The debate, of course, turned on the distinctionbetween the Per-
missive Bill of former years and the principle of a" local option," which was all that was claimed as the necessary drift of the resolution; and it soon appeared that many Members who, like Mr. Forster, object to the principle of permissive prohibition, are favourable to the principle of a limited local option as to the issue of new licences and the renewal of old ones. Lord Harting-ton, however, joined the Government in declaring that, so far as the principle of a local option is unobjectionable at all, it is unobjectionable only in a sense which Sir Wilfrid Lawson regards as wholly insufficient ;—and the Government added that the sort of point to be determined by those who regard the proper regulation of the liquor traffic as the true aim, is not the sort of point to be determined by a popular constituency, but is one to be submitted to a calm, judicial Board. Sir Wilfrid's resolution was rejected by 252 to 164,—majority, 88.
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