2. That a list of such licences shall be kept at the Excise Office, which is at all times to be open to the inspection of the magistrates. 3. That the applicant for a licence must enter into a bond with a surety for the payment of any penalties imposed fbr offences against the act.
4. That any person licensed under the act, who shall deal in wine or spirits, shall be liable to a penalty of 20/.
5. That in cases of riot, persons so licensed shall close their housCs upon the direction of a magistrate. 6. That such persons suffering drunkenness or disor derly conduct in their houses shall be subject to penalties which are to be in creased on a repetition of the offences, and the magistrates before whom they are convicted may disqualify them from selling beer for two years. 7. That such houses are not to be open before four in the morning nor after ten in the evening, nor during divine service on Sundays and holidays.
The effect of the above statute is to withdraw the authority of granting licences to houses opened for the sale of ale, beer, and cider only, from the local magistrates, in whose hands it had been exclusively 'rested for nearly 300 years, and to supersede their direct and imme diate superintendence and control of such houses. It creates a new class of ale house keepers distinct from those who are licensed by the magistrates, and who only are called licensed victuallers. The consequence of the facility of obtaining licences upon a small pecuniary payment, and without the troublesome and expen sive process directed by former statutes, was, as might be expected, a rapid and enormous multiplication of alehouses throughout the country.
But whatever might have been the state of these houses under the first Beer Act (1 Wm. IV. c. 64), there is no reason to believe that under existing acts they are now any worse than the licensed pub lic-houses. By 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 85, the preamble of which recited that much evil had arisen from the management of houses in which beer and cider are sold by retail under 1 Wm. IV. c. 64, 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. Such a
certificate is not to be required in towns containing a population of 5000 and up wards ; but the house to be licensed is to be one rated at 1 0/. a year. This act makes a difference between persons who sell a li quor 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 lid. a quart may be retailed without a licence : the officers of Excise are empowered to enter such houses and to examine all beer therein.
The act 3 & 4 Vict. c. 61, amends both of the above acts. It provides that a licence can only be granted to the real occupier of the house in which the beer or cider is to be retailed ; and it raises the rated value of such house to 15/. in towns containing a population of 10,000 and upwards ; in towns of be twixt 10,000 and 2500, to Ill. ; and in towns of smaller size the annual value is to be not less than 8/. Every person ap plying for a licence is to produce a cer tificate from the overseer of his being the real occupier of the house, and of the amount at which it is rated. A refusal to grant this certificate renders the over seer liable to a penalty of 201. ; and any person forging a certificate, or making use of a certificate knowing it to be false, is to forfeit 501.
The hours for opening and closing beer-shops are now regulated by the above act. In London and Westminster, and within the boundaries of the metropolitan boroughs, they are not to be opened earlier than five in the morning, and the hour of closing is twelve o'clock, but eleven o'clock in any place within the Bills of Mortality, or any city, town, or place not containing above 2500 inhabitants ; and in all smaller places, five o'clock is the hour for open ing and ten o'clock for closing. 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 in the after noon.