Mr. Balfour on Wednesday received a deputation of the liquor
trade, who wished to complain of the recent action of Magistrates in suppressing licenses on the ground that they were too numerous. Lord Halsbury has declared that such suppressions are illegal, and Mr. Balfour, though avoiding the legal question, stated that in his opinion, unless compensation was granted, they involved " confisca- tion." The Inland Revenue, he said, would have no right to tax licenses if the publicans had no right to hold them, and, moreover, insecurity of tenure drives respectable per- sons from the trade. He would, however, for the present
advise the aggrieved to appeal to Quarter Sessions, and then if that failed Government would consider a remedy for what he could not but admit was a gross injustice. The Magistrates have, perhaps, in some places acted with too little consideration, and we cannot but think that the advocates of temperance make rather too much of the number of liquor- dealers. Mr. Balfour, however, puts his case a little too strongly. A publican's license is only for one year. We think fair compensation is just, and is in accordance with British practice ; but the problem is not so simple as it looks at first sight. Suppose in the next Budget grocers were forbidden to sell liquor. Would they all be compensated P
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