Mr. Thomas Hughes has sent to the press a noteworthy
letter on public-house reform, entitled "A Temperance Eirenicon." The present moment, he thinks, and we agree with him, offers an excellent opportunity for trying to solve the liquor ques- tion on wide and non-party lines. The principle of "Local Management "—i.e., of management either by, or under, the control of the local representatives of the people, is, he holds, "the best, the most thorough, and the most 'English' method of dealing with the sale of alcoholic liquors." He proposes that representatives of the Public-house Reform Association should meet those of other Temperance organisations, with the steady aim of drawing their forces together, and going to Parliament "as a United Temperance party, with a moderate, definite, and reasonably comprehensive policy." "Were this done," Mr. Hughes continues, "I am sanguine enough to think we might even make fair terms with the Licensed Victuallers' Association, and so get the best of them into our camp; for their leaders are, I believe, tired of the long struggle, and quite shrewd enough to see that 'the trade' is never again likely to get such equitable terms for the surrender of their monopoly as they may from the new Parliament in its early years." We entirely agree. If the extreme teetotal party will only give up their irreconcilable attitude and join with moderate temperance reformers, something may really be done to diminish the evils of the drink tariff. As the first step, let us pass the Bishop of Chester's Bill for allowing a public trust to be established in any licensing area which chooses to adopt it. We shall then see the scheme tried experimentally, and can test its merits.
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