"tavern" when speaking of a house for public entertainment. The term hotel was used in France much earlier than in England. Many good authorities claim that this word is derived from the French hotel, and originally meant a place for the entertainment of lords and titled personages, and on that account has always been used to designate a respectable house of entertainment. Other authorities claim that it is a contraction of the word hostel. It is certain that the words hostel, hostelerie and hostellerie, were frequently used by old English writers, but it should be remembered that this was at a time when the English tongue was greatly corrupted by Norman French, one of the many innovations made by William the Conqueror. It is also possible that the French word hostel, Spanish hosteria and Italian osteria are all derived from the Latin word hospes, which means a stranger who is treated as a guest; also he who treats others as guests, a host.

The word hostler originally signified the keeper of an inn who usually took charge of the horses of nis guests.

In an able opinion written by Judge Daly, he gives an interesting history of the derivation of the word hotel. He says: "The word is of French origin, being derived from the Latin word hospes, a word having a double signification, as it was used by the Romans both to denote a stranger who lodges at the house of another, as well as the master of a house who entertains travelers or guests. Among the Romans it was a universal custom for the wealthier classes to extend the hospitality of their house not 1, Cromwell vs. Stevens, 2 Dily, 15;

DERIVATION OF “HOTEL.”

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only to their friends and connections when they went to a city, but to respectable travelers generally. They had inns, but they were kept by slaves, and were places of resort for the lower orders, or for the accommodation of such travelers as were not in condition to claim the hospitality of the better classes. On either side of the spacious mansions of the wealthy patricians were smaller apartments known as the hospitum, a place for the entertainment of strangers, and the word hospes was a term to designate the owner of such a mansion. as well as the guest whom he received. This custom of the Romans prevailed in the earlier part of the Middle Ages. From the ninth century, traveling was difficult and dangerous. There was little security except within castles or walled towns. The principal public road had been destroyed by centuries of continuous war, and such thoroughfares as existed were infested by roving bands, who lived exclusively by plunder. In such a state of things there could be little traveling, and consequently the few inns to be found were rather dens to which robbers resorted to carouse and divide their spoils than places for the entertainment of travelers. The effect of a condition of society like this, was to make hospitality not only a social but a religious duty, and in the monasteries, and in all great religious establishments provision was made for the gratuitous entertainment of wayfarers and travelers. Either a separate building, or an apartment within the monastery, was devoted exclusively to this purpose, which was in charge of an officer called the hostler, who received the traveler and conducted him to this apartment, which was fitted up with beds, where he was

allowed to tarry for two days, and to have his meals in the refectory, while, if he journeyed upon horseback, provender was provided by the hostler for his beast in the stables. (Citing Fosbrooke's, Monarchism, 238, 3d ed.; Davies, 2, 769.) In many countries this apartment or great hall of the monastery retained the original Latin name of hospitum, but in France the word was blended with hospes, and changed into hospice, and it afterward underwent another change. As civilization advanced and the nobility of France deserted their strong castles for spacious and costly residences in the towns, they erected their mansions upon a scale sufficiently extensive to enable them to discharge this great duty of hospitality, as is still, or was very recently, the custom among the nobility and wealthier classes in Russia, and in some of the northern countries of Europe. Borrowing by analogy from an existing word, and to distinguish it from the guest house of the monastery, every such guest house or mansion was called a hostel, and by the mutation and attrition to which these words are subject in use, the s was dropped from the word, and it became hotel. As traveling and intercourse increased, the duty upon the nobility of entertaining respectable strangers became too onerous a burden, and establishments in which this class of persons could be entertained by paying for their accommodations sprung up in the cities, towns and upon the leading public roads, which, to distinguish them from the great mansions or hostels of the wealthy, and at the same time to denote that they were superior to the auberge or cabaret, were called hotelleries, a name which has been in use in France for several centuries, and is still in

ENGLISH SYSTEM OF LICENSING.

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use to some extent as a common term for inns of the better class, while the word hotel, in France, has long ceased to be confined to its original signification, and has become a word of the most extensive meaning,"

ENGLISH SYSTEM OF LICENSING

The old English system of licensing taverns and inns has doubtless formed the precedent for our present excise laws. A brief review of its leading features may not be unprofitable.

Any one keeping a house in which liquors were to be sold to be drank on the premises was required to obtain a license from the justices of the peace, who performed similar duties to those now imposed by statute upon the Excise Commissioners. The justices of every division were required to hold a general licensing meeting for the granting of licenses in every division of every county and riding, and in every division of the county of Lincoln, and in every hundred of every county not being in such division, and in every liberty and division of liberty, county of a town or city. These special sessions of justices were held annually, and notice of such meeting was given by a precept made out at a petty session held twentyone days before the General, Sessions, and directed to the High Constable. No justice was allowed to act at these special sessions who was in any manner engaged or interested in the sale or manufacture of malt, ale or excisable liquors, nor in the licensing of property for the manufacture or sale of such liquors in which he was in any way interested. For violating this statute he was liable to a penalty of

1000/1

These justices had power by a majority vote to grant or refuse licenses to any person. Every person applying for a license for a house not previously kept as an inn was required to affix on the house door, and also on the door of the church or chapel in the parish in which the house was situated, a notice to the overseers of the poor and constables. that he intended to apply for a license, and such notices were also required to be served on the one overseer and one peace-officer of the parish. The fee for a license, which was paid over to the justice's clerk, was 7s. 6d.

FIRST HOTEL IN NEW YORK CITY.

The earliest hotel erected on Manhattan Island of which any positive record is kept, was "Kriger's Tavern," built sometime between 1642 and 1645. It stood on the same ground now occupied by number 9 Broadway, New York City, opposite Bowling Green. Later, in 1703, the " King's Arms" took the place of this tavern, being erected on the same spot, and was for many years the leading hostlery of the city. It maintained its supremacy till the year 1780, and was the favorite messing place of the British officers.

COLONIAL STATUTE.

In closing this introductory chapter we submit the law regarding inns and innkeepers, enacted by the Duke of York, about 1665, when New York was an English Province, having been just surrendered by the Dutch :

"Innkeepers and Ordinaryes.-No licensed person shall unreasonably exact upon his guests for any

1. 9 Geo. IV, ch. 61.