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licensing of beershops, public-houses, and places of entertainment, and the several provisions
of the Police and Excise Acts appertaining thereto, should be consolidated and made to
accord with these resolutions" (Mr. C. Villiers), put and agreed to.

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Paragraph, page 23, "The servants of such places need not attend on Sunday," read Question put, "That this paragraph stand part of the proposed Report." The Committee divided:

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Question, "That the Resolutions agreed to yesterday be added to the Report," put, and

agreed to.

Question, "That this Report, together with the Resolutions and Minutes of Evidence, be the Report to The House," put, and agreed to.

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£.

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1. Chairman.] ARE you a Clergyman?-No, I am a London City Mis- Mr. J. Weylland. sionary.

2. Under what authority do you act?-Under the authority of the committee of the London City Mission.

3. There is an association of that name, I believe? - Yes.

4. Is it a part of your duty to visit public-houses and beerhouses? I am appointed by the committee to visit public-houses, beershops, and coffee-shops chiefly in the parish of Marylebone.

5. Are you by that means acquainted with what passes in those houses:-I am in those houses at all times.

6. I believe you do not go there for the purpose of seeing what passes merely, but to meet with numbers of people in a low station of life with whom you wish to converse?-We missionaries go for a religious object, to do good by every means in our power.

7. But you have had an opportunity of seeing the state in which those people are, and what passes in those houses?-I have.

8. Can you give the Committee any information about the condition of those houses during the hours of Divine service in the evening?- I would first speak as to the numbers I find there, and then of the condition of the people. I generally find the public-houses and beershops crowded on the Sunday evening, especially the beershops and gin-palaces.

9. Will you be so good as to state what district you visit where you find those houses in that state? - I visit the parish of Marylebone; I pass through the parish in the course of my visiting.

10. Mr. Gregson.] At what hours do you find the houses so crowded on Sunday?-Between the hours of seven and nine o'clock; for instance, we will take last Sunday as a specimen. In one gin-palace I found 61 men and 15 women. In a very small public-house, one of the smallest in the parish, I met with 19 men and four women; occasionally you may meet with less in number than that, but generally more. I have made a calculation after much care, and I have come to the conclusion that there are more persons in public-houses and beershops during the hours of Divine service on the Sunday evening than there are in all the churches and chapels in the parish.

23 May 1854.

Mr. J. Weylland.

23 May 1854.

11. After nine, do they leave those houses?-I will not speak to that so distinctly, because they change classes a great deal. In the parish of Marylebone, in the 49 places of worship, on the night of the census in 1851, there were 17,805 persons in those places of worship. Now, if we divide that number by the 366 public-houses and beershops, we shall have about 49 persons to each public-house and beershop; and I consider, from the observations I have made, and from what has been told me by the publicans, and from what I believe to be their returns, that there must be full that number upon the average in the houses, or rather more.

12. Do you mean that there are 49 persons to each public-house? -- Yes. 13. Mr. Brown.] Would they not change their position, some going out and others coming in? -I allow them to change once. If a man stops in a publichouse for half an hour during Divine service, he does not go to a place of worship; he is most likely to go to another public-house. The publican serves double the quantity during church hours when the men stand lounging about the bars.

14. Mr. Barrow.] Were the 17,805 persons you have named as being in the churches and chapels there during the evening service, or during the whole day? The evening service. Now I will go to the numbers that were in the public-houses from about nine o'clock till 10 o'clock, or from nine o'clock till 11 o'clock; you will find there are more people who have been out pleasuring and the like; they may come in, and their numbers are added to by men in the summer time, who do not come out till towards the evening: I generally find more persons late in the evening, than in the former part of the evening; I suppose there may be nearly 20,000 persons.

15. Mr. Gregson.] Do you mean that there are 20,000 persons in those places from nine to 11?--No; from nine to 12.

16. Are those 20,000 people in addition to the 17,000?-No; some of those would be present at the same time; I mean to say, that there are a larger number of persons in the latter part of the evening.

17. Chairman.] Do you know the population of the district of which you are speaking?-157,696.

18. Do you speak of the whole of Marylebone? - Yes; with respect to the condition of the people, I found a great many drunk; last Sunday night I went into a number of houses; there are five houses in the centre of Lisson-grove. In most low neighbourhoods you will find a cluster of houses together; I happened, on Sunday night, to go into five of those houses, three licensed houses, and two beershops; I would remark that none of those houses have rooms for the accommodation of people. This business is transacted in the bars. There were in one public-house 40 men and 19 women; in another 28 men, and nine women; in a beershop 25 men and eight women; in a gin-palace 56 men and 14 women, and in a low beershop 19 men and three women; making a total of 168 men and 53 women; or a gross total of 221.

19. Three of those houses, you say, were beer-shops?-No; three licensed houses and two beershops; I merely mention this to show the numbers; I should be careful to distinguish the respectable licensed houses from the ginpalace and the low beershop, because there are numbers of houses in the parish in which the landlords will not serve a person who is intoxicated, and who will not encourage gin or beer drinking to excess; there are a large number of respectable publicans who are grieved at the excess, but they cannot remedy it.

20. Mr. Gregson.] Do you, as a missionary, go to converse with these people?--I go into the houses and give tracts to the landlords and the bar servants; I then turn round and converse with those at the bar.

21. Do you sit down with them? - Yes; if it is the best way of getting into conversation with them; I generally stand; I pass into the rooms, if there

are any.

22. Chairman.] As you have considerable experience in the Marylebone district, can you state a little more about the other houses, and what condition they are in; the houses to which you have referred, I presume, are houses of rather a bad character? - I will not say that; they are a class of houses at which working men of the poorer class, navigators, dirty shoemakers, and the very lowest class assemble; many of them are very dirty.

23. The 23. The people to whom you have referred on the Sunday evenings - Yes; Mr. J. Weylland. their condition is most appalling; I might say I should suppose there were 30 people drunk in those houses.

24. Mr. Gregson.] Thirty people were drunk out of what number? -- Out of 221; it is a rough calculation, but I should think there were quite as many. I will finish this statement by mentioning the condition of the houses between nine and 11 o'clock in the evening; I passed last Sunday through the parish. There is one house in the centre of the parish at which there is every attraction held out to draw the people; there is a large gin-palace with a great deal of gilding and plenty of gaslight; there is a self-acting organ in the bar which cost 120 guineas. The bar was crowded with men and women; it is divided into two large compartments; the organ was playing a merry tune, and there were 43 men and 14 women together; a large number were drunk, and they were generally a dirty and low class of persons.

25. Were the women drunk as well as the men? -There were two or three ; there is a proportion of drunken women at those houses.

26. Lord D. Stuart.] At what time of the day was it? - Between nine and 10 o'clock on Sunday evening.

27. Chairman. Did you remain in that house for any time? - I suppose about a quarter of an hour. When I found so many drunk, it would have been foolish of me to talk on sacred matters to them; I go for no other object.

28. Did you see any attempt on the part of the publican to remove those people who were drunk, or did he refuse to serve them with liquor?-There was no attempt when I was there.

29. Do you often see publicans attempting to turn men out of their houses, or refuse to serve them if they are drunk ?-I have frequently gone into a public-house and seen men or women drunk ask for more gin or beer, and the landlord has said, "No, we do not serve you; you have had enough;" and those persons have left.

30. You cannot say that there are any houses where people are served when evidently in a state of intoxication? - To me it appears as though there are certain houses which may be called drunkards' houses; I meet with a great many people in a state of inebriation or a state of drunkenness in them.

31. You have visited those houses frequently; you have constantly seen persons in that state, and you have come to the conclusion that in those houses people are suffered to drink although they are drunk already, and that those people go to those houses in consequence? - Yes; I believe that anybody, drunk or sober, may have liquor; whether they are good or bad characters, abandoned women or not, they will serve them.

32. Do you know any instance in which those houses have been interfered with, and evidence has been given against them before a magistrate ?-No, I do

not.

33. How long have you been in your present capacity as a missionary? I have been a missionary for five years and two months. During my first four years I was in the parish of Marylebone, on the Marylebone Theatre district; I visited from house to house amongst the poor people connected with the theatre, and others; the last 15 months I have been appointed to visit public-houses, to ascertain whether any practical good would result from visiting public-houses for religious purposes; I have been 13 months public-house visiting.

34. What is the result of your experience in that respect; do you find that you can do any good in public-houses? - There is an opportunity offered of conversing with the men, and of course with the publican. In many places I am welcomed, and then I meet with abandoned women, and I sometimes place them in institutions. I get a grasp at many of the beershops over the lower class of thieves and bad women; I get known, and I am able to do them good.

35. Though these people seem to be poor, generally speaking in these houses, you cannot say that they are bad characters that you find on Sunday evening drinking?-Some of those houses are supported by men, we cannot call them bad, except that you may call them bad for drunkenness; I mean that they are not abandoned; there are low beershops with which I am acquainted where I can meet with men whom I know to be thieves, and bad women frequently go to those beerhouses and ginshops; I am not speaking of the respectable

23 May 1854.

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