The problem is not a difficult one. The municipality can be limited
just as the monarchy is limited. The Act transferring theatres to local
control can be a charter of the liberties of the stage as well as an
Act to reform administration. The power to refuse to grant or renew a
licence to a theatre need not be an arbitrary one. The municipality may
be required to state the ground of refusal; and certain grounds can be
expressly declared as unlawful; so that it shall be possible for the
manager to resort to the courts for a mandamus to compel the authority
to grant a licence. It can be declared unlawful for a licensing
authority to demand from the manager any disclosure of the nature of any
entertainment he proposes to give, or to prevent its performance, or
to refuse to renew his licence on the ground that the tendency of his
entertainments is contrary to religion and morals, or that the theatre
is an undesirable institution, or that there are already as many
theatres as are needed, or that the theatre draws people away from the
churches, chapels, mission halls, and the like in its neighborhood. The
assumption should be that every citizen has a right to open and
conduct a theatre, and therefore has a right to a licence unless he
has forfeited that right by allowing his theatre to become a disorderly
house, or failing to provide a building which complies with the
regulations concerning sanitation and egress in case of fire, or being
convicted of an offence against public decency. Also, the licensing
powers of the authority should not be delegated to any official or
committee; and the manager or lessee of the theatre should have a right
to appear in person or by counsel to plead against any motion to refuse
to grant or renew his licence. With these safeguards the licensing power
could not be stretched to censorship. The manager would enjoy liberty of
conscience as far as the local authority is concerned; but on the least
attempt on his part to keep a disorderly house under cover of opening a
theatre he would risk his licence.
But the managers will not and should not be satisfied with these limits
to the municipal power. If they are deprived of the protection of the
Lord Chamberlain's licence, and at the same time efficiently protected
against every attempt at censorship by the licensing authority, the
enemies of the theatre will resort to the ordinary law, and try to get
from the prejudices of a jury what they are debarred from getting from
the prejudices of a County Council or City Corporation. Moral Reform
Societies, "Purity" Societies, Vigilance Societies, exist in England
and America for the purpose of enforcing the existing laws against
obscenity, blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, the debauchery of children,
prostitution and so forth. The paid officials of these societies, in
their anxiety to produce plenty of evidence of their activity in
the annual reports which go out to the subscribers, do not always
discriminate between an obscene postcard and an artistic one, or to put
it more exactly, between a naked figure and an indecent one. They often
combine a narrow but terribly sincere sectarian bigotry with a complete
ignorance of art and history. Even when they have some culture, their
livelihood is at the mercy of subscribers and committee men who have
none. If these officials had any power of distinguishing between art and
blackguardism, between morality and virtue, between immorality and vice,
between conscientious heresy and mere baseness of mind and foulness of
mouth, they might be trusted by theatrical managers not to abuse the
powers of the common informer. As it is, it has been found necessary, in
order to enable good music to be performed on Sunday, to take away these
powers in that particular, and vest them solely in the Attorney-General.
This disqualification of the common informer should be extended to the
initiation of all proceedings of a censorial character against theatres.
Few people are aware of the monstrous laws against blasphemy which still
disgrace our statute book. If any serious attempt were made to carry
them out, prison accommodation would have to be provided for almost
every educated person in the country, beginning with the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Until some government with courage and character enough
to repeal them comes into power, it is not too much to ask that such
infamous powers of oppression should be kept in responsible hands and
not left at the disposal of every bigot ignorant enough to be unaware of
the social dangers of persecution. Besides, the common informer is
not always a sincere bigot, who believes he is performing an action of
signal merit in silencing and ruining a heretic. He is unfortunately
just as often a blackmailer, who has studied his powers as a common
informer in order that he may extort money for refraining from
exercising them. If the manager is to be responsible he should be made
responsible to a responsible functionary. To be responsible to every
fanatical ignoramus who chooses to prosecute him for exhibiting a cast
of the Hermes of Praxiteles in his vestibule, or giving a performance of
Measure for Measure, is mere slavery. It is made bearable at present by
the protection of the Lord Chamberlain's certificate. But when that is
no longer available, the common informer must be disarmed if the manager
is to enjoy security.