The course of the discussion on the Licensing Bill in
Com- mittee which began on Monday in the Commons has been not a little complicated. On Monday Mr. Griffith moved an amend- ment to Clause 1 of the Bill, the object of which was to limit the operation of the clause to seven years. After Mr. Griffith's speech, the Chairman, in answer to questions as to whether" the discussion of this amendment would preclude the con- sideration of the question of compensation on the second clause, stated that the subject could not be debated both on the first and second clauses. On this Mr. Griffith asked leave to withdraw his amendment in order that compensation might be considered apart from the other issues raised by Clause 1. The Government, however, refused to allow this to be done, and the debate therefore proceeded. The result was that the Government were able to rally their entire force to negative the amendment, which became, in fact, a Motion directed against the 'whole Bill, and not an attempt to amend it in detail. Another advantage gained by the Government was that they were relieved from further discussion on the chief parts of the Bill.
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