34

j£ypedmental  Xegislation

which  could  warrant  Parliament  in  deciding  that
people  shall  go  to  bed  one  hour  earlier  in  the
country  than  in  London.  But  Parliamentary  experience ­
  concerning  the  Licensing  Act  of  the
late  Cabinet,  and  the  now  defunct  Permissive
Bill,  cannot  encourage  any  party  to  press  for  a
further  great  general  measure  of  licensing  reform.
As  to  the  present  state  of  things,  it  could  not
be  much  worse  nor  more  absurd.  What  with
the  great  variety  of  kinds  of  licenses,  the  doubts
and  fears  of  the  magistrates  as  to  their  power
of  withdrawing  licenses  or  restraining  extension
of  premises,  the  remissness—to  use  a  mild  expression—of ­
  the  police  in  prosecuting  the  offences
of  publicans,  and  the  universal  facility  of  obtaining
any  amount  of  drink  at  the  nearest  grocer’s  shop
—I  say  things  really  cannot  be  much  worse  than
they  are.  Under  the  vigorous  exertion  of  local
option  the  state  of  affairs  would  undoubtedly
improve  in  some  parts  of  the  country;  the
pressure  of  public  opinion,  of  the  proposed  Commissioners, ­
  or,  in  the  last  resort,  of  Parliament,
would  eventually  force  the  negligent  localities  to
follow  the  example  of  the  most  successful  “  local
option  schemes.”
Let  it  be  understood  that  I  do  not  for  a
moment  suppose  that  there  is  much,  if  any,
novelty  in  the  proposals  made  above.  In  one
place  or  another  almost  every  suggestion,  except,
perhaps,  that  of  a  superintending  Commission,