The Belgian correspondent of the Times sends a report which
bears very strongly upon the merits of the Local Veto Bill. The Belgian Government has ascertained that a recent reform there, the suppression of thirty-eight thousand drink- ing-shops, has led t an alarming increase in the consumption of alcohol. The missing shops have been replaced by illicit salesmen who provide, at a cheap rate, liquor, almost poisonous in quality, seven times worse, the experts say, than pure spirit. This will always be one consequence of developing the illicit trade. Stores of beer, cider, and wine, all occupy much room, and are readily detected ; and the traders, therefore, sell nothing but spirits, which they sell as new, and therefore as injurious, as possible. The object, in fact, when drinking- shops are few and hidden up, is to deal in a liquor like flame, made, usually, we fancy, from rice and cheap sugar, and about as safe to drink as bad arrack.
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