On this page

• Departments (1)
  • 
• Text (4)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    THE IJCENSING SYSTEM,

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    to get rid of them , if such a riddance were possible . Oh for som clever noter-down on . the spot ( the only addition to the mob whie might be made with advantage ) to give us a few sketches of th malentendus , the mistakes , and the impertinences , conscious an unconscious , of the volunteer attache tribe , who are received civill and graciously as " sympathisers , " and who would be dismissed wit little courtesy if they were known to be , what in nine cases ou often they really are , mere inquisitive lookers on , who mean oi their return to be lions of the drawing-room , and downwards . Poo Albebt Smith ! he has often amused us , but we fear lie was one o the first missionaries of the mingled creed of the sublime and tin slangy , the gossippy and the grand , and that he took excessivi delight in the : amalgamation . He enjoyed joint effects , the gloriou Rhine garnished with Cockneys : a Times reporter relieved by area live lord , orthe sonof one—and ' an engineer set off by an ambassador The illustrating on one of the best-knowii and oldest principles , of . tin ludi crous with novel skill , was the ground of his success ; and his P Pularity showed the taste of the time—not a very high one . . H ( has been the parent ' of . a hundred semi-facetious details of events worthy to be treated with all seriousness , and the flippant vulgarisation of moral altitudes , more worthy of all reverence ' . than the Ai guilles or the Grand Plateau . All is inash and medley . Have we not EdWJjt James , Q . C ., M . P ., awav froni his proper business , at Gaeibaldi ' s right hand , ready to lecture Lazzaroni in the cause of liberty and of Italy ? That clever exaggerating old Paris Bohemian , Alexas . dee Dumas , isinstalledat his well-known Naples , lording itj no longer merely in ¦ " corricolo , " and showihg . at once the liberty of his views and of his morals , by throwing open to the public eye the " secret museum , " all in , keeping in one way , arid grievously out of it in another , The presence of some men , and their participation , is calculated to give something of the . air ' of farce and caricature to the inoist respectable revolution .

    Untitled Article

    Oct . 20 , 1860 ] The Saturday Analyst and Leader . 879

    The Ijcensing System,

    THE IJCENSING SYSTEM ,

    Untitled Article

    PROFOUND Works oil Mathematical octenco ^ -we select this example as best for illustration—begin with truisms so trite ¦'¦ and so self-evident ' that the tyro is apt to laugh at them ; yet these fundamental axioms are . the basis'on which is reared a •' magnificentstructure of knowledge the most remote from intuitive . cognition , and culminating in the perception of such relations as tho . se which form the subject of the differential calcuTuhs . And so with social questions ; iii discussing which it is often desirable , in the present state of things , when it is the fashion to profess the true principles of political economy , while utterly ignoring them in practice—to sot out with a statement of the ground-principle of that ijarticular sort of legitimate iiuuaau liberty known as free-trade . . " That principle is , that production in the widest sense should be left free to take place where and how it can take place cheapest , best , and most plentifully , without any artificial obstacles being interposed to prevent it . Oiic of the most pernicious and vexatious interfereneos with free-trade is the licensing system . It is an . established maxim of English law , that a man is to be assumed innocent , until proved guilty ; but the licensing system , if considered on the footing 1 that has booa put-forward as the only excuse for it , namoly , the precluding of something held to , bo ' mischiovous , —lU ' esunjies , boforehand , that a man has determined to commit ah offence . It is as if the law were to prohibit men from going at largo , on tho ground that if they didn't go at large , the injury that might accrue to ' thonisolvos and others by so doing would bo prevented . But the law in other matters dooms it sufficient to annex : a speoific penalty . to a sppoino oni'iieo dourly dofinod , to prevout tho commission of that oft ' onco , and docs not infliot the penalty unless tho offence is committed . In tho licensing system the ponalty is , in groat part , inflicted buforyhand , in the shapo of a poouniary fino . And not only may this line be the same in amouut whoro tho subsequent . delinquency , when it occurs , is different in degree , but it may oven bo higher in a Ios 8 degree of delinquency than a greater 5 and whoa tho other part of tho ponalty occurs , tho withdrawal of tho license , there is tho same punishment for ovory possiblo dogroo of dolinqueuoy ; and this punishrnout may bo nothing short of a deprivation of the moans of ourning a livelihood . ' In other things , if a man commit an offence ho is subjected to a Hpeoillo punishinont , and that done , ho is left froo to get his livelihood in tho calling he has loarnt and understands , and iu tho plaoo whei'o ho finds it most expedient . When tho lioeuso of a publican , or tho lessee of a thoatre is taken away , ho is thus primarily and directly doprived of the moans of earning his living at tho business ho understands , and in the place best suited for it . Tho direct tondenoy of this is , by depriving him of tho moans of getting a living by a reoognisod legitimate vooation , tp driyo him into iflioit ooiu'sow of gaining a livelihood ,. It is a premium upon crime ; a sure way of manufacturing law-breakers . Moroovor , as a preventive or a punishment for bad oonduot , tho system is nugatory » and misses tho very end it aiins at , Ayhilo its penalties fall uiion tho innocent « a well as tho guilty . A disorderly houso may , under this By stem , bo oavriod on-with impunity until the licensing tonnoomes rouud , to tho nuisajaoo and annoyanoe of tho neighbourhood ; whereas tho spooilio oftbnoe ought to bo immediately abated and punished , Thon not only tho offending tenant , but the innocent owner of tho promises may suH ' er ; and not he only , but the whole neighbourhood , through tho promises being shut upi , . , , , 1 , 'hese two a few of the considerations that thiokon l'ouml tho subject tho more it is considered ; for wo have yet to indioato the

    ie flagrant and infamous collusion , bribery , favouritism , and undue h influence and preference of every possible description that ag-glo-Le . merate round this nucleus of mischief . Once again , " production , " d in the widest sense , whether as exhibited in providing amusement y and refreshment for the ptiblie in . theatres and taverns , or in proh viding bread and niettt , ought to be perfectly free ; and offences t committed by publicans and liianagers in . the course of business a oug-ht to be punished by specific penalties , just like offences coinr niitted by other pet-sons . We do not tako away the means of if gaining a livelihood by the legal trade he understands , from the 2 butcher because he was cruel to a sheep ; we punish him for that d specific offence by a specific penalty . If a particular calling is s . detrimental to the wellbeing of society , it should be abolished 1 and prohibited altogether , not suffered to be carried oil to the injury and damage of the public by those who are rich enough 2 to pay for the privileged nuisance .. But it is not . pretended in . 3 the present case that public amusements and refreshment i houses ( for inns and taverns are nothing else ) , come within , i this category . That public places where largo numbers of persons resort are fit places for the special presence of tho ! police , is exemplified by their attendance at large coniniorcial establishments , such , as Shoolbred's , in ! Tottenhani-court-road ; or at the British Museum , or in the Houses of Parliament , or at St . James ' s-hall on a concert night , &c . ¦¦ But this is simply for purx ^ oses of jn'oteetion , and is a very harmless—indeed , beneficial necessity , ia our present state of sanitarian development . The pretence that the " constituted authorities " are the . best judges whether a place of amusement or refresh ment is wanted in this or that neighbourhood , is too transparently ridiculous a fallacy to need any serious refutation ; it is the bid . exploded sophism that formed the very root of that abominable system of " protection , " alias "monopoly and prohibition , " that every man of common sense has abandoned in theory , though a mouldering- rag or two practically exists , and has yet to be consigned to ¦ the-. economical dustliole . this sophism , however , is quite consistently in keeping with the former . The sj'stem ^ are . exposing inflicts anticipatory ¦ penalties beforehand on the rash presumption of an oflenee that may never be committed at all , and when it is committed , the penalties fail of their erlect and defeat themselves , pai'tly by-falling on . the innocent instead of the guilty ; partly by driving the offender to illicit coiu-cses for a livelihood , when all-punishments ' ought to be reformatory ; partly b } ' not operating to check the offence at the proper time . It is . ' . (] . uite of a piece with this logical obliquity and invertedness of view , to hold that a man ought not to be left free to trade as he deems best , but that somebody else should dictate to him how and where he shall trade , and that this '' somebod y " shall . be somebody least of . all likely to be qualified for detorniihing * namety the authorities . Wo vaunt our boasted freedom ; Bykox j has told us that whatever an Euglishinau may brook , he will not 1 brook ' any interference with his breeches pocket ; but the faots-we allude to—our monstrous system of inequitable taxation and financial despotism— argiio in a totally opposite direction . As to tho question of " practical expediency , "—how far it may t > o expedient to reduoo the true theory enounc . od abovti into aotual practice , avo wotild briofly obsbrve that , in general , ^ wiiat is right must bo expedient ; what is wrong can nover be expedient . " Suppose it urged , for iilstaneo , that the emancipation of the Amoricau slaves would bo attended with m-qjxidicial consequences oven to tho . slaves tliihnselvos ; would thoHO con . soquonccs , as a choice ofc evils , bo wor .-so than the consequeneos of tho prosout system- —thuf unsettled , fovori . sh stato of things , ovon ou the brink of a civil Avar and a severance of the Uniqu I And this , evou as regards tho immediate results ; but if wo tako tho pormanont viow , can any ono doubt , that , in the lane / nm , tlio evils arising from . instant ubolition would bo "intlriitply loss than those which must inovitably be consoquent upon . koopirig things just as they are . " (\ Vo aro murcty taking' tliuso oxtroiues as an illustrative example' ; tho . solution of tho slavo dillioulty rosolvos itsolC into tho dominant raoo following tho diotatos of onlightonod st-lf-lovo , and initiating , a lionolioont' gradual preparation of thoir slaves for froodom . ) Wo say then , as a question of practical oxpedioncy , it ia in tho highest degroo iuoxjuidiont to maintain that oppressive nuiHuuei ' , the lioousiug isyatom . It omaaoulates our drama ,, and tench to cripple our ooimuorou ' . The idua of going to Huoh an odioo as tho Loud Ciia ji inouiwvrN ' s—an cj / eto sinoauro , tho duties of which woro , even in tho luxurianoo of-tlioir palmy days , only those of an upper menial , tho reunih \ s / iip of tho productions of men Uko BiawEit and 6 nEujw . vN Kxowhus-is tho sublime of tho lidioulous , and tho aomo of inconsistency . AVhy not a general ooneorship of , the press ? ' Arid wo talk of the censorship in France , as if our spoouil ono , hold in p hook as it partially is by publio opinion , woro not in prinoiplo just as indefensible , and a thousand tunos more inconsistent . The anomaly is heightened by tho fact that tho stago in the loast likely plaoo whoro a libel would bo puoliahod , and if it woro so published , there is not meroly tho author , printer , and publisher to oomq upon , but tho manager and . 1 > " priotor of tho thoatro into tho bargain . Tho whole syutom is ono hiige sham , and its oxistenpo is a scandal tb our uge ami nation . "Wo havo difsouHSod thu gonoral prinoiplo ¦ na ono of great pu 0110 importance . SYo might add , by way of iJliwtmtiu . n , that an efficient and long-triecl datwor ibr tho publio , IjK'o Air . JU I . Smith for oxamplo , oannot open tho Alhombw , m Le ^ ostoi--square , as a place where tho muAloiil tw-to of tho pubho may be oiiltivatod by tho best ontortnininont « at tho qhoapost mto , mth ^ out tho vexatious and costly i > vwwh of obtaining a lioonso , at tho risk of refusal und g-vont poounmry loss .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 20, 1860, page 879, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2370/page/7/