" A Borough Magistrate " writes to the Times to
advocate Mr. Bruce's suggestion that municipalities might take the liquor trade
into their own hands. They should close all existing houses, ap- point their own managers, allow them nothing for the sale of liquor, but make that of tea, coffee, and the like very profitable to them. In Gothenburg this plan diminished drunken- ness very much, and so it might in England, but drunkenness is not the only evil in the world. Even as to drunkenness we have no security that a municipality to lighten taxes might not en- courage drinking, as the Government of Russia does ; but we dread still more the corruption which the control of so powerful an engine, with such an array of contracts to dispose of, might intro- duce into parish politics. State control would be much safer, but even that would be dangerous, as the members would practically be -entrusted with a new and vast patronage, sure to be employed to retain their seats.
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