Fees in England. 
77 
■domains, fees or charges of this character still were not neg¬ 
lected. Charges graded sometimes according to the rank and 
ability of the payer, sometimes fixed for each locality, were 
paid for baptisms, marriages, burials, masses, and other church 
rituals and ceremonies. 
The last category of fees was retained even after the Refor¬ 
mation, and exists in most civilized countries at the present 
time. 1 As the division between the church and state becomes 
more marked, the tendency has been for the latter to take over 
a great part of these administrative functions, and collect the 
fees for the same. This change is still going on, and though 
gradual can be observed even now in most civilized counties. 
CHAPTER III. 
SOME TYPICAL ENGLISH FEES; THEIR ORIGIN AND DE¬ 
VELOPMENT. 
A. LIQUOR LICENSE FEES. 
I 
At common law, permission to sell liquor was not a privi¬ 
lege, but a right which could be exercised by anyone, without 
state interference; nor was drunkenness a punishable offense 
until the time of James I. During the early reign of the Tudors, 
there was a steady increase of tippling, accompanied by abuses 
and disorders, due to the fact that the hostelries and ale¬ 
house were places of resort for playing dice, quoits, and other 
forbidden games. 2 The number of vagrants and idlers had in¬ 
creased enormously, owing to the disbanding of the army of 
Henry VII, and the breaking up of monastic establishments. 
It was found necessary to exercise some sort of control over 
ale-houses; so in 1503 we find power given to two magis- 
1 Handworterbuch der Staatswissenschaften , IV, 674. 
2 Dowell, History of Taxation in England , IV, 90. 
