A monster meeting to prepare for the debate in Parliament
on the Permissive Bill was held in its favour in Exeter Hall on Monday night, when Cardinal Manning made an eloquent speech, which he himself described as strictly "political," rather than either religious or moral, in defence of it. But his argu- ments as reported were not arguments in favour of giving each locality a choice whether it would have public-houses or not, but rather arguments in favour of breaking up the power of the Licensed Victuallers altogether and getting Parliamentary authority against them,—a very different thing. If public-houses are bad, surely they must be bad even in parishes where more than a third of the ratepayers wish for them ; and if they are not intrinsically bad, why should two- thirds of the ratepayers in any parish have the power to deprive the remaining third of a shop which is a great convenience to them ? And how can people be kept "in slavery by drinking customs" which no one but themselves constrains them to ob- serve? Do you want a Permissive Bill to enable two-thirds of the ratepayers to remove the temptations to steal, before you can expect a man to emancipate himself from "the slavery" of our stealing customs?
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