The Times appears to believe that the Licensing Bill will
be lost, the trade fighting too hard about the hours, and we shall not be sorry to hear it. The Bill is a very poor one as it stands, and this is just one of the questions upon which we should like to hear the opinion of the electors under the Ballot. We should not be surprised to find that it broke the power of the publicans, or to hear that it had extinguished Sir Wilfrid Lawson. At present, all that is known about the matter is that the Temperance men are very zealous, and seem very numerous, but that whenever the struggle begins, they are overborne by the intemperance men, and driven from the field. If they are as much in earnest as they say they are, why do they not vote the way the publicans do not, and so neutralise an opposition which threatened a month or two since to destroy the Liberal party? The Liberals cannot hand over Great Britain to the Tories in the hope of making drunkards sober, especially when the teetotallers, who think drink the one great evil, give them so little help.
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