In his greater speech at the Town Hall, Mr. Bright
was, as he himself hinted, truly Conservative in his suggestion of the best way of dealing with the Temperance question. He would, he said, prescribe by law a certain maximum in the proportion of licensed public-houses to population, beyond which no place should be allowed to go, after the passing of his proposed Act. He would also prescribe as a minimum that no reduction in the number of licences down to half the maximum should be per- mitted, and he would (in towns) lodge the power to diminish the number of licences within this margin, in the corporation. He would hand over to the corporation also the income derived from the licences, and allow them even to increase the licence duty within given limits. But he would go no further. He thonght that a trade permitted by law should be protected by law, and that no general invasion of the vested interests of publicans should be encouraged or permitted.
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