Mr. Balfour, who followed, insisted that Mr. Asquith's views as
to the effect of the action of the Inland Revenue authorities were unsound, and urged that the grant of the annual license did create a property of a kind which must in equity be recognised by the State. As to the time limit, he would not make any concession. "I have given a good deal of thought to the problem which has been presented by those who advocate the time limit, and I am unable to see that any cause we have at heart would gain by any applica- tion of that plan as far as I have heard." Mr. Balfour ended his speech by a passage with which, at any rate, we can agree. He met the absurd assertion that the crime of drunkenness is due to those who sell drink with a flat denial. " These people
[the persons ruined by drink] are ruined by their gross and criminal self-indulgence. To suppose for an instant that the mass of the British working men are poor, innocent, unfor- tunate people, tempted by a criminal trade to forget their duties, is an absurd supposition. The fault lies with the drunkard, with the man who cannot control his appetites." That is sound morality and common-sense—men who lose self-control will never be made better by being told that it is not their fault, poor things !—but it of course affords no argument whatever in favour of the reckless abandonment of a great national financial asset which the State is making in the present Bill. On a division being taken, the second reading of the Bill was carried by the very large majority of 157 (353 to 196).
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