The transfer of such licenses is further facilitated by allowing it to be made by indorsement at petty sessions, so as to authorize the assignee, if not disqualified by law, to carry on the business till the next ensuing special session to be held for similar purposes. Within the metropolitan poliee district, except in Southwark, the application for such transfers must be made to a police magistrate (a). If on such application it is proved to the satisfaction of such magistrate, or of the petty sessions, that any license granted pursuant to 9 G. IV. has been lost or mislaid, a copy, certified to be true, under the hand of the clerk to the licensing justices, shall be received in evidence, and indorsed under this act as the original might have been (b): a fee of 2s. 6d. is allowed for every such certified copy, and every such indorsement (c). If any justice disqualified by law to act at a meeting or special session for licensing shall act as such at the above petty session, he is liable to the penalty provided by 9 G. IV. c. 61, s. 6, (d).

Party hindered from personally attending licensing Meeting.]-9 G. IV. c. 61, s. 12, thus enables the meeting to dispense with the attendance of applicants prevented from attending in person :—“ If any person intending to apply at the general annual licensing meeting, or at any adjournment thereof, or at any special session, for any license to be granted under the authority of this act, or for the transfer of any such license, shall be hindered by sickness or infirmity, or by any other reasonable cause, from attending in person at any such meeting, it shall be lawful for the justices there assembled to grant or transfer such license to such person so hindered from attending, and to deliver the same to any person then present, who shall be duly authorized by the person so hindered from attending to receive the same, proof being adduced to the satisfaction of such justices, who are hereby empowered to examine upon oath into the matter of such allegation, that such person is hindered from attending by good and sufficient cause."

Form and Duration of License.]-By 9 G. IV. c. 61, s. 13, and the schedule to which it refers, every license granted under the authority of the act shall be according to the form in the schedule (marked C.), and shall be in force in Middlesex and Surrey from the 5th April, and elsewhere from the 10th October, after the granting thereof, for one

other peace-officers of the parish in which is situate the house kept by the person whose notice it is.

(b) Id. s. 2.

(c) Id. s. 3.

(d) Id. s. 4.

(a) 5 & 6 Vict. c. 44, s. 1.

whole year thence respectively next ensuing, and no longer; and every license for the purposes aforesaid, which shall be granted at any other time or place, or in any other form than that hereby directed, except as hereinafter excepted, shall not entitle any person to obtain an excise license for selling exciseable liquors by retail, to be drunk or consumed on the premises of the person licensed, and shall be utterly void to all intents and purposes (e).

Granting fresh Licenses on emergency of Death, quitting the Premises, &c., &c., before expiration of license.]-By 9 Geo. IV. c. 61, s. 14, if any person, duly licensed under this act, shall (before the expiration of such license) die, or shall be, by sickness or other infirmity, rendered incapable of keeping an inn, or shall become bankrupt, or shall take the benefit of any act for the relief of insolvent debtors; or if any person so licensed, or the heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns of any person so licensed, shall remove from or yield up the possession

of the house specified in such license; or if the occupier of any such house, being about to quit the same, shall have wilfully omitted, or shall have neglected to apply at the general annual licensing meeting, or at any adjournment thereof, for a license to continue to sell exciseable liquors by retail, to be drunk or consumed in such house; or if any house, being kept as an inn by any person duly licensed as aforesaid, shall be, or be about to be, pulled down or occupied under the provisions of any act for the improvement of the highways, or for any other public purpose; or shall be, by fire, tempest, or other unforeseen and unavoidable calamity, rendered unfit for the reception of travellers and for the other legal purposes of an inn; it shall be lawful for the justices assembled as aforesaid at a special session, holden under the authority of this act, for the division or place in which the house so kept or having been kept, shall be situate, in any one of the above-mentioned cases, and in such cases only, to grant to the heirs, executors, &c., of the person so dying, or to the assigns of such person becoming incapable of keeping an inn, or to the assignee or assignees of such bankrupt or insolvent, or to any new tenant or occupier of any house having so become unoccupied, or to any person to whom such heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns shall, by sale or otherwise, have bonâ fide conveyed or otherwise made over his or their interest in the occupation and keeping of such house, a license to sell exciseable liquors by retail, to be drunk or consumed in such house, or the premises thereunto belonging; or to grant to the person whose house shall as aforesaid have been or shall be about to be pulled down or occupied for the improvement of the highways, or for any other public purpose, or have become unfit for the reception of travellers, or for the other legal purposes of an inn, and who shall open and keep as an inn some other fit and convenient house, a license to sell exciseable liquors by retail, to be drunk or consumed therein; Provided always, that every such license shall continue in force only from the day on which it shall be granted until 5th April or 10th October then next ensuing, as the case may be: Provided also, that every person intending to apply, in any of the above-mentioned cases, at any such special session for a license to sell exciseable liquors by retail, to be drunk or consumed in a house or premises thereunto belonging, in which exciseable liquors shall not have been sold by retail, to be drunk or consumed on the premises, by virtue of a license granted at the annual licensing meeting next before such special session, shall, on some one Sunday within the six weeks next before such special session, at some time between the hours of ten in the forenoon and four in the afternoon, fix or cause to be affixed on the door of such house, and on the door

of the church or chapel of the parish or place in which such house shall be situate, and where there shall be no church or chapel, on some other public and conspicuous place within such parish or place, such and the like notice as is hereinbefore directed to be affixed by every person intending to apply at the general annual licensing meeting for a license to sell exciseable liquors by retail, to be drunk or consumed in a house not theretofore kept as an inn, and shall in like manner serve copies of the said notice on one of the overseers of the poor, and on one of the constables or other peace-officers of such parish or place."

Fees on Licenses.]-9 G. IV. c. 61, s. 15, thus regulates the fees to be paid in respect of licenses; for the petty constable, or other peaceofficer, for serving notices, and for all other services hereby required of such petty constable or other peace-officer, the sum of 1s.; for the clerk of the justices, for the license, the sum of 5s.; and for preparing the precepts to be directed to the high constable, and notices to be delivered by the petty constable, as required by this act, the sum of 1s. 6d. : and every such clerk, who shall demand or receive from any person for such respective fees in this behalf any greater sum, or anything of greater value than the sums herein before specified, being in the whole 7s. 6d., shall for every such offence, on conviction before one justice, forfeit and pay the sum of £5.

Sheriffs' Officers, &c., disabled from using Publican's License.]— By section 16, sheriffs' officers, and all officers executing process of any court, are disabled from receiving or using any license under the grant; and the grant or transfer to them of any license is made absolutely void.

No Excise License to be granted for retailing Liquor to be drunk on Premises not licensed by Magistrates.]-By 9 G. IV. c. 61, s. 17, no excise license for retailing exciseable liquors is to be granted for consuming liquors on the premises, unless the magistrates' license be previously obtained; and if such excise license be granted it is a mere nullity (f).

Proceedings against Publicans for Offences against Terms of their Licenses.]-By 9 G. IV. c. 61, s. 21, a scale is given for punishing licensed publicans for offences against the tenor of their license. The

(f) See Brooker v. Wood, 5 B. & Adol. 1052.

D

convictions for the two first offences may be before two justices, but the third offence must come before the special session appointed by the general annual licensing meeting, or before that meeting itself, either for final decision or to be remitted to the quarter sessions. It seems, therefore, proper to introduce the whole clause into this place, as belonging to the peculiar functions of special sessions. It enacts,"That every person licensed under this act, who shall be convicted before two justices, acting in or for the division or place in which shall be situate the house kept, or theretofore kept, by such person, of any offence against the tenor of the license to him granted, shall, unless proof be adduced to the satisfaction of such justices, that such person had been theretofore convicted before two justices within the space of three years next preceding of some offence against the tenor of the license subsisting at the time when such last-mentioned offence was committed, be adjudged by such justices to be guilty of a first offence against the provisions of this act, relative to the maintenance of good order and rule (g), and to forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding £5, together with the costs of the conviction; but if proof shall be adduced to the satisfaction of such justices, that such person had been previously convicted before two justices, within the space of the three years next preceding, of one offence only against the tenor of the license subsisting at the time when such last-mentioned offence was committed, such person shall be adjudged by such justices to be guilty of a second offence against the provisions of this act as aforesaid, and to forfeit and pay any sum not exceeding £10, together with the costs of the conviction; but if proof shall be adduced to the satisfaction of such justices, that such person had been previously convicted before two justices, within the space of three years next preceding, of two separate offences against the tenor of the licenses subsisting at the times when such last-mentioned offences were committed, it shall be lawful for the said justices, and they are hereby required, to adjourn the further consideration of the charge so made against such person as aforesaid to the special session to be then next holden under this act for the division or place, in which shall be situate the house kept by such person, or to the general annual licensing meeting for the said division

(g) By s. 20, any two justices have power to order any publican within their jurisdiction to close his house if it be in or near any place where there is an actual or expected riot or tumult; and in failing to obey, the publican is to be deemed to have not maintained good order and rule in the house. And a

like power is given to two justices, by 1 W. IV. c. 64, s. 41, to close any place licensed for the sale of beer, under similar circumstances of existing or apprehended disturbance.

As to appeal against these convictions, see 11 Ad. & E. 139, in note to sect. 27, post.