Mr. Goschen's private secretary sent to Monday's papers a very
able reply to a letter written by the Rev. H. J. Boyd, of Sheffield, on the subject of the Licensing Bill, in which Mr. Goschen criticises the resolutions passed at the annual Con- ference of the British Temperance League, held at Burnley on July 9th. The most effective point in the letter is the remark that the Bill proposed to follow the practice of municipal bodies, which have again and again had to acquire public-houses for the purposes of street-improvement. What is that practice P Do they wait till the licence expires, and then show the Magistrates that the street-improvements render the renewal of the licence undesirable P No ; they buy up the public-house, allowing for the value given to it by its licence, just as the Government Bill proposed to do, and no fault has ever been found with this practice. Nor would any fault have been found with any local body for pursuing the same practice. But when a chance occurred of discrediting the Government by attacking the course uniformly pursued in municipal improvements, the party spirit of the Opposition founded an indictment on a _ proposal which had been habitually adopted by local Corporations.
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