We are not among those who think that it is
a crime to drink or to sell intoxicants, and hold it per se to be as moral to drink a glass of beer as a glass of milk. We greatly dislike, therefore, the extreme temperance view as regards the publicans and the trade generally. As we have said above, we agree with Mr. Balfour that the drunkard must bear his own crimes, and not put them off on the man who sells him the liquor he misuses. But because we do not believe in the wickedness of the " trade," and while we condemn the injustice done in holding the publican and the brewer up to public odium, we are not going to keep silent over the gross act of financial profligacy which is perpetrated in the present Bill. We have been foolish enough to give away every year monopoly rights in the sale of intoxicants for which we might have obtained many millions. Because of this bad finance in the past, Mr. Balfour now tells us that we must make a further present to the " trade " by rendering our gift perpetual. Nor is this all. Next we are to take a portion of the money which ought to go into the Exchequer and use it to buy back the very gifts we have made.
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