Domestic Encyclopædia (1802)/Ale-House

ALE-HOUSE, a public place of resort for drinking ale or beer.—Houses of this description are licensed by justices of the peace, who take recognizance of the landlord, and sureties in ten pounds each, that he will suffer no unlawful gaming, nor other disorderly practices in his house.—This license is renewed every year, upon producing a certificate of his character and conduct. Any person neglecting to procure a license, is liable to certain penalties, adequate to the frequency of the offence.

The utility of ale-houses has been much questioned; they certainly, in some degree, encourage habits of intemperance and dissipation; yet, we must acknowledge, that by the subsistence which they afford to a considerable part of the community, the facility with which they enable those who cannot brew for themselves, to procure their liquors at intervals, and in small quantities; and the social relaxation they procure for the weary traveller, as well as the industrious peasant, they materially contribute to the ease and enjoyment of a portion of society, over whom the moralist may be safely allowed to exert the sober influence of persuasion, but with whose amusements the legislature should cautiously interfere.