Sir Wilfrid Lawson brought in the Permissive Bill last Wednes-
day, in a very amusing, but not at all convincing speech. His chief point was that the best Licensing Bill the House could concoct had been passed, and yet the drinking of the country was on the in- crease, and probably the drunkenness. He also tried to showthat as Mr. Bruce would never be forgiven by the Licensed Victual- lers,—one of them has substituted " Bruce " for 11 o'clock on his clock-dial, and Rays as he turns out his guests at that hour, "Go, it has struck Bruce,"—and was well in for a penny, he might just as well be in for a pound also. Both parties were in search of a policy to go to the country with,—as the Government had nothing to propose, of course the Oppo3ition had nothing to oppose,—and, therefore, in this condition of general absence of ideas, it would be just well to take up the poor man's cause, for the poor man is now at last the strong man, and go in for the Permissive Bill. The difficulty in this suggestion is that either the poor man is not the strong man, or else when he votes secretly he does not think the Permissive Bill his cause, for he certainly leaves the Teetotal candidates in the lurch.
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