Sir Wilfrid Lawson made one of his amusing speeches on
Monday at Edinburgh on the Permissive Bill. He described the Home Secretary as being busily engaged in hanging the men who had got drunk in the public-houses which he had opened for longer hours when he first came into office ; laughed at Mr. Carnegie, who had explained at a meeting at Edinburgh that he believed the porter brewed by himself was the principal means of preserving sobriety ; complimented Mr. Bass OH discovering that his beer promotes temperance, because it contains 94 per cent. of water ; and chaffed Sir Robert Anstruther who had been attacking him for his constancy to his little Bill, by observing that he (Sir Wilfrid) naturally loved the little fellow, because he was his only child, and a child of promise, while Sir Robert Anstrather, since he got into Parliament, had a large but not a thriving family, for, as the Tories used to say of their measures, "his loved ones always die." The Bishops and Archbishops, he said, were investigating the causes of drunkenness, but if they found any cause except drinking, they ought all to be made Archbishops together. If good.-humoured chaff could carry a Bill, Sir Wilfrid would soon get his Permissive Bill. But somehow, good-humoured chaff, though it is very entertaining, is not very potent. It floats lightly upon the air, but it floats away, and floats nothing besides itself.
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