Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/714

690 L I S L I S from the business, but to conduct its establishments in the interest of temperance and morality, and to pay over to the municipality the profits made beyond a fair interest on capital. This experiment has been a great financial success, and if developed will relieve the town from the greater part of its local taxation. The example has been followed by every town in Sweden having a population above 5000 ; and in 1877, after long discussion, it was adopted in Stockholm, the capital, where the number of life licences presented unusual difficulties. Mr Chamberlain proposed that the work done by the Swedish bolag should be attempted by town councils in the United Kingdom. For this purpose he asked power to acquire the freehold of all licensed premises and the interests of the licence holders. The business would then be carried on by the town council, the profits being carried to the credit of the education and poor rates. The powers of the licensing justices would cease on the adoption of the scheme by the town council. The select committee of 1879 recommended that legislative facilities should be given for the adoption of this scheme. It is doubtful, however, if the burden would be generally submitted to, except on the understanding that the local rates would be^ro tanto diminished ; and, were this realized, the tendency would be to support the municipality on the liquor trade by extending its operations. The great mass of opinion in the United Kingdom, however, seeks some modification of the present licensing system. That system is extremely complicated. The wholesale licences are granted by the excise without a magistrate s certificate, but for nearly all retail licences such a certificate is required. Generally, the magistrates have absolute discretion as regards licences to sell on the premises, but in England a licence to sell off the premises can be refused only for one or more of the following reasons no satisfactory evidence of good character, disorderly house, previous forfeiture of licence by misconduct, want of legal qualification. The English law is contained in the Wine and Beerhouse Act 1869, and the Licensing Act 1872 and 1874. 1 The great features of the legislation of 1872 were (1) the introduction of a confirming authority (viz., the licens ing committee in counties and the whole magistrates in burghs) for the purpose of restricting the issue of new licences ; (2) the quali fication of annual value in public-house premises for the purpose of raising the character of those engaged in the trade ; (3) the new regulations for closing ; (4) the new regulations of police penalties, especially with reference to the endorsement of convictions on the licence and the forfeiture of the licence. The Act of 1874 abolished the necessity of confirmation in the case of " off" licences, gave the magistrates absolute discretion as regards the endorsement of convic tions, and removed from magistrates all discretion as regards closing hours. There are not many peculiarities in the licensing law of Ireland. Public-house licences are generally held by shopkeepers, and no qualification of value is required except in the case of beerhouses. Mr Meldon s Act of 1877 (37 & 38 Viet. c. 69) closed public-houses on Sunday. In Scotland prior to 1853 licences were regulated by the Home-Drummond Act (9 Geo. IV. c. 58), which authorized only one form of certificate for "common inns." 2 Inl846 a select committee reported that the combination of the grocer trade with the sale of spirits to be consumed on the premises was productive of evil to the working classes. This led to the Forbes Mackenzie Act of 1853, which was amended in 1862, upon the report of a royal com mission in 1860 (16 & 17 Viet. c. 67; 25 & 26 Viet. c. 35). It created three licences (1) for hotels, (2) for public-houses, (3) grocers licences. Under the hotel licence intoxicating liquors may be sold to lodgers and travellers. On Sundays the public-houses are closed, and on week days the sale is practically limited to the period between 8 A.M. and 11 P.M. Cameron s Act of 1876 (39 & 40 Viet. c. 26) makes the refusal of a certificate by the magistrate final, and in the case of a new licence requires the confirmation of a county licensing committee or in burghs of a joint committee of magistrates and justices. Information on this subject is to be found chiefly in the Reports of royal com- issioiis and select committees. It has been much discussed at the meetings of 17. ,~ -, ,. ; t - ,", uw iii^iantm o Jitwueo */ ttS L,eUlS(Ui lOTlS Europeennti relatives aux debits de boissons alcooliquei, Paris, 1879. (V. C. S.) C> J 7 ; 35 & 36 Vict " c " 94 ; 37 & 38 Viet. c. 49. So also the first English Act, 5 & 6 Edw. VI., provided one form 01 licence for alehouses. LISBON (Portuguese, Lisboa), the capital of the king dom of Portugal, is situated in 38 42 N. lat. and 9 5 W. long., on the northern bank of the Tagus (Tejo), at the spot where the river broadens to a width of 9 miles, some 8 or 9 miles from the point where it enters the Atlantic. Standing on a range of low hills, backed by the lofty granite range of Cintra, and extending along the margin of the wide Tagus, Lisbon wears a very noble aspect to those who approach it from the sea. In regard to beauty of position it may rightly claim to be the third of European cities, Constantinople and Naples alone rank ing before it. The river affords secure anchorage for a very large number of vessels, and the bar at the mouth is easily crossed even in rough weather. Like London, Paris, and Vienna, Lisbon stands in a geological basin of Tertiary formation. The upper portion consists of loose sand and gravel destitute of organic remains, below which is a series of beds termed by Mr Daniel Sharpe the Almada beds, composed of yellow sand, calcareous sandstone, and blue clay, rich in marine remains. The greater part of Lisbon stands on those beds which belong to the older Miocene epoch, and are nearly of the same age as those of Bordeaux. Next conies a conglomerate without fossils. These Tertiary deposits, which cover altogether an area of more than 2000 square miles, are separated, near Lisbon, from rocks of the secondary epoch by a great sheet of basalt which covered the Secondary rocks before any of the Tertiary strata were in existence. The uppermost of the Secondary deposits is the Hippurite Limestone, which corresponds to a part of the Upper Chalk of northern Europe. The narrow valley of Alcantara, in the immediate neighbourhood of Lisbon, has been excavated in this deposit ; and here there are extensive quarries, where abundance of its peculiar shells may be collected. 3 Lisbon stretches along the margin of the river for 4 or 5 miles, and extends northward over the hills for nearly 3 miles, but much of it is scattered amongst gardens and fields. In the older parts the streets are very irregular, but that portion which was rebuilt after the great earth quake of 1755 consists of lofty houses arranged in long straight streets. Here are the four principal squares, the handsomest of which, the Praga do Commercio, is open on one side to the river, and on the other three is surrounded, by the custom-house and Government offices, with a spacious arcade beneath. In the middle is a bronze equestrian statue of Joseph L, in whose reign the earthquake and restoration of the city took place. At the middle of the north side is a grand triumphal arch, under which is a street leading to another handsome square, the Rocio or Praga do Dom Pedro (built on the site of the Inquisition palace and prisons), where stands the theatre of D. Maria II. The houses are for the most part well built, and are divided into flats for the accommodation of several families. The streets had formerly a bad reputation in regard to cleanliness, but of late years great improvement has taken place in this respect, although no general system of drainage has yet been adopted. They are lighted with gas made from British coal. The public gardens, five in number, are small, but are much frequented in the evenings. The city contains seven theatres and a bull ring. The hotels of Lisbon offer but indifferent accommodation to 3 After careful investigation, Mr Sharpe discovered that the greatest force of the earthquake of 1755 was expended upon the area of the above-mentioned Almada blue clay, and that not one of the buildings standing upon it escaped destruction. Those upon the slopes of the hills immediately above the clay suffered very severely, and all on the Tertiary strata were more or less injured, whilst none of the buildings on the hippurite limestone or the basalt suffered any damage whatever, the line at which the earthquake ceased to be destructive corresponding exactly with the boundary of the Tertiaiy beds.