No. XI.] "I wish we could so perfectly distinguish the Legislative "from the Ministerial authority as once we did; when the "to give an Oath: which distinction, doubtless, is the most CONTENTS. CIRCULAR OF THE NATIONAL POOR-LAW ASSOCIATION: The Poor-law Board. Lord Hale on Pauper Labour Cruelty of the Non-productive System Niebuhr on Reform Movements THE CONSTITUTIONAL: Centralization in Money.. 117 118 LONDON, NOVEMBER 1, 1853. THE POOR-LAW BOARD. PRICE THREEPENCE. STAMPED EDITION, 4D. their counsel or superintendence. The continuance of the inspectors, after occasion for their services "HOUSE OF COMMONS had not the power of a COURT LEET I HAVE only just seen your publication, and I quite has passed away, is an insult to the Board of Guar"vital part of freedom; as, on the contrary, the confusion agree with your observations on the Poor-law. Idians and an enormous expense to the nation. I "of them is an accomplishment of servitude."-A Plea for have before me a paper showing the salaries and wish not to speak disparagingly of the Poor-law Limited Monarchy:-1660. expenses of the public departments of the State, inspectors individually: I have ever found those and amongst others is an estimate of the Poor-law that have attended the Board, gentlemen; but I PAGE Board. By this paper it appears the sum required maintain that their services may be dispensed to defray the expenses of the administration of the with, and their salaries saved. 117 Poor-law in England, Ireland, and Scotland, is Of all the absurd appointments, that of the in£214,194. As this subject has to come under the spector of auditors-a Mr. Austin-is the most 118 consideration of Parliament in the next session, I flagrant. Surely if the auditors are not competent 118 would suggest the propriety of every Board of Guar- to discharge their duties without Mr. Austin to be dians being furnished with a statement of the Com- continually looking after them, let them, when in119 missioners' expenses, as far as England is concerned, efficiency can be proved, be discharged and others 120 by giving the names of each and every officer, appointed; but to institute first so many auditorporter, clerk, secretary, etc., employed in the Poor- ships, and then an inspectorship of these auditorlaw Offices in London, with the inspectors, their ships, is both an insult to all concerned and a serious previous occupation, amount of salary, and other misappropriation of the public money. The number allowance paid to each officer; and I think it will of secretaries, under-secretaries, sub-secretaries, disclose such a statement of facts as will call forth clerks, porters, etc., which are in the London office, a substantial revision. is incredible. By your inserting this letter, or using it so as to the required information, you will oblige procure A SUBSCRIBER [The following is the paper referred to. We have expunged a few passages which seemed to us needlessly personal, without strengthening the argument.-ED. P.L.C.] The Licensing System: Music Saloons The French Land-Laws. No. IV. THE PARISH : Practical Powers of Parish Vestries without recourse to Local Acts or Central Boards.. 121 123 124 The Lord Bishop of Ripon. Rev. William Hunter. R. A. Thicknesse, Esq., M.P. H. W. Wickham, Esq., M.P. TO THE GUARDIANS AND RATEPAYERS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. As I understand the continuance of the Poorlaw Board is to be brought under the consideration of the Legislature in the next session of Parliament, a few observations on its construction and powers may not now be inapplicable. The auditors I consider the most useful and essential part of the Poor-law Commission; their usefulness however admits of being greatly extended. Nevertheless I do feel that the powers of these officials may be exercised in a most arbitrary and unjustifiable manner. Moreover there are altogether somewhere about fifty Poor-law auditors, at salaries ranging from £250 to £500 per annum, with certain etceteras. If ever there was a subject which demanded inquiry at the hands of the people, and the ratepayers in particular, it is the Poor-law Commission. It has now become a most enormous burden to the country, and requires a thorough investigation. I call upon the Finance Committee, Messrs. Hume, For the President of the Poor-law Board I en- Cobden, etc., to look into the subject. I call upon tertain the highest respect, having, on the occasions the Boards of Guardians to examine the matter, on which I have seen him, been treated with great and to memorialize all the county and borough courtesy and attention, and I know of no man more Members upon this important question. We have fitted for the office; but I object to the arbitrary been shackled long enough, and unless we wish to and unjust powers vested in the Central Board, remain mere passive tools, without the free exercise leaving the guardians and officers of the several of our reason and judgment, we must be up and Unions a mere set of tools, to carry out the regula- doing. tions laid down by the London Commissioners. The Poor-law authorities in London consist mainly of a conclave of barristers, who are continually framing Acts of Parliament, rules and regulations, which it is impossible to reduce to practice, and which, even if practicable, would be either useless or unserviceable. I would however underwhere the orders of the Poor-law Board either are or take to say, that there is not a Union in England can be literally carried out. Theory is well enough, but often it is utterly impossible to reduce it to practice. I could adduce an infinite variety of facts to show that the orders of the Poor-law Board are frequently absurdities; yet fault is found with the officers of the Unions for not complying with them. There is not a Board of Guardians in the kingdom, but what has experienced how arbitrary and unjustifiable are the powers excercised by the Poor-law Board, or an officer who has not been subject to great annoyances and the most unwarrantable attacks and aspersions, owing to his non-compliance with the orders, a non-compliance arising not from any indisposition to carry out the injunctions of the Commissioners, but simply from an inability to do so. SUBSCRIPTIONS are requested to be paid into the Bank Yours obediently, A GUARDIAN OF THE POOR. LORD HALE ON PAUPER LABOUR. PREFACE.-A due care for the relief of the poor is 2. It is an act of greatest humanity among men. Mercy and benignity is due to the very beasts that serve us, much more to those that are partakers of the same common nature with us. 3. It is an act of great civil prudence and political wisdom; for poverty in itself is apt to emasculate the minds of men, or at least it makes men tumultuous and unquiet. Where there are many very poor, the rich cannot long or safely continue such. Necessity renders men of phlegmatic and dull natures stupid and indisciplinable; and men of more fiery or active constitutions rapacious and desperate. At this day it seems to me that the English nation is more deficient in their prudent provision for the poor than any other cultivated and Christian state, at least that have so many opportunities and advantages to supply them. In some other countries a beggar is a rare sight. Those that are unable to maintain themselves by age or impotency are relieved, and those that are able to supply their wants by their labour are fur poorer. nished with employments suitable to their condi tion, and by this means there is not only a good and orderly education and a decent face of the public, but the more populous the state or country is, the richer and more wealthy it is. But with us in England, for want of a due regulation of things, the more populous we are the poorer we are; so that that wherein the strength and wealth of a kingdom consists, renders us the weaker and the And which is yet worse, poor families, which daily multiply in the kingdom for want of a due order for their employment in an honest course of life, whereby they may gain subsistence for them and their children, do unavoidably bring up their children either in a trade of begging or stealing, or such other idle course, which again they propagate to their children, and so there is a successive multiplication of hurtful or at least unprofitable people, neither capable of discipline nor beneficial employ ment. It is true we have very severe laws against beg ging, the very giver being in some cases subject to a penalty by the statute of 1 Jac. cap. 17: but it takes little effect. And indeed as the case stands with us, it is no reason it should; for what man that is of ability can have the conscience to deny an alms, or to bring a wanderer to the punishment directed by that statute, and the statute of 39 Eliz., when he cannot choose but know that there is not that due course provided, or at least used, that persons necessitous and able to work may have it? Indeed were there a clear means practised for the employing poor persons, it were an uncharitable action to relieve them in a course of idleness. But when I do not know there is such a provision, I dare not deny my relief, because I know not whether without it he may be starved with hunger without his own default. CRUELTY OF THE NON-PRODUCTIVE our own as well as theirs. do much. As a proof, we started a mutual loan society here in January, members paying threepence FOLLY and inhumanity are proverbially akin. An per share per week. We have 270 members, who enlightened and comprehensive intelligence is sel- have paid in nearly £400; and we have lent nearly dom found disconnected from a temperate careful- the same amount, in sums of £1, £2, and £3 chiefly, ness for the interests of the poor. Parochial admi-and these people will have to receive at the end of nistration forms no exception to this rule. The the year upwards of £500. The members take a most intelligent Boards of Guardians will in most lively interest in the business, and are morally imcases be found the most to combine gentleness to proved. The same people would take an active the deserving with severity to the idle and profli- part in carrying out the objects of the National gate, and the most obtuse and obstructive Boards Poor-law Association, particularly if their interests are invariably the least alive to the considerations were the leading feature, as it ought to be; for cerof common humanity. That cruel neglect which tainly, if we promote their interests, we shall find the London newspapers almost daily record on the part of Metropolitan officials is just what might have been looked for from men whose only idea of an industrial establishment is a place where hitherto reputable but necessitous working-men and working women are put to picking oakum, or to turning a windlass or a capstan. What can be expected in the treatment of aged "paupers" from those sapient administrators who deny to perishing pauper children that agricultural instruction which is so beneficial to them, so profitable to the ratepayers? What more consistent with the degrading imposture which in some places assumes the name of "relief" towards the widow, the invalid, or the disabled, than that mode of dealing with ablebodied pauperism which Poor Law Commissioners and Guardians still sanction in England, but which the Irish Boards of Guardians are (we are happy to say) for the most part giving up? From the Rev. J. ARMITAGE RHODES, formerly Chairman of the Yorkshire Quarter Sessions. In answer to your letter, I beg to inform you that ever since I acted as a Justice of the Peace (1815) it has been my earnest endeavour to persuade overseers of the Poor not to give relief without employ ment where the parties were capable of any kind of useful work: for men and boys, breaking stones and repairs of the public roads, lowering of hills and levelling valleys, where required, andother improvements in the highways; for women and girls, knitting and sewing. Having lived most of that time amongst very populous commercial villages, I have seen many of the vicissitudes to which trade is subject, and have had to contend-I hope successfully with those irregularities, I may call them vices, to which persons subject to such fluctuations are naturally inclined. I cannot therefore but approve of any public plan for producing, on a large scale, the same effects which I have laboured to accomplish in my private sphere. From the Rev. HENRY WORSLEY, Vicar of Earl Another very striking exemplification of the moral obliquity which too often accompanies the mischievous economical theories of the non-productive school is to be found in the recent prison cruelties at Birmingham and Leicester. Without altogether denying that some part of the evil of these proceedings may have arisen from the absence We have also very severe laws against theft, of popular control involved in the practically irrepossibly more severe than most other nations, yea, sponsible and secret management by the (so-called) The present Poor-laws are to my mind most oband the offence in itself simply considered deserves. visiting Justices, we cannot help concluding from jectionable. It appears that the compulsory agte And there is little to be said in the defence of the the facts stated by Mr. Frederick Hill that the gation practised under them is morally most injuseverity of the law herein, but the multitude of adoption of a system of healthy and useful larious to the poor, while the state of comparative offenders and the design of the law rather to ter-bour for prisoners, as recommended by himself, idleness in which able-bodied men are permitted to rify than to punish, ut metus in omnes, pœna in Mr. C. Pearson, and the best informed writers on remain is calculated to give full effect to the conpaucos. But it is most apparent that the law is prison discipline, would have prevented all neces taminating influence of bad companions. If there frustrated of its design therein; for although more sity for, and all temptation to, the resort to inhu- were lands to the cultivation of which such poor as suffer at one sessions at Newgate for stealing and manity only worthy of the Inquisition. It is satis- could not procure work elsewhere might resort, rebreaking up houses, and picking of pockets, and factory to find that upon this point-the importance ceiving for their labour less pay than that given by such other larcenies out of the protection of clergy, of useful employment in gaols-the most influential individual employers, such a system would be very than suffer in some other countries for all offences organs of public opinion are at length agreed. The preferable to that at present pursued. Our Unions in three years, yet the jails are never the emptier. Times and others of the London morning papers have been built large and commodious, as if we Necessity and poverty, and want of a due provision have demanded with regard to prisoners all that were always to have a vast number of paupers; for the employment of indigent persons, and the we have ever asked for, and for the self-same rea- and certainly the regulations in force relative to custom of a loose and idle life, daily supply with sons, in the treatment of both prisoners and pau- the poor are such as to realize the expectation. advantage the number of those who are taken off pers. That the principle is the same as applicable by the sentence of the law; and doubtless, as the to both these classes of persons, both to be (on multitude of poor, and necessitous, and uneducated Christian grounds) rather pitied than blamed, is, persons increase, the multitude of malefactors will we suppose, undeniable; and we cannot but conincrease notwithstanding the examples of severity. gratulate ourselves that views till lately condemned So that upon the whole account the prudence of by the unreflecting many are now being almost prevention, as it is more Christian, so it will be universally adopted. more effectual than the prudence of remedy. The prevention of poverty, idleness, and a loose and disorderly education, even of poor children, would do more good to this kingdom than all the gibbets, and cauterizations, and whipping-posts, and jails in this kingdom, and would render these kinds of disciplines less necessary and less frequent. Communications. From Mr. W. SKELTON, of Grimsby. I will venture to mention one great evil, at least what appears to me such. A poor man who may have put by a little money, not enough wholly to support himself and family, but a comfortable aid towards his maintenance, must be reduced to utter penury, and be made to expend all his little savi before any amount of parish relief will be granted him. Such a regulation acts as a direct prohibition against provident habits in the labouring classes. NIEBUHR ON REFORM MOVEMENTS. I enclose you 28. 6d. in postage stamps towards.. Ir is to me so pitiful and disgusting that your funds. That the evil consequences shown by Lord Hale I witness much of the evil resulting from the men should quarrel about the law-giving, while they are indifferent about the laws to result of necessity from neglecting all provision present Law of Settlement in this place. Many of for employing the deserving necessitous and unwill- the agricultural labourers who find employment in themselves, which are the only end of the ingly idle labourers, have actually to this day re- in the surrounding villages reside in Grimsby, and legislation; and I find no other better object sulted, and are now extensively taking place walk two, three, and four miles to their daily work, than this among any of those who write on through the same omission (under whatsoever pre- which is a great hardship on them, as well as an such subjects. The high-sounding phrases of texts justified) by Guardians of the poor,-none, we injustice to us, in having to support them when worn liberty disgust me: not that my heart does think, can look around and not perceive. The out, and thereby pay expenses which ought to be not beat for liberty, more warmly perhaps most obstinate upholders of the non-productive borne by those who have profited by their labour; than any of theirs who so mistake her true treatment of able-bodied pauperism will hardly but the greatest hardship is on the labourers them- nature, but their worship of her is exactly fail of being struck with the similarity between selves, who have to walk so many miles in addi- like a Roman Catholic service. If a single the state of things now and that which Lord Hale tion to doing their daily work. one of these writers would but go his way, represents. In future numbers we propose to lay I would suggest that public meetings should be before our readers the practical suggestions offered held, and addresses given by talented advocates, and, at the sacrifice of his leisure and comfort. by this (for his age) truly enlightened and Christian and that the working classes themselves should be teach children, hold out consolation and a judge, and which are identical in design with the invited to contribute by subscriptions of one penny helping hand to the poor man when he can plans which have been proposed by the National per month, or more if their means will allow, and do no more; if he would strive by his advice I am convinced that they have it in their power to and influence to obtain land for the cotter, Poor-law Association. TO CORRESPONDENTS. 10, Little Queen Street, Holborn, London." All Communications must be addressed (post paid) to "The Editor of the Constitutional: care of Mr. J. E. Taylor, ERRATUM.-Page 112, column 3, in last paragraph of Colonel Thomson's letter, for "Prussian idolater," read "Rus sian idolater." The Constitutional. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1853. CENTRALIZATION IN MONEY. property for the peasant; if he would first principle and evil in result, with a contrivance gencies or rumours that may arise at any modivest himself of the prejudices to which he by which twelve (or twenty-four) irrespon-ment,-in such a system, we say, the minutest is a slave; if, in these and other days, men sible "Directors" can at pleasure check, re- exercise of such a power over the whole circuwould begin to combine for humble and la-gulate, and mischievously interfere with the lating medium of the country, is fraught with borious objects which no government could concerns of every trade, and every descrip- extensive mischief and danger to society. If, hinder, we should have something on which tion of industry, in every counting-house and then, such a power exists-experience has to rest our hopes. But so long as I see no work-room of Manchester, Leeds, or Glasgow? shown it largely exerted, and no one surely public spirit, no public virtue, no self-disci- We are glad to see our friends in the North will assert that it does not exist at all-it ought pline, so long as I see nothing, even among awakening to a sense of their miserable ser- at once to cease, and by its cessation relieve the better class, but the idolatry of wealth (as vitude. The following passages are extracted our commercial system from much of the preregards the commonwealth, if not for them- from the first number of a daily newspaper, sent alternations and uncertainty which affect selves), and the delusive notion that you can the Northern Times, lately originated by it. The question of abolishing the mischievproduce a work out of all materials alike, gentlemen connected with the two great foci ous powers of the Bank of England necessathat figures kneaded out of clay can endure of commerce- -Manchester and Liverpool, rily involves a consideration of its present like those hewn out of marble,-so long, if I and which, if it continues as it has begun, is sources of profit, and its remuneration for were ruler, should I give little satisfaction to likely to prove a formidable rival to its south-services to the Executive Government. This the clamorous, and excite a terrible outcry ern contemporaries. "If," says the writer, consideration is effectually disposed of by our because I would not with them begin to build "money be the moving element of production, correspondent. The Bank has received by the the upper story downwards." the producer should never lose sight of its national grace a charter conferring consideperfect control. If it has a function to per- rable privileges irrespective of this mischievous form in the distribution of production, the one of increasing its dividends by tampering bona fide producers should never allow the with the currency. It has abundant other power of using it and directing its use to pass sources of profit, without being permitted to from their hands. If its accumulation, as the betake itself to this. A charter let it still result of honest industry and legitimate en- have, but let that charter be granted solely terprise, bestows moral power or political upon terms of unmixed advantage to the distinction, who will venture to question the community. Let it no longer be permitted right of the producers to manage the reward to exploiter (or job) the circulation in the of their labour? That the North of England smallest degree. Let its rate of discounts does produce more than seven-eighths of the for good paper be fixed within certain liwhole manufactures of the three kingdoms, mits. Let advantage be reaped by its shareand that Liverpool is the great centre of dis- holders rather from the steadiness than (as at tribution for three-fourths of the world's present) from the fluctuations of the money production, no one denies. Why, then, does market. If it be a hardship to prohibit the the North, why does Liverpool hold a second- Bank from making mony too cheap when its class position in monetary circles at home and store of bullion happens to be plentiful, or to abroad? If bullion is to remain the basis of compel the Bank to issue notes at reasonable our currency; if gold can be sustained as our rates of interest when coin, though abundant, WE are indebted to a valued correspondent standard of value with safety to the creditor- in fact may, through fear of scarcity, be for the following communication upon a interest, surely the traders of the North, as hoarded and unobtainable,-let this hardship subject of pressing importance at the pre- the largest realizers and holders of bullion, be fairly met and compensated. If the Bank sent moment. Colonel Thompson has admi- may be entrusted with the management of Directors are still dissatisfied, they can but rably hit off some of the most striking ab- their own gold, without endangering any one resign their charter. If they will not consurdities of our money laws. That the pre- of the fundamental principles of our existing tinue to discharge the functions of note-printsent system is submitted to for a moment is monetary institutions. Of the thirty-five-and-ers or paper-money issuers to the community, a fact which testifies to the utter ignorance a-half millions of gold imported into England that function can be readily discharged by a prevailing upon the most important and at within the last two years, at least three-fifths special department like the Mint or the Postthe same time one of the simplest questions of the whole amount is the property of the office, merely acting ministerially-devoid of in the whole range of economical science. Northern manufacturers, ship-owners, and any mischievous discretion, and endowed with For what have we? a board of money-lenders merchants; and it is a matter of universal no power over the rate of interest, i. e. over in London, elected by the private proprietors amazement that these men, who have but one the capital which forms the only source of inof a joint-stock bank; endued with the powers legitimate pursuit-one idea-one hope-pro- dustrial operations. We may hereafter reof legislation and government; using those duction! production! should passively sur-turn to this most important subject; meanpowers from time to time in such a way as render the great moving power of their com- while we direct attention to the remarks with powerfully to affect every trade and calling, mercial existence to a conclave of gentlemen which we have been favoured by one whose and so every man, woman, and child in the sitting in Threadneedle-street, whose collec- life-long services to the cause of free-trade, British Dominions; and yet guided in the tive wisdom certainly has not done so much though it has been the fashion to forget them employment of the most influential and for- for their country or civilization as the humble midable agencies thus mischievously placed and industrious sons of the North." at their command, solely by a regard to the This argument seems to us incapable of private and selfish interests of themselves and being answered, either logically or by an aptheir fellow proprietors! Can centralization peal to facts. The single question is, Has be worse? What were our Chambers of Com- this conclave of private bankers in London merce and Commercial Associations doing, any power whatever to alter at discretion the to permit such a power to be entrusted to a relations of capital and labour-buyer and board of interested and irresponsible indivi- seller-debtor and creditor? Can they, by a duals? Why do they not at once bestir stroke of the pen, without notice, without ap- The consciousness of being heterodox for themselves to free trade and production from peal, and without compensation-by altering the present on many points connected with the a grasp so fatal? Laissez faire, cry the po- however slightly the interest of money, alter theory of circulating media, makes me fearful litical economists whenever it has been sug- the value of loanable capital, and so, of every of taking up any question in that branch of gested to interpose central or local authority description of investment and property in the knowledge, otherwise than by reference to between the strong and the weak, between country? It would be a waste of argument general principles. the infant operative and the dynasty of cot- to show that no such power ought to be de- I am afraid I am entirely sceptical on the ton, between the cheated work-people and posited in the hands of any man or body of effects either for good or evil, of increasing or their truck-paying employer. "Let us alone," men, either in London or elsewhere. It is diminishing the volume or tangible quantity said the French merchants to the meddling equally clear that with our present system of of any kind of instrument of circulation; no narch who offered to protect their trade, credit, an enormous superstructure," as Sir saving always the effects on old-established nd regulate it for their benefit. But what, R. Peel termed it, "built upon the very debtors and creditors, like mortgagees and n the whole range of legislative interference smallest basis" of actual cash-credit depend-stock-holders. A rude way of exhibiting the Det ween capital and labour, ancient and mo- ing upon "confidence," and confidence liable weakness of the expectation of indefinite good dern, is to be compared for unsoundness in to be destroyed for months or years by emer-to arise from the increase, would be to suppose 66 for a time, will probably fill a larger page in OUR VICTUALLING-OFFICES, FOR BEEF AND a little boy impressed with the fact introduced that in Great Britain such a twig of the barto him in his hymn which says "Whene'er I take my walks abroad, How many poor I see," and asking his governor why, since banknotes are so easily made, a bank-note or two should not be made from time to time and put into every poor man's pocket as his convenience might suggest. The objection clearly is, that though a banknote may not cost much more making than a soup-ticket, somebody or something must be responsible for it, to the extent of anything given in one quarter being in the end deducted in some other. This it is which prevents men from soaring, on paper wings, to the annihilation of poverty, and the creation of any degree of wealth and happiness imagination might suggest. If there is a paper circulation limited by being payable in gold upon demand, every bank-note inserted into a beggar's pocket by the charitable little boy must be paid by somebody in gold, and therefore there might justly be the same demur about the process, that there would be in inserting the gold piece instead. And if the paper is limited by a check upon the issue except under proof barian rod should be left. 66 "Great satisfaction was expressed at the free manner in which the bench granted the licenses on this occasion. The only condition imposed on the new applicants was, that they should not make any charge for admission to the rooms where the musical with a refusal because he said he intended to make entertainment was provided, and one person met a charge for admission." The If the Victualling-Office were to request to be transformed into a semi-political institution with a prodigious power derived, and a constant profit accruing, from the State," as is the description found given of the Bank, it would not be hazarding much to foretell that its success would be small. It would be told to In these proceedings there appears to us an confine itself to counting its casks, and keep- utter want of appreciation by the magistrates ing accurate accounts of receipts and expen- of the true nature and great importance of diture; the members or conductors receiving the duty which devolved upon them. proper remuneration for the same, like other chairman's remarks indicate the notion that public servants. There would be the speediest their office was to regulate the public-house of ends to its chances of being "a prodigious trade, and to prevent its undue extension or power," either "semi-political" or right out. its monopoly by individuals; and not, as the If in this there is any reality, surely the Legislature assuredly intended, to protect the subject might be turned round in the hands community against the mischiefs of allowing of commercial men in the present age of ge- public amusements to be provided by persons neral intelligence, in a way that should tend to wanting the requisite character and qualifica good. I do not know whether any of the above tions. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Bench may touch distinctly on the points where dis- should have acted on this occasion upon a cussion was desired; but there can scarcely principle directly opposed to that by which fail to be some part which would apply. (if at all) public amusements ought to be reYours very sincerely, gulated. T. PERRONET THOMPSON. Very slight consideration will show that no true or really elevating love of music will be promoted at the public-house. Music indeed can have no elevating tendency at all, apart from the ideas of which it is made the vehicle. It has no direct relation to the that the paper possessed a certain value, ex- THE LICENSING SYSTEM: MUSIC SALOONS. pressed for instance in corn,- -as I am tempted OUR attention has been drawn to some pro- springs of action. It cannot create feelings; to believe might be done with a great libera- ceedings of the Clerkenwell magistrates, at it can only excite, by means of association, tion of "imprisoned angels" now stored with the late Sessions for granting licenses for ideas and feelings already developed in the no visible purpose but making prize-money music and dancing; and as those proceedings mind. The elevating power of music is due for an invader,—the value given to the beggar have an important bearing upon the question entirely to the ideas directly connected with must be deducted in fractional portions, from of magisterial interference with public amusethe value of each and every of the bank-ments, we deem it right to make some obser-specific pieces of music, or to the already notes in other people's pockets,-a circumvations upon the subject. stance which some benevolent persons may fail to comprehend to be an obstacle, though principle upon which the bench had proceeded The chairman, Mr. Pownall, stated the the main part of the non-comprehenders may in the granting of music licenses, in the folbe looked for among those who in some way lowing terms:expect to benefit by the process. established connection in the mind, of noble to associate such music with the sights and music with the highest feelings. In minds in which this connection is already established, sounds of the tap-room can only produce disgust. Where the higher feelings have not The Bank of England, not to say it irreve- merly granted, i.e. for public music and dancing, with them, the sights and sounds and indul"By the separation of the license as it was for- already been developed, and music associated rently, is such an "institution as the Vic- and the granting of licenses to publicans for music tualling-Office would be, if instead of being a only, a very great increase, as was naturally ex-gences of the tavern inevitably associate themplace for doing the Government's business in pected, had taken place in the number of applica- selves with even the best music, and still more the way of beef and pork, it was a Committee tions for such licenses, and in making that distinc with the inferior music commonly met with in of eminent pork-butchers, doing business on tion in the license, the magistrates thought they such places. their own account, arranging their purchases were removing a very great inconvenience, and not "A taste for music" so formed becomes and other operations as should be for their only protecting the publican from the proceedings rather an additional attraction to the tavern, own advantage and not the public's, supply- of the common informer, but promoting that which where the taste can be gratified along with ing the Government from time to time un- they much wished to see extended among the other grosser indulgences, than an agent to der certain sweeping and mysterious con-people-a taste for and a love of music. But they send a man forth into a purer atmosphere. tracts, and as far removed as the case would had no intention that every public-house to which a license was granted should be converted into a The experience and observation of individuais admit, from anything like a simple Office of Account for meats bought and expended in that the publican should have the means of pro- these remarks, and prove that, although music penny concert-room-the object of the bench being and nations alike verify the correctness of support of Her Majesty's servants. What viding musical entertainment to his regular cus- may produce a refinement in sensualism which would be left in the power of such a pseudo- tomers; and he trusted that the publicans gene disguises its true character and makes it only Victualling-Office, appears to be left in the rally would in the ensuing year testify, by the mode the more dangerous, music has, apart from power of the Bank. It is not an Office, but in which they used the license of the Court, their specific higher influences and until they have a Corporation; and a Corporation of pork-appreciation of the wishes of the bench. A publican done their work, no power to arouse the butchers would be the proper parallel. who converted his house into a penny or twopenny nobler part of our nature. It is powerless The same objections as would exist to the concert-room created a monopoly in the trade in as a redeeming agent: and, therefore, the nooperations of such an incorporated management his neighbourhood, which the bench wished to tion acted upon by the magistrates in this and of the Victualling Department, may rightly be "The list was then proceeded with. In the apwe fear similar instances elsewhere, that the urged against the management in the other plications for renewals there was but one refusal; morality of the people is increased by "exAll that will be done, and would not in the list of applications for the grant of new li tending amongst them the taste and love" of have been done by a simple Office of Ac-censes for music only, there were four refusals. (public-house) music and "Cider Cellar" recount, must almost of necessity be wrong. The proprietor of the Cider Cellars Tavern, presentations, is one of the most preposterous If the Bank says, "We are the Government's Maiden-lane, Strand, was one of the applicants for with which we ever had the fortune to meet. money-lenders," the answer is, that the Go- a license for music only. It is hardly necessary to say that it is no vernment ought to have no money-lenders. disinterested wish to promote a taste for music It is as well authenticated as any fact in the among the community which has led to the natural history of Governments, that a Governproviding those musical entertainments which ment ought not to carry on trades. The the Bench appear to estimate so highly. This case. avoid. 66 "He stated that the only scenic representations' there were an old coat and hat, etc., occasionally worn by the comic singer, and the nature of the songs sung related to the passing events of the day. In answer to the question whether in Pasha of Egypt may have an idea of being decent songs were not sung there, he said there provision solely results from the excessive the great manufacturer, the great agriculturist, and perhaps the great money-lender, in his country. But European communities in general have got beyond this; and it is strange it were two constructions to be put upon that; song. competition among publicans, created, on the one hand, by the vast number of beershops opened under the Acts of 1829-30, and on the other by the favourable changes going forward, large. in spite of all the contrivances of the drinking and may incline to regard every consequent merely because it was thought that the license trade, in the habits of the people at large. lapse into dissolute habits as creating a better to give them might injure the theatres, and The truth is, that every improvement in the and more constant customer. because the law, in this and similar cases, unhabits of the people as regards temperance- That public amusements are a real necessity happily ignores the interests of the people at whether proceeding from reduced prices of in the present state of the popular mind, intea, sugar, etc., from the progress of educa- adequate as are the resources for the enjoy- It is with some diffidence that we venture tion, or from the various direct efforts making ment and improvement of leisure at home, is a suggestion with a view to meet the difficulty. to elevate their tastes and to aid their strug-abundantly shown by the extensive resort to It may be assumed as certain, that any sygles for self-culture-every such improvement, all places of public amusement. Now, as the stem of National Education, such as probably by diminishing the consumption of intoxicat- nature of the performances, and the whole may be established among us ere long, will ing liquors, renders more severe the competi- spirit in which they are conducted, will largely require for its administration in each locality tion between the tradesmen who supply them, influence the characters of at least the younger a special committee of public instruction, apand drives them to increased efforts, by at- visitors, it is of vital importance that such per-pointed either by the inhabitants directly, or tractions cunningly devised, to meet the grow-formances should be preserved from all im- indirectly, through the Municipal Councils ing change of taste and habits, to entice casual pure admixtures and accompaniments. This and select vestries. It seems to us a legitivisitors, and convert casual into regular fre- the working classes cannot, like the higher mate addition to their functions to extend quenters. Hence have arisen the multitude classes, secure for themselves and their chil- their sphere of action to the supervision of all of cheap concert-rooms connected with ta- dren by providing concert-rooms and public places of public amusement, which now form verns. And the result has justified this cal- amusements of their own. They must accept a most important item in the educational culation. Large numbers, especially of young what is provided by private speculation. curriculum of the working classes, and which persons instructed in Sunday schools, and sub- Those regulations, therefore, which the higher are capable of being made as powerful for jected to various influences for good at work classes adopt in their places of amusement for good as they now are for evil. in society, and who had risen above the attrac- the avoidance of what is objectionable, must To a body so constituted might, we think, tions of the mere public-house, are yet induced be enforced for the former on behalf of their be given a veto upon the places and persons to attend these "music saloons.' Familiar- children by public authority, if they are not to be licensed for conducting of public amuseized with public-house ways, and habituated to be debarred from similar enjoyments, save ments, together with some censorship over to resort thither, they too often fall victims to at the greatest risk of moral injury. the performances and general arrangements, intemperance and vice. Moreover the perform- We shall not occupy our limited space with as far as may concern public order and moraances at these saloons are often such as to arguments to establish the propriety of the lity. As however the influence of the publicexcite gross ideas and even improprieties of course of action indicated above being adopted house interest is said to have become so great language and behaviour in the spectators, and by the State, since by all but an insignificant in many places as to exert a marked effect thus to render moral corruption the certain fraction of the public the office of governing upon the administration of local affairs, it effect of frequent attendance. We learn from bodies in every locality is held not to be limited would be desirable, we think, in order to corthe police that very many cases of seduction to protection of life and property, but to ex-rect any tendency to laxity and partiality in a are directly traceable to associations formed tend to securing the moral welfare and happi-matter so deeply affecting the interests of the in these resorts, the result of which is too ness of the people. The practical question is publicans, to lodge also in the hands of the often prostitution to the girl, and dishonest simply as to the possibility of acting benefi- Recorder, or Chairman of Quarter Sessions, methods of procuring money to expend upon cially in this direction. We freely admit that a veto or appeal as to the issue of licenses. her, on the part of the man; and both the the Clerkenwell magistrates have proved them- By this combination we secure that practical victims usually become only the better cus-selves at least incapable of the function of re-acquaintance with the subject and sympathy tomers of the publican. It is easy to compre-gulating public amusements; and it is not too with the working classes, refreshed by responhend how, amid such influences, every minor much to say, as to the magisterial body gene-sibility to the public, which may be expected degree of injury to character would be pro- rally, that this is a function which their posi- to ensure a liberal and discriminating admiduced on the bulk of the frequenters, who are tion of practical irresponsibility unfits them nistration of the function assigned to them, led thither by the simple desire for amuse- for satisfactorily performing. To secure the while any tendency to improper laxity or partiment, but are not very choice as to its quality. confidence of the working-classes (on which ality would be likely to be excluded by the veto We can assure our readers that these state- its beneficial operations mainly depend), the of an officer placed beyond popular influences. ments are not made unadvisedly, or without function must be executed in a spirit of hearty We hope that these remarks may lead to the ample and manifold evidence. They rest sympathy with them, and by the light of that subject of the regulation of public amuseupon the concurrent testimony of police intimate acquaintance with their habits and ments being taken up by others better qualiauthorities, of domestic missionaries, of the their modes of thought and feeling which close fied than ourselves to appreciate both the imchaplains of several gaols (among whom we contact and habitual intercourse with them portance and difficulties of the subject. Some may specially mention the Rev. Mr. Clay, of can alone give, and in which a Crown-appointed change, we are persuaded, must ere long be Preston), and of the inmates of several gaols, magistracy is of necessity peculiarly deficient. made. The evidence laid before Parliament invited to state the causes which had led them A remarkable proof of this deficiency in the by the Clerk to the Justices of Liverpool, as power of appreciating the wants of the people to the manner in which they had exercised From the foregoing remarks it will be ob- and the merits of different plans for supply. their power of licensing public-houses, the vious that, in enforcing upon the applicants ing that want, lately, we understand, occurred recent exposures at Leicester, Birmingham, for music licenses the free admission of the in Manchester. A gentleman, who has long Winchester, and elsewhere, conspire to show public, and thus throwing them upon their taken an active and honourable part in afford- that when the principle of popular election sales of liquor for remuneration for their out- ing to the over-worked population of that and responsibility is wanting, the best and most lay in music, the magistrates adopt the most busy town opportunities of musical and other humane and intelligent persons are sure to effectual means to perpetuate the worst evils wholesome entertainment, finding himself fall into a slovenly and inefficient, if not wilof the present system. No places of public crippled by the clumsy generalities of the fully corrupt, method of discharging duties amusement of a better kind can, on account Theatrical Licensing Acts, in giving certain upon which the health and welfare of their of their expense, possibly compete with the species of performances, applied to the Jusmagisterially "protected" drinking establish- tices of the Borough for a license which ments, and the working classes are thus made would place him out of the reach of the law, to depend, for disposal of their leisure hours, as rigidly enforced on behalf of the patent upon the gratuitous entertainment provided theatres." The license was refused. The perby the publican at the lowest cost, and which formances were in no way objected to, for often make up for inferiority in quality by the the excellent taste and tendency of Mr. Peaexcitements of coarseness or actual obscenity. cock's previous endeavours to refine the An entire change of the licensing system tastes and minister to the wants of the people, must therefore precede any improvement in had been often, and publicly, acknowledged. this state of things. It is clear that the pro- Moreover, the entertainments which he now vision of public amusements cannot be safely proposed to offer, were entirely free from the left to a class whose sole object in supplying objectionable concomitants of the theatre. them is to attract customers for their liquors, And yet his application was refused, and the and who look to the power of the attraction great mass of the working classes deprived of rather than its wholesomeness or innocency, cheap and innocent sources of gratification, into crime. less fortunate fellow-citizens vitally depend. How that principle can be best applied, may form the subject of future consideration. The suggestion which we have already made affords, we think, the best solution of the present difficulty. LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN IRELAND. DURING the Viceroyalty of the Earl of Clarendon, Sir Denham Norreys addressed an able letter to him with reference to a plan for the better organization of that country, and its local and general government. This letter bore the date of April, 1849: but as the suggestions contained in it were never, we believe, |