BSypedmental  ^Legislation  27
Mr.  S.  G.  Rathbone,  in  a  very  able  letter,  published
in  the  'Times  of  February  I2th,  1877,  as  also  in
his  evidence  before  the  Lords’  Committee  of
Inquiry  on  Intemperance  (Questions  259-384,
etc.).  But,  apart  from  his  objections  to  the  interpretation ­
  put  upon  the  facts,  the  experiment  was
not  continued  sufficiently  long,  and  the  town  in
which  it  was  tried  is  so  unique  in  the  annals  of
intemperance  as  to  be  ill-fitted  for  the  purpose.
Much  attention  has  been  drawn  recently  to  the
merits  of  the  so-called  Gothenburg  Scheme,  the
adoption  of  which  has  been  so  ably  advocated  by
Mr.  J.  Chamberlain,  M.P.  Now,  what  is  this
advocacy  but  argument  from  a  successful  experiment ­
  ?  The  municipal  authorities  of  Gothenburg
allowed  a  certain  method  of  conducting  the  sale  of
liquor  to  be  tried  there,  and  the  success  was
apparently  so  great  that  other  Swedish  towns  are
rapidly  adopting  the  same  plan.  This  is  just  the
right  procedure  of  trial  and  imitation.  But  if
Mr.  Chamberlain  means  that,  because  the  plan
succeeds  in  Gothenburg,  therefore  the  municipal
authorities  of  English  towns  ought  at  once  to  be
obliged  to  purchase  and  administer  the  publichouses,
  he  goes  much  too  far.  All  we  ought  to
do  is  to  try  the  system  in  a  limited  number  of
towns.  Anyone  acquainted  with  the  bright  little
Swedish  seaport,  and  the  orderly,  polished  lowerclass
  population  of  Sweden,  will  be  in  no  hurry  to
draw  analogies  between  their  condition  and  that