Other Cases in which Compensation Refused.

Before leaving this part of the case, it should be observed that in the United Kingdom numerous instances have occurred in which the State has refused to grant compensation. For instance, only thirty-five years before it abolished slavery it abolished the slave trade, in which large amounts had been invested by the commercial and shipping classes of England and Scotland. The great London, Bristol, and Glasgow merchants, who were deeply engaged in it and made great profits by it, put up their cry in Parliament for compensation, estimating the amount of their losses at one hundred millions. The Prime Minister, William Pitt, refused it, and not a shilling was ever paid. But in a great number of other cases directly affecting the liquor traffic there is a long list of precedents where the traffic was restricted, or dealt with in ways which largely reduced its profits; yet no compensation was ever given. Some of these go back as far as the time of Edward III. (1327), Henry VII. (1495), and Edward VI. (1552). More recently in 1757, a time of famine in Ireland, all distilleries were prohibited; and again in 1796, 1809, and 1814. In 1853, the Scotch Sunday Closing Bill was passed, when the sale of spirits page 8 immediately fell off by 1,250,000 gallons. In 1878, the Irish Sunday Closing Act took from the publicans the best day of the week, equal to all the other six, when the trade tried, but unsuccessfully, to get a compensation clause inserted. In 1860, Mr. Gladstone's Wine Bill was passed, avowedly with the intention of lessening the publichouse trade. In 1869, Sir Selwyn Ibbetson's Act closed a large number of beer shops—in Liverpool alone, 300. In 1872, Lord Aberdare's Bill reduced the hours of sale in publichouses by 24 in every week. In 1877, Lord Meldon's Act closed 557 houses in Dublin. In 1887, the Irish Sunday Closing Bill, a compensation clause was deliberately rejected in Parliament. In 1881, the Welsh Sunday Closing Bill, and, in 1882, the Scotch Steamboat Sunday Closing Bill were passed; and in 1883 came the prohibition of the use of publichouses as election committee rooms, and another prohibiting the payment of wages in publichouses. In not one of these cases, though all largely affected the profits of the traffic, was compensation granted. They certainly altogether outbalance the weight of authority attributed to the payment made to the slaveholders.