Sir Wilfrid Lawson, on Tuesday, warned his supporters at Manchester
not to be too cock-a-hoop over the great victory of the principle of "local option" on Waterloo Day (June 18th). He himself, however, was quite cock-a-hoop enough. He said that the Alliance had got through " the argumentative stage." The House of Commons had admitted, he said, that the people should be allowed " to protect themselves " against the liquor traffic.. Exactly ; but not to protect everybody else besides them- selves, whether those other persons would or no. The House of Commons decided that local option ought to have an influence in limiting the number of public-houses, but not that it ought to have power to extinguish them, without any reference to the wishes of the minority. The " argumentative stage " will not be finished till the range and meaning of " local option " are defined. Would Sir Wilfrid himself permit local option to decree the extinc- tion of those " counter-attractions," gracefully named " Wilfrids," after him,—namely, tea and coffee machines, which the organs of the Licensed Victuallers pronounce to be " ornaments to the bar," —on the ground, say, that they brew fluids destructive of sleep and of the nerves of the consumers ?
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