

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



395 



support from the liquor dealers and brewers, 

 were inclined to take the view that licenses, 

 many of which had been in operation for long 

 periods and were transferred with the good- will 

 of the business as a valuable property, were of 

 the nature of vested rights, and could not justly 

 be extinguished with compensation. The Lib- 

 erals contended that the law under which licenses 

 were granted and renewed from year to year 

 conferred no perpetual privilege, and the tem- 

 perance advocates raised an outcry against in- 

 demnifying publicans whose licenses it was found 

 desirable to discontinue in the interest of public 

 morals. A considerable part of the Liberal 

 Unionists rejected the views of the ministers, 

 and some of the Conservatives were inclined to 

 rebel. Mr. Ritchie's local taxation bill em- 

 powered the county council, after a license has 

 been renewed by the licensing body, to negoti- 

 ate with the holder for its relinquishment. To 

 mitigate the hostility of the temperance party 

 he offered concessions in regard to the creation 

 of new licenses, depriving licensees of the privi- 

 lege of removal, taking from grocers the right 

 of selling liquor by the glass, and giving the 

 licensing body the absolute power to refuse to 

 renew all licenses granted in the future without 

 prejudice to the contention that it possesses this 

 power in respect to all licenses. It has been the 

 invariable custom in England to renew a license 

 unless some fault of conduct is alleged against 

 the licensee, though the courts have not affirmed, 

 as they have in Ireland, the absolute right of 

 renewal, provided the house has been conducted 

 according to law. Lord Randolph Churchill, 

 who has taken up a position of independence 

 and criticism toward the present Government, of 

 which he once formed a part, introduced the tem- 

 perance question on April 29 by bringing in a bill 

 giving control over the issue of licenses to the 

 town council in boroughs and to the county coun- 

 cil in counties, and inaugurating local option by 

 providing that in any of the districts into which 

 each borough and county constituency should 

 be divided by the council, a separate licensing 

 committee having control in each district, when- 

 ever two thirds of the rate payers vote for pro- 

 hibition all licenses shall be revoked throughout 

 the district, though not without compensation. 

 He also proposed to simplify the licensing sys- 

 tem by having only three kinds of licenses in- 

 stead of twelve. Mr. Ritchie, President of the 

 Local Government Board, assented to the plan 

 of making the municipal and county councils 

 the licensing authority, and welcomed Lord 

 Randolph's adhesion to the principle of com- 

 pensation, which disgusted the temperance party, 

 while the feature that gave them the most 

 satisfaction, that of the popular veto, he said 

 the Government could not accept because it in- 

 troduced a new principle into the Constitution, 

 and because great public inconvenience, and 

 even danger, might result if, by a vote represent- 

 ing a passing phase of popular opinion, all li- 

 censed houses in a district should be closed and 

 the inhabitants prohibited drinking. Mr. Caine 

 led the Opposition to Mr. Ritchie's local taxa- 

 tion bill, offering an amendment which, after 

 three days' debate, was negatived on May 15 by 

 a vote of 339 to 266 



The tithe bill, the land-purchase bill, and the 



local taxation bill reached the committee stage 

 only by means of an arbitrary decision of the 

 Speaker, against which Mr. Gladstone protested 

 as contrary to precedent, ruling out all instruc- 

 tions that were in conflict with the principle of 

 the measure under consideration or so far at 

 variance with it as to present an alternative 

 scheme. Even this expedient could not repair 

 the delays and mistakes, and when the ministers 

 woke up to the situation in the middle of June, 

 a party caucus was held at the Carlton Club to 

 discuss the question of carrying over unfinished 

 business from one session to another. On June 

 17 Mr. W. H. Smith laid before the House a 

 proposal for a new standing order to enable bills 

 that had been considered in committee to be 

 revived in the next ensuing session of the same 

 Parliament without debate in the earlier stages. 

 On the demand of Mr. Gladstone the proposed 

 change was referred to a select committee, where 

 it was vigorously attacked by Sir William Har- 

 court, who pointed out that it would enable the 

 House of Lords to exercise in a greater measure 

 than at present the initiative in legislation. 

 When the ministers came to the conclusion that 

 it was necessary to abandon all the principal 

 legislation of the year, they proposed to meet 

 the difficulty by arranging that Parliament 

 should begin the next session in November, a 

 plan that the leaders of the Opposition thought 

 ought not to be adopted without consulting 

 Parliament. 



The public agitation against the licensing 

 clauses of the local taxation bill, called by Mr. 

 Gladstone the "Publicans' Endowment bill," 

 caused many supporters of the Government to 

 waver. In committee the Government was al- 

 most defeated on the clause proposing to apply 

 350,000 to the purchase of licenses, many Con- 

 servatives having gone to the Ascot races on 

 June 19, not expecting that the division would 

 be taken, which resulted in a vote of 228 for and 

 224 against the clause. The Government offered 

 to withdraw the licensing clauses and allow the 

 money appropriated under them to accumulate 

 until it should be dealt with by subsequent legis- 

 lation. This scheme of " ear-marking " money 

 in the Treasury was denounced by the Opposi- 

 tion as unconstitutional, and their objections 

 were sustained by the Speaker. 



Mr. Caine resigned his seat for Barrow in 

 order to take the opinion of his constituents 

 concerning his attitude toward the Government, 

 which was made manifest by the election, not of 

 himself, but of a thoroughgoing Gladstonian 

 candidate. At Partick, in Scotland, at Bristol, 

 and in nearly every by-election the reaction in 

 favor of Irish home rule was shown by the in- 

 crease of Gladstonian or the cutting down of 

 Conservative majorities, and more than one con- 

 stituency during the year sent a Home Ruler to 

 succeed a Conservative. 



The Western Australia Constitution, the post- 

 ponement of which might provoke a quarrel 

 with all the Australasian colonies, the Indian 

 Councils bill, which was urged by the Indian 

 Government and was elaborated in the Upper 

 House, the police bill, which was required to re- 

 habilitate the Home Secretary, Mr. Matthews, who 

 barely escaped a vote of censure in consequence 

 of the retirement of Mr. Monro, commissioner 



