The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-07-09 00:00:00

AMENDMENT OF THE BEER-ACT.

We have received a copy of the bill for amending the act
for regulating the sale of beer, as altered by the committee
of the house of commons ; and, as the subject is of consider-
able importance to a very large class of persons, we subjoin
an abstract of the bill in its present state. It will be seen
that the Ist, 3d, and 16th clauses made the most important
change.ip the existing law ;—the Ist increasing the cost of the
license from £3 3s. to £5 ; the 3d fixing the value of houses
to which licenses may be granted ; and the 16th providing
that the:hours of opening and closing shall be the same in li-
censed publid-honses and beer-honses.
• 1. .Li;cense duty of three guineas, imposed by 4 and 5. Will.
IV. c.. 85, on sale of beer to be drank on the premises, re-
pealed;and a duty office pounds imposed in lieu thereof-
2, Duty to be under the management of commissioners of
excise, and shall be raised, and applied in the same manner
as time former duty.
3. License to retail beer to he drank on the premises not
to he granted to any but the real resident occupier, nor in
respect of any house rated at less than £l5 per annum
within the bills ofmortality ; £lO in cities, towns, and bo-
roughs, containing 5,000 inhabitants; and £5 elsewhere.
4. Persons applying to retail beer or cider to be drank on
the premises to produce a certificate from the overseer of
such person being the real resident occigier of the house,
and of the amount at winch the Louse is rated.
5. Provision for new houses occupied since a rate made.
6 In extra-paroclial places, a license may be granted on
the certificate of the landlord on the rent; or, if the party be
the. owner, of two inhabitant householders of the annual
value.
7. Penalty on overseers refusing to grant certificates, and
on overseers and other persons granting false certificates.
8. Penalty on forging or counterfeiting certificates, and on
making use of false certificates. All licenses obtained by
false certificates to he void, and the person so obtaining a li-
cense to be afterwards disqualified from obtaining any license
for the sale of beer or cider.
9. On the death of a licensed person, the executors or ad-
ministrators. or the widow or child, may be authorised to
sell for the remainder of the license.
10. Persons licensed to retail beer or cider to make entry
with the excise.
11. Persons licensed to sell beer or cider having wine,
spirits, or sweets, in their entered premises, to forfeit £5O;
and any licensed person convicted of having wine, spirits, or
sweets, in their possession, or selling wine or spirits without
license, to forfeit their license. _

12. Officers of excise empowered to enter the premises of
beer retailers.

13. Repeal of 4 and 5 Wm. IV. c. 85, s. 6, (empowering
justices to fix the hours for opening and closing houses li-
censed for the sale of beer.)
14. No person licensed to sell beer or cider to forfeit his
license for a first offeuce against the tenor of his license, and
no license to he void unless so adjudged.
15. Penalties undei this act, where not otherwise directed,
to be.recovered under. the provisions of the former acts.
IG. Justices assembled at the general annual license meet-
ing, under 9 Geo. IV. c. 61, may fix the hours for Opening
'n.d closing inns, alehouses), and beerhouses ; the hours to be
fixed, and the egulations to be made, to applt WITHOUT
rusTiNuTioN 10 public houses and houses licensed for the
sale of beer only. . _ •-•,.• •
f 7. ethninencement-Ofaet. ,

18. Aot me y be altered ar repealed in tho protosit, seesios,: