-
times ungrateful and even injurious to the stomach, owing to the
deleterious ingredients of which it is in some instances com-
posed, that consumers are frequently driven to use a mixture of
gin with it, to give it the semblance of strength and spirit, or still
more prejudicially to the drinking of gin iustead of beet.
8. That these and numerous other evils are justly attributable
to the Monopoly which the great brewers have established.
9. That this Monopoly is produced and upheld by the uncon-
stitutional power given to Justices of the Peace, in their respec-
tive localities, td prevent any persons front vending beer except-
big such persons and in such houses as they please; a power
which being subject to no human contrpol, and being exercised in
many instances by needy or avaricious men, is naturally applied
by them in preventing competition in trades in which they or
their friends or patrons are interested.
10. That a desire to prevent an unnecessary number of houses,
the reason generally assigned for refusing permtssien to open
houses, built for public-houses, where the reasotable wants of
the public require them, is evidently insincere; because the same
licensers grant licences to public-houses in dusters where the
terest of their friends is thereby upheld, although such houses can
only be supported by allowing and encouraging bad practices.
11. That the similar pretence, that competition is prevented
in order that the landlord of the favoured houses may flourish,
and not be induced through necessity to suffer disorderly con-
duct on their premises, is equally fallacious ; because the owners
of the favoured houses, who are generally brewers or spirit-
dealers, always require prentlums of their tenants, equal to the
value of the Monopoly to them, or an additional rent; :thus
keeping the tenants profits down, however valuable the neinse
may be to the principal.
12. That the supposition of correcting the licentiousness es-,couraged at some public houses, by denying licenses for coheir,

Its only calculated to benefit the 'Monopoly. system ; 1t being !VI.
dent in principle, dust men will not drink 1 ss or be less disor-
&Tit when drawn together in one house than they would be if
divided among two or three ; and notorious in practice that
some of the houses which command a superior share of cus-
tom and profit, ara among those which are most injurious to the
imblic health and morals.
s. That such is the value, however, of the prohibition of
competition, that thousands of pounds are frequently given for
the consideration of a license to a house, in other words, for per-
mission to trade, which expense, together with the extra profits,
secured by the Monopoly, fall upon the consumers, and become
a griesecrus berthen to the lower classes of the community.
11. That it is unreasonable to invest Justices of the Peace with
the right of issuing exclusive powers for trading in victuals,
when the issuing of inch powers by the Sovereign himself is de-
clared to be void in law.
15. That it is equally unreasonable to authorise the said Jus-
tices to " disseize men of their liberties and free customs," at
their own will and 'insure, without being accountable to any
humaibeing, while the King, on hit throne, is interdicted from
" hurting or injuring" the meanest subject, unless by due
course of law ; and is answerable for his acts in the persona of
his Ministers.
16. That theseextraordinary and unconstitutional powers, even
in the purest hands, are wholly inefficient for the object of keep-
ing victualling-houses in good order; because they are only in
action one day in the year, when punishment, as regari.s the
past, is easily got rid of by shifting the tenant, and as regards
the future, it is as impossible for the licensers to know that such
houses as hey patronize will be well conducted as it is that these
which they refuse to license would be disorderly.
17. That it is therefore equally in vain to expect an effectual
controul over public-houses, or a termination of the wrongs in-
Meted on the owners of houses, on victuallers, and on the public
at large, under the present licensing systt-ns—a system which is
proved to be all.impotent for good purposes, and all-powerful
for bad ones—erecting a despotic controul over the comforts,
the property, and the rights of the subject, which is anomalous
in the constitutional government of this country, and which is
believed to be unknown in any other.
18. That to produce a remedy, it is necessary fur the Magis-
trates power to be removed from the patronage of the trade of
victualling, to the correction of the disorders which sometimes
arise out of it—from the exercises of their own uncontrollable
wills, to the administration of Legislative Rules equally applica-
ble and extending to all, and in which the penalties are propor-
tioned to the offences, and are operative immediately.
19. That in as far as it is deemed expedient to restrict the
number of public houses, that end will be most fairly and bene-
ficially accomplished by investing a large duty on the license to
open anynew house, thus diverting the value of the restriction
from the pockets of the license-jobbers to the uses of the State.
90. That with a large duty imposed on leave to open a new
house, and due means provided for immediately stopping a trade
conducted in a disorderly manner, no person would risk the ca-
pital necessary to establish a new trade, unless he could do it
upon safe grounds, and therefore no good reason can be advanced
against restoring to the public the benefit of a free competition,
and to tictualkrs the common rights of their countrymen ;
namely, the liberty to carry on their trade in such places as they
find most eligible (not being locally offensive), and to purchase
their goods of such manufacturers as offer to supply them on the
best terms. .

Your Petitioners humbly submit the above propositions to the
wisdom and paternal care of your Honourable House, in the hope
that your Honourable House may restore to the piddle generally
the right of a free trade in beer, and to the victualler in parti-
cular the protection of laws, instead of the wills of indivi fuels,
subject to such Legislative regulations for the trade as shall be
deemed conducive to the public welfare.
And your Petitioners will ever pray, Dec.

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 Ministers to be
present to kear the explanation he was anxious to of-
fer. Though the question was one which deeply af-
fected the Brewers and a larp body of•respectable
men who were connected with totem, yet he considered
it to he also one in which all the Members of that
House must take a lively interest, and Ministers were
bound to give their attention to that from which
nearly a fiftieth part of the whole revenue of the
country was derived, namely, the sum of 900,0001.
He wished to make some observations on the man-
ner in which this Petition had been produced. The
Honourable Gentleman then gave the history of the
publication of Mr. Beaumont's Resolutions in the
Newspapers, the substance of which were embodied
in the present Petition, and of the Meeting subse-
quently called to take them into consideration, at the
Crown and Anchor. At that Meeting, which he
had understood was not very numerous, those Reso-
lutions were proposed, and of course passed unani-
mously. In such an assembly, it was impossible to
suppose that any person who might speak on behalf
of the Brewers could obtain a fair hearing. This
was not to be expected, after the Chairman, in open-
ing the business, had pronounced the bitterest phi-
lippic that could issue from the lips of man, against a
class of persons of whose conduct he could positively
know nothing. The Resolutions of the Meeting were
published in all the Papers, and after a sufficient
time had elapsed, this Petition was produced. Of
this he had only to say, that, large as it was, he was
astonished that it had not double and treble the num-
ber of signatures attached to it that had actually
been procured. He had expected more, as he knew
that the Petition had been left in shops, where 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, in-
viting the public to sign it, and inscribed—" A free
trade and a fair trial." Mr. Beaumont, 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 reply to what was said of the monopoly of the
eleven London Brewers, for against them the charge
was directed, as there was a marked distinction be-
tween these and the Brewers in the country, though
the latter had public-houses of their own, as well as
the Brewers in town. In the Metropolis these were
three breweries which brewed more than half of the
beer consumed. Now what had been proved in evi-
•dence? Why, that out of the public-houses served
by the concern with which he was connected, °fie in
eight had been purchased by the Brewer. The pro-
portion of those in the same situation which were
served from the Brewery of Whitbread and Co. was
one to seven. In short, out of the whole—out of
about two thousand public-house 'in the Metropolis,'
there might be two or three hundred in the hands of
Brewers. A certain number of houses that had not
been purchased were filled by persons who had re-
ceived loans from the Brewers, for it was the practice
of all of them to lend sums in this -way on the lease
of the house. 'These, • however, were not bound to
the Breweries with which they were thus connected,
as, if they should find the article with which they
Waft served such as the public did not like, they
could pay the money that had been advanced to
them, and go elsewhere, Between two and three
hundred persons lie knew had thus changed in the
course of last year> -He meant, such a number had
come to the house with which be was connected, or
gone from it under such circuity:maces. Now it veas
.Saidwititatt by the loans thus esie'Auced, the capital

laid out by the Brewers was so hi
public was in consequence charge,
porter than they would otherwise I
could, however, assert, that if :he
the twelfth part of a halfpenny on
they sold, it would pay them beyo;
vine expectations for all the me
in the way he had mentioned. It

that if this practice were discom
could not have their porter at a t
then it would be said they might

would leave the House to conceive
it. could be made for the twelfth p:
or the one hundred and forty-ft
price of a pot of porter. From
thought it-would be seen, that f
the practice of lending money to
lic could not have their porter e:

ter, and that by keeping up 0:e
rable number of individuals in iui

were materially benefited, whi.e t
sustained no injury. Now on the
would again refer to the Report o
mince. The Chairman of that C
vestigated the subject with much
(Mr. Barclay) had given him all th
power. What was the result as t.
crease of price alleged to have ta,
thirty or forty years back, por:er
three-pence half penny Fer pot.
had made such an addition to the
as raised it to four-pence, and the i
taken place on the raw materials
made, was to great, that the He,
was not the shadow of a found4ti
preferred against them in this res
ceeded to 'hew by a comparntiv,
prices of malt and hops at differe
he asserted to have been incorrect
Beaumont. That Gentleman bad

risen a halfpenny, when the pri4
had been reduced, and it had d,
had risen. This had occurred at
to, but it was the lasing on an 4

War Malt Duty that had causei
price :which had b:.'en notice-1.
grounds on which Mr. Beaumi
vote of censure arainst the Brewe
moat had accused them of raisin,

when their stock in hand could

ed by the atdvAnce wbkh had

prices of malt and hops. He era
fear of contradiction, that the 1)11
ed in the benefits afforded hr th
They must have Nid a higher
than they had paid if the stock
vented a larger augmentation of
actually taken place. Tbis a•a
when he stated the price former]

be 645. including the war dnty ;
for it 'without the war malt dazy

of the Breweries had, in defercno
Public, as manifested at t!..q: C
Meeting, reduced the price it,
little history to give the Horse of
Brewery. This was a Public B,

been raised by subscription share)
posed that such a Brewery c(
cheaper than any other, as peer
heir money in such concerns w,
receive five per cent. interest ; but
in a regular way had a right to (
something more. But what wont
when they were told that this pai
not paid the shareholders any int(
years ? By subscription shares thi
had been raised to establish the '
the shares were selling at such a ►
that it might be said all theii cap►
but about 100,0001. They, thereto)
could sell at a rate that no otter
think of selling at. Besides tin
mentioned, there were Publicans
the metropolis who sold a penn
price. But he had never heard
this who did not mix water or tab.
porter ; and he knew many instanti
sold under price having been refi
Brewery he was concerned with,
certain, if sold to them, it would
Med that there was any comb;

Brewers against the interests of
owing to them that the price of I
oftener raised, and they had lo
small Breweries would never ha,
such a -thing. It was said that
from malt and hops. This clra

without a shadow of foundation.
for one house that it was untrw
vinced as much might be said
the Brewers of Loudon were to
ingredients, they must be sup,

cm-loads. These mast be bron
people in their service, and also 1

the Government, who were alw
noises. Could it then be thougl
would be made, when in all In
be the consequence? An infamoi
been set on foot respecting a
been made at the Brewhnuse to
had made such an impression,
_ _

Afterwards the Publicans were
down to entreat that the stateme
dicted, as till this was done
single barrel of beer. He would
if it were likely that they should
and fortunes by practices like th,
But it was said a free trade w
brewers wished for this as niuc'
and their exertions had been din
as far as cl.nAccl upon them,
had succeeded to a great degree.
allowing any person to comma
pleasure, though his own indivi
be promoted by it, he conld
House that there was a large bcN
terests this-wotild greatly affect,
tied to protection—he meaat tl
value of the leases of those who
titular house, he believed to ar
than 500,000/. That property
vaded- without the fullest inquir

called upon the Ilousecto givz t.
serious attention before they thot
of that kind Ile touted he had
"ince the Howe that no nionopi