The drink traffic and the permissive bill : from Fraser's magazine, Feb. 1872 / reprinted by the United Kingdom Alliance.

Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The drink traffic and the permissive bill : from Fraser's magazine, Feb. 1872 / reprinted by the United Kingdom Alliance. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    THE DEINK TRAFFIC AND THE PE EMI S SI YE BILL. [Reprinted from Fraser's Magazine, by the kind permission of the Publishers.] mHE Daily News informs ns that X the Permissive Bill is become a serious nuisance and danger to the Liberal party. Its advocates are disagreeably in earnest, and do not sufficiently understand the vast advantage of having in power Li¬ berals who pass and sustain evil Acts, which would be impossible to Tories if the Liberals were out of office; Liberals, who in their forty years’ ascendency have continu¬ ously intensified the evils of the Drink Traffic, with its revenue to the Exchequer, and have effectively kept up the National Debt. Hence at length the writers for the Liberal party are alarmed, lest the zeal of a small faction (?) for Sir Wilfrid Lawson’s Bill frighten the publi¬ cans, and turn the scale at elections the wrong way. The Right Hon. Mr. Bruce is scolded for having left too long an interval between the first and second readings of his Bill. To allow the country time to discuss and understand it, was (it seems) his fatal mistake. In the previous year he avoided this error; for he declined to furnish Sir Wilfrid with any hint as to the contents of his bill, saying, he did not wish it to be 4 the football of discussion ’ to the country. The Daily News urges him to bring in his new Bill early, and push it through quickly. The people at large are not to have any voice in the matter. If any apology were needed, this would be a sufficient apology for discussing the whole subject at pre¬ sent as fully and as accurately as we can. The popular opponents of the Permissive Bill constantly ad¬ vance against it pretended axioms of a most sweeping character, such as, that all Trade ought to be Free ; that Morality is no concern of Par¬ liament ; that it is impossible to restrain Vice; that it is tyrannical to put difficulties in the way of gratifying the palate; and so on. Even in Parliament itself such extravagant assertions are heard. Without wasting our limited space against such adversaries, it seems desirable to treat the subject under two heads—-first, the Nature of the Trade; next, the History of the dealings of our Government with it; for out of these springs the jus¬ tification of the Permissive Bill. The abstract objections may be suf¬ ficiently disposed of by the way. The trade in intoxicating drink has great peculiarities, which admit of separate comment. There is no trade which needs so little skill, ex - A 2