Experimental  “legislation  19
realised  all  the  evils  expected  from  it,  and  few  or
none  of  the  advantages.  It  is  difficult  to  say
anything  in  favour  of  the  bar  at  the  corner  publichouse,
  except  that  it  is  better  than  the  dirty  low
little  beershop,  hiding  itself  away  in  some  obscure
recess  of  the  streets.  The  first  is  at  any  rate  under
the  gaze  of  the  public  and  the  control  of  the
magistrates  ;  the  beershop,  until  within  the  last
few  years,  was  too  likely  to  become  the  uncontrolled ­
  resort  of  the  worst  classes.  Even  now
that  the  beershops  are  brought  under  the  Licensing ­
  Magistrates,  many  years  must  elapse  before
the  evil  wrought  by  the  Act  of  1830  can  be
thoroughly  removed.  This,  then,  is  a  striking
instance  of  a  leap  in  the  dark,  which  ought  never
to  have  been  committed  by  a  prudent  legislature.
When  the  Sale  of  Beer  Bill  was  under  discussion,
the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  seemed  to  feel
that  it  was  a  Bill  which  needed  experimental  trial;
for  when  objection  was  made  that  the  Act  would
not  extend  to  Scotland,  he  urged  that  it  might  be
better  to  try  the  Act  in  one  part  of  the  kingdom
in  the  first  instance,  and  then,  if  it  were  found  to
be  beneficial,  and  to  answer  its  intended  objects,
it  might  be  extended  to  other  parts.  *
In  more  recent  years  the  granting  of  grocers’
licenses  for  the  free  sale  of  all  kinds  of  spirituous
liquors  is  likely  to  prove  itself  to  be  an  equally
disastrous  leap  in  the  dark.  With  the  very  best
*  “Hansard’s  Debates,”  April  8th,  1830,  New  Series,  Vol.  xxiv.,  p.  26.