On Thursday Mr. Balfour was the chief speaker at a
meeting of huge proportions held at the Albert Hall to protest against the Licensing Bill. After admitting that there was behind the supporters of the Bill a great deal of genuine and honest enthusiasm, he argued that the measure itself was not an honest one, and would not be a remedy for the evils for which it was offered as a cure. In his peroration Mr. Balfour asserted that the Bill was an immoral one, and added :—" I do not believe that it is within the possibilities of civilisation that a great moral end can be obtained by grossly immoral means." We may add that though we think Mr. Balfour very much overdid his denunciation of the Bill, we are heartily in sympathy with his denunciation of the folly of insisting that licensed premises shall be mere drinking- shops where any form of recreation is forbidden, or, at any rate, strongly discountenanced. We have indeed almost reached the point in the ordinary public-house where the only thing that the publican can safely allow his customers to do is to consume beer, wine, and spirits. That is, of course, the result of the extreme temperance policy of insisting that the sale and consumption of intoxicants are mala in se.
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