Wine Licenses.

James I. created for himself a monopoly tax by licensing Inns and Alehouses. This was annulled for illegality and reimposed by a proper Act of Parliament a few years later. In 1663, Charles II. conferred this hereditary revenue upon his brother, and, eight years afterwards, Parliament bought it back from that grasping individual for—a perpetual pension of £24,000 a year on the hereditary excise. In 1757, George II. transferred the licensing monopoly to the Revenue Department, receiving as an equivalent the annual grant of £7,003 for himself and his heirs and successors.