In 1753 a statute was passed (26 Geo. H. c. 31) by the provisions of which, with some trifling modifications by later statutes, the licensing of alehouses con tinued to be regulated for the remainder of the last century. This statute, after reciting that " the laws concerning ale houses, and the licensing thereof, were in sufficient for correcting and suppressing the abuses and disorders frequently com mitted therein," contains, among others, the following enactments:-1. That upon granting a licence to any person to keep an alehouse, such person should enter into a recognizance in the sum of 101. with sufficient sureties, for the maintenance of good order therein. 2. That no licence should be granted to any person not li censed the preceding year, unless hero duced a certificate of good character from the clergyman and the majority of the parish officers, or from three or four re spectable and substantial inhabitants, of the place in which such alehouse is to be. 3. That no licence should be granted but at a meeting of magittrates, to be held on the 1st of September in every year, or within twenty days after wards, and should be made for one year only. 4, Authority is given to any magistrate to require an alehouse keeper, charged upon the information of any person with a breach of his recog nizance, to appear at the next quarter sessions, where the fact may be tried by a jury, and in case it is found that the con dition of the recognizance has been broken, theecogn' ce is to be entreated into the equer, and the party is utterly disabled from selling ale or other liquors for three years.
By a statute sassed in 1808 (48 Geo. III. c. 143) a difference was introduced into the mode of licensing, not with a view to the internal regulation of ale houses, but for purposes connected with the collection of the revenue. The licence, which was formerly obtained from the magistrates, was, by that act, to be granted by the commissioners, collectors, or supervisors of Excise, ander certain directions, and upon the produc tion by the applicant of a previous licence or allowance, granted by the magistrates, according to the provisions of the former statutes respecting licensing.
The next act of parliament upon this subject was passed in 1822 (3 Geo. IV. C. 77), but as that statute continued in operation for only a few years, it is un necessary to specify its provisions further than to notice that the preamble states the insufficiency of the laws previously in force respecting alehouses, and that one of its provisions is considerably to increase the amount of the recognizances required both from the alehouse-keeper and his sureties.
In 1828 a general act to regulate the Ming of alehouse licences was passed Geo. IV. c. 61), which repealed all former statutes on this subject, and enacts a variety of provisions, of which the fol lowing are the most important : —1. Licences are to be granted annually, at a special session of magistrates, appointed and summoned in a manner particularly directed, and to be called the General Annual Licensing Meeting, to be holden iu Middlesex and Surrey, within the first ten days of March, and in every other place between the 20th of August and the 14th of September. Any person who is refused a licence may appeal to the quar ter-sessions; and no justice is to act in an appeal who was concerned in the re fusal of the licence. 2. Every person in
tending to apply for a licence must affix • notice of his intention, with the name, abode, and calling of the applicant, on the door of the house which he wishes to open as an alehouse, and on the door of the church or chapel of the place in which it is situated, on three several Sundays, and must serve a copy of it upon one of the overseers, and one of the peace-officers. 3. If a riot or tumult happens, or is ex pected to happen, two justices may direct any licensed alehouse-keeper to close his house ; and if this order be disobeyed, the keeper of the alehouse is to be deemed not to have maintained good order there in. 4. The licence is subjected to an express stipulation that the keeper of the house shall not adulterate his liquors ; that he shall not use false measures ; that he shall not permit drunkenness, gaming, or disorderly conduct in his house ; that he shall not suffer persons of notoriously bad character to assemble therein ; and that (except for the reception of travel lers) he shall not open his house during divine service on Sundays and holidays. 5. Heavy and increasing penalties for repeated offences against the tenor of the licence are imposed; and magistrates at sessions are empowered to punish an ale house keeper, convicted by a jury of a third offence against the tenor of his licence, by a fine of 100/., or to adjudge his licence to be forfeited.
Under the Metropolitan Police Act (2 & 3 Vict. c. 47), which under certain conditions may be extended to within fifteen miles of Charing Cross, all public houses are to be shut on Sundays until one d'clock in the afternoon, except for refreshment of travellers; and publicans are prohibited from supplying distilled liquors to persons under sixteen years of age, under a penalty for the first, second, and third offences of 20/., 401., and 50/. This latter clause does not appear to be enforced.
The closing of public-houses on Sunday mornings within the metropolitan police district has met with general approbation. Taking the average of the first five months in the years 1838-39, the total number of drunken persons apprehended on the Sunday by the police was 2301, and in the first five months after the new act came into operation the number was 1328. The decrease was most marked in the police divisions situated in the centre of the metropolis. In the Holborn divi sion it was 48 per cent. ; in the Covent Garden division, 52 per cent. ; and in the St. James's division, 79 per cent. (State ment of the Commissioners of Police, vol. iv., p. 268, of Journal of London Statisti cal Society.) The next act of parliament which re lates to the regulation of alehouses is the " act to permit the general sale of beer and cider by retail in England." (1 Will. IV. c. 64.) The following are the most material provisions of this statute: 1. That any householder, desirous of sell ing malt liquor, by retail, in any house, may obtain an Excise licence for that pur pose, to be granted by the Commissioners of Excise in London, and by collectors and supervisors of Excise in the country, upon payment of two guineas ; and for cider only, on payment of one guinea.