As your Committee are fully aware that one of the most important elements in successful legislation is the obtaining the full sanction and support of public opinion in favour of the laws—and as this is most powerful and most enduring when based on careful investigation and accurate knowledge as the result, they venture still further to recommend the most extensive circulation during the recess, under the direct sanction of the Legislature, of an abstract of the evidence obtained by this inquiry, in a cheap and portable volume, as was done with the Poor Law Report, to which it would form the best auxiliary; the national cost of intoxication and its consequences being tenfold greater in amount than that of the poor-rates, and pauperism itself being indeed chiefly caused by habits of intemperance, of which it is but one out of many melancholy and fatal results.
By 4th and 5th William IV., the preamble whereof recites that much evil had arisen from the management of houses in which beer and cider are sold, it was enacted that each beer-seller is to obtain his annual excise licence only on condition of placing in the hands of the excise, a certificate of good character signed by six rated inhabitants of his parish (none of whom must be brewers or maltsters), if in a town of 5,000 inhabitants; but the house to be one rated at 10l. a year. This Act also distinguishes between persons who sell liquor to be drunk on the premises, and those who sell it only to be drunk elsewhere. By a Treasury order, beer sold at, or under, 1½d. per quart, may be retailed without licence.
It is well known that Lord Brougham was a warm advocate of the Beer Act in the first instance. He entirely changed his opinion. In 1839, he said in the Upper House:—
To what good was it that the Legislature should pass laws to punish crime, or that their lordships should occupy themselves in finding out modes of improving the morals of the people by giving them education? What could be the use of sowing a little seed here, and plucking up a weed there, if these beer-shops were to be continued that they might go on to sow the seeds of immorality broadcast over the land, germinating the most frightful produce that had ever been allowed to grow up in a civilised country, and, he was ashamed to add, under the fostering care of Parliament, and throwing its baleful influences over the whole community?
Queen Victoria had scarcely ascended the throne before she was reminded that the evils of the drink traffic were upmost in the minds of many of her Majesty’s subjects. At a Conference held at Carnarvon, August 2, 1837, a congratulatory address to the Sovereign upon her accession was drawn up. It stated:—
To this declaration not less than one hundred thousand of your Majesty’s loyal subjects have already subscribed their names, some thousands of whom had previously been drunkards. And could we convey to your royal mind the incalculable benefits resulting from the simple means of total abstinence from intoxicating liquor, we would with humble confidence earnestly entreat your Majesty to condescend to patronise our endeavour to wipe away from Britain the plague-spot of drunkenness.
In the treatment of this period, we have to confront an apparent anomaly, viz. the largest drink bills on record, and the most strenuous efforts to get rid of drink altogether. That the Statute Book bristles with legislative interference, is sufficiently accounted for by these two circumstances. In no period has legislation been to the same extent an index of the precise situation. Let us at once address ourselves to its salient features.
By the 2nd and 3rd Victoria, called the Metropolitan Police Act, operating within a circle of fifteen miles from Charing Cross, all public-houses are to be shut on Sundays until one o’clock p.m., except for travellers: and publicans are prohibited, under penalties of 20l., 40l., and 50l., for the first, second, and third offences, from selling spirits to young persons under sixteen years of age.
By the 3rd and 4th Victoria a licence can only be granted to the real occupier of the house; and the rated value to be 15l. in towns of 10,000 inhabitants; 11l. in towns of between 2,500 and 10,000; and 8l. in smaller places. The hours for opening and closing within the metropolitan boroughs are 5 a.m. and 12 p.m.; but 11 o’clock in any place within the bills of mortality, or any city, town, or place not containing above 2,500 inhabitants. In smaller places 10 o’clock p.m. On any Sunday, Good Friday, or Christmas Day, or any day appointed for a public fast or thanksgiving, the houses are not to be opened before one o’clock p.m. Licensed victuallers and keepers of beer-shops who sell ale to be drunk on the premises, may have soldiers billeted on them.