Sir Wilfrid Lawson, moved the Permissive Bill on Wednesday in
an amusing speech, in which after producing all the stock arguments about the costliness and immorality of drunkenness, he offered the House a new inducement to accept his measure. It would not have to listen to his tiresomeness every year. Mr. Wheelhouse (Leeds) moved the rejection of the Bill in an outspoken but vulgar speech, which reads very like a prose parody on the song about the fate of those who " deprive a poor man of his beer." Mr. Cadogan said he should vote for the Bill because his constituents made him ; Mr. Mundella said he should vote for the Bill because agitators among his constituents tried to make him vote against it ; and finally, Mr. Bruce opposed the Bill as one supported by members who did not believe in it ; as one which would never be adopted by the great cities which wanted it most ; as one which obstructed a practicable measure like his own Licensing Bill ; and as one which would intro- duce endless parochial confficta. He called on members to vote accord- ing to their true beliefs, and sat down, having earned the enmity of every teetotaller in the country, and spoken with more force, heartiness, and vigorous sense than he has done this Session. On the division, the Bill was thrown out by 196,—not 206,—to 124, a minority which will, we hope, be a warning to the liquor trade. A fourth of the working House already refuses them any compensation at all.
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