I was just about to post it to the website blog when I thought maybe  
I should let the listserve see this important and unique offering  
first.  I found it during a websearch and think it has been up for  
sale only a week or two.

Dave Trippel

PS. I have no connection with or previous knowledge of the book seller.

http://www.justincroft.com/book/987/beer-trade-protection-society- 
minute-book-of-the-proceedings-of-the-committee-of-the-beer-trade- 
protection-society

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BEER TRADE PROTECTION SOCIETY. Minute Book of the Proceedings of the  
Committee of the Beer Trade Protection Society.
London:  1854-1866.
Manuscript on paper, with some printed insertions, folio (365 × 235  
mm), pp. [xxvi], 571 (later pagination), with numerous additions of  
manuscript and printed material tipped in or loosely inserted,  
densely but legibly written throughout in several clerical hands, on  
bluish paper. Contemporary vellum, green morocco label (abraded). An  
impressive volume.
The minute book of a significant Victorian trade organisation,  
representing the interests of an estimated 41,000 “beershops” and  
89,000 public houses in England. This is an extensive volume which  
provides much information on contemporary attitudes to public houses  
and the consumption of alchohol. The society was based in London  
(also calling itself the Metropolitan Beer Trade Protection Society)  
and was mainly concerned with the retailing of beer and ale within  
the capital. It acted as a political lobbying group, maintaining  
frequent contact with parliament and prominent politicians, working  
to forward the interests of this major part of the London economy. It  
also fulfilled several benevolent functions in caring for retired or  
indigent
inn-keepers and their widows. Licensing of the sale of alchoholic  
drinks was less uniform than it became later in the century (and is  
today). The Beerhouse Act of 1830 exempted the sale of beer from the  
requirement of a justices’ licenses, allowing a large rise in small  
retailers selling beer alone. The exemption was under constant  
pressure, not least from temperance groups, and was actively fought  
for by the Protection Society. It was revoked in 1869 (after our  
minute book ends) with the introduction of the Beerhouse Act of 1869.  
The volume contains several inserted copies of correspondence with  
government ministers, notably Sir George Gray, Home Secretary,  
together with correspondence with society members. Several inserted  
letters are from London inn-keepers requesting help in cases where  
they have been brought before magistrates’ courts. A letter to the  
secretary, of 5 December 1856 (p. 232), relates the case of one  
Thomas Tomlinson of the Surrey Hounds in Battersea, who had been  
summoned to answer a charge against him at Wandsworth police court  
that he “did on Sunday the 21st October last unlawfully open his  
house for sale of beer before one o’ck in the afternoon of that day”.  
Two witnesses swore “that they saw the servant of Mr Tomlinson let  
out 3 men one being drunk from her masters house about 1/4 past 12  
o’clock on Sunday”. An attempt by the Committee to extend opening  
hours on the occasion of the signing of the peace treaty ending the  
Crimean War was rejected: in 1856, the secretary wrote to Sir Richard  
Mayne, Chief Commisioner of the Metropolitan Police, requesting that  
the beersellers be allowed to open their houses after midnight for  
the “accomodation of the public” in celebrating the peace. The  
printed insertions are mainly copies of minutes for meetings.

£2500.00    (equal to approx. US$4007.05* or €2941.18* for 19  
November 2010)

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