12 APRIL 1902, Page 2

In the Commons on Monday, after Mr. Brodrick had announced

that the Spion Kop despatches would be laid on the table, the new Licensing Bill was read a second time without a division and referred to the Standing Committee on Trade. The significant feature of the debate was the con- ciliatory attitude of the Temperance party. Considerable Opposition was offered to Clause 8, which provides that grocers' licenses shall in future be obtained from the Justices instead of the Inland Revenue, and to Clause. 4, which deals with drunkenness on the premises, but the reception given to the Bill was on the whole decidedly friendly as a moderate but substantial instalment of reform.