36  iSypenmental  112913131100
country,  the  music  halls  of  all  ranks  and  kinds
the  dancing  and  drinking  saloons  of  some  provincial ­
  towns—such  as  Nottingham—and  the  great
enterprise  with  which  such  places  of  recreation  as
the  Pomona  and  Bellevue  Gardens  at  Manchester
are  conducted,  we  shall  see  that  social  experiments
are  not  confined  to  the  teetotalers.  Indeed,  it
would  not  be  difficult  to  prove  that  the  nugatory
Licensing  Laws,  as  now  administered,  present  the
least  possible  obstacle  to  the  publicans  in  pushing
their  experiments,  while  they  do  prevent  social
reformers  from  interfering,  or  from  establishing
counter-experiments  on  an  equal  footing.  It  is
hardly  too  much  to  say  that  the  Licensing  Laws
are  laws  to  give  a  license  to  the  publicans  and
grocers  to  do  what  they  like  to  extend  the  sale  of
spirituous  liquors.
Although  the  liquor  traffic  presents  the  widest
and  most  important  sphere  for  social  experiment,
there  are  many  other  matters  to  which  it  must
be  applied.  Consideration  in  detail  must  show
whether,  in  each  case,  the  tentative  method  is  or
is  not  the  proper  method.  But  it  is  easy  to  name
several  other  reforms  which  ought,  in  all  probability, ­
  to  be  approached  in  the  experimental
manner.  Thus,  peasant  proprietorship  ought
certainly  to  be  tried  in  Ireland,  as  it  was  intended
to  be  tried  under  the  Bright  clauses  of  the  Irish
Land  Act.  I  am  familiar  with  most  of  the
economic  objections  to  peasant  proprietorship  in