764 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



trates of Luton in Bedfordshire enforced the provisions of the "Pre- 

 vention of Crime Act." The number of committals to jail from Luton 

 and its vicinity was reduced from two hundred and fifty-seven in 1869 

 to sixty-six in 1874. The only fault of the experiment consists in the 

 possibility that the thieves and roughs migrated, but this difficulty 

 would be less serious had the experiment been tried in larger towns. 



What little insight we can gain into the operation of the licensing 

 laws is mainly due to the considerable differences with which they 

 have been administered in different places. Such is the latitude of 

 discretion given by the law that magistrates can often make very dis- 

 tinct experiments. A short time ago the magistrates of Glasgow in- 

 tentionally and avowedly made the experiment of locking up in jail all 

 the drunkards brought before them. When I last heard about this 

 experiment it was on the point of failing, because the jails of Glasgow 

 were all quite full, and still the drunkards were coming to the bar. 

 Li 1863 the Licensing Magistrates of Liverpool commenced a most 

 interesting experiment, by declaring their intention to adopt "free 

 licensing," that is, to grant licenses to any suitable persons who ap- 

 plied for them. The publicans' licenses were increased from sixteen 

 hundred and seventy-four in 1862 to nineteen hundred and forty in 

 1866. The system was abandoned in this last year, owing to a change 

 in the constitution of the Bench. None of the magistrates who advo- 

 cated the change, we are told, ever recanted, but some who supported 

 the change to a restrictive policy have been disappointed with the 

 results. The teaching of this real experiment has been carefully dis- 

 cussed by Mr, S. G. Rathbone in a very able letter, published in the 

 "Times" of the 12th of February, 1877, as also in his evidence before 

 the Lords' Committee of Liquiry on Intemperance (questions 259-384, 

 etc.). But, apart from his objections to the intei*pretation 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 M^hich has been so ably 

 advocated by Mr. J. Chamberlain, ]M. P. Now, what is this advocacy 

 but argument from a successful experiment ? The municipal authori- 

 ties 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. Chamber- 

 lain 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 public-houses, he goes much too far. All 

 we ought to do is to try the system in a limited number of towns. 

 Any one acquainted with the bright little Swedish seaport, and the 

 orderly, polished lower-class population of Sweden, will be in no hurry 



