Lynchburg daily Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1852-1861, 1853-04-29
TO tie Members If tie Hastings Court 81

Lynchburg:
GENTLEMEN.-My object in addressing you
at present, is not 10 point out to you your spc.
cifc duties as Magistrates, but onlyto inform
you that the day is at h'nd when you will he
called ON 10 license the Various Hotels Of this
City TO sell st'ong drink to your fellow citi-
Zens Much complaint was uttered against
you last year for the manner in which you at.
tended To this particular and hal 1t not been
for the fact that some of you plead IN extenua.
ton Of your course, that You supposed 1t as in
accordance with the Law prescribing your du-
lies in this matter, you would have received
the just rehuke of an indignant constituency,
which you. in Their estimation, justly mered.
Blu, kind and forbearng people are willing
to give you another chance to recover that pc
siton on have lost in your sympathy for the
vrnder Of ardent spirits Every eye will be on
you next monday. Those absent from their seats
will he properly noticed, and will he und u
stood rs avoiding this great responsibility Inn
posed upon you. or rather taken upon your
selves. Many of your fellow citizens are tired
of the hea, y tax this traffic imposes upon them,
and are averse TO Its longer continuance. 1t
may not be known to you that, by this license
system, the Tax payers ofthiscity contribute
no less sum than $4,000 annually, about
$50 81 weekly, oiIthe support of pauperism
+ created alone by this q cd dsbonoring traffic be
sides burying every week one of our citizens in
a drunkards grave If you are prepared to as
sume greater responsibility and continue to
give the power to a. tarored teW to carry on the
work of death, nothing more can be expected
from you. You perhaps enquire, If YOU have
the right to withdraw II from all who may an
ply: in answer 10 this enquiry will merely
give the written opinion ofone of the most dis
tinguished practitioners at the Richmond Bar
This letter is in answer TO an enquiry of Major
t Preston of Lexington Va it speaks for itself
and defines your privileges and powers in this
respect.
RICHMOND, July 9th 1859.
ri DEAR SIR:-The question propounded in
your letter of the 10Th, turns essentially upon
the word ''may," used in the Sd section. of
chapter 96 ofthe code, page 443. As Pollock
&c. b. said IN Jonesvs. Harrison, Sd Eng Law
and Eq., 5S2-"Does it mean that the court or
Judge shall have power either TO do the act spo
ken of, or abstain from doing it as they see ft
or that they shall do itswhether they consider it
fit or not" | am decidedly of opinion as
decidedly of the opinion the English court
was in the case just cited that the wofd"mag"
lis permissive, not imperative. In other words,
when application is made under the third sec
ton of chapter 96, of the code, for license
to keep an ordinary house of public entertain.
ment, although the court be of opinion that
Nthe applicant is sober and of good character,
:, and will probably keep a house orderly, use
.u'and such as the law requires. it is not bound
'r 70 grant such license. The court has powereith
id or TO grantthe license applied for, or abstain from
ID granting 1t as 1t fit; it is not TO grant it
whether'lt considersit fit or NOT.
= II me license he refused the refusal is to be
entered OF record; and after such refusal a Ii
lcense Is not to be granted to the applicant be-