Transcribed from the 1855 William Tweedie edition by DavidPrice,
By J.EWING RITCHIE.
LONDON:
WILLIAM TWEEDIE, 337, STRAND.
1855.
p. 2THE
PUBLIC-HOUSE TRADE
AS IT IS:
OR
AN EPITOME OF THE EVIDENCE
TAKEN BEFORE A
COMMITTEE OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
IN THE
Parliamentary Sessions of1853–4.
BY J. EWING RITCHIE.
An Act came into operation inAugust, denominated “The New Beer Bill,” requiringpublic-houses to be closed on Sundays, with the exception of thehours 1 to 3 p.m., and 6 to 10 p.m. No sooner was it passedthan it was found there was a great decrease in the number ofcases of persons charged with drunkenness at the various policestations of the metropolis. Monday, instead of being aheavy day, was the reverse—the magistrates had little ornothing to do. But this great public good was not broughtabout without inconveniencing some parties. The publicansfelt their craft was in danger,—that they were, as BenjaminDisraeli informed them the other day at Plymouth, “in acritical situation;” and that if they acquiesced in thelaw, the result would be most unsatisfactory, pecuniarily, tothemselves. Accordingly, they have banded themselves intoone compact Defence Association—they have taken sweetcounsel together—they have organised an opposition all overthe land. Whether they have acted wisely is another matter:with the evidence just published in two enormous Blue Books, Ithink silence would become them better. And so thought theknowing ones in the trade when they accepted the new Bill insteadof one that would have been harsher still. The opponents ofthe Bill—publicans by-the-bye—thus speak of it: Mr.Luce of Hampton Court, “thinks it a despotic and tyrannicalBill.” According to a Mr. Symes, “it isdirected against all recreation on Sundays—all relaxationafter the toils of the week.” Mr. Palmer said,“The Bill ought to be called the Liberty of the Subject andLicensed Victuallers’ Liberty CurtailmentBill.” I take these extracts from the report of agreat meeting in Drury Lane in September. p. 4Mr. Lyne, alsoa publican, writes in the Daily News, that “sincethe curfew bell there never was a measure which produced suchgeneral discontent. Notwithstanding the genialness of theweather the social gloom which has settled in the suburbs isindescribable.” The Daily News, in the poorhope of saving itself from annihilation, by opposing the newBill, and thus becoming the organ of the pot-housesays:—“The Pharisees of our drawing-rooms and saloonsought, before they are allowed to hamper and annoy the honestpoor by their enactments, to be compelled to share for a seasonin the labour of the poor, in order that they might have someconception of the privations which they entail upon theirvictims, and the possible consequences of suchprivation.” In another leader it draws the picture ofa working man returning from Brighton and starving in the streetsin consequence of the new Bil